At least one former IU basketball player will have a chance to win an NBA title next month.
And another well known alumnus has a chance to return his franchise to the league’s biggest stage.
The NBA Conference Finals are set, with Boston facing Miami in the East, and Dallas matching up with Golden State in the West.
Former IU stars Juwan Morgan and Victor Oladipo are with Boston and Miami, respectively, while Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
Morgan saw action in the NBA Playoffs for the third straight year when he checked in on Sunday and played a minute as part of Boston’s decisive game seven win over Milwaukee. It was Morgan’s third NBA appearance this season and second with Boston. He also played in one game with Toronto during the regular season after spending his first two years with Utah.
Oladipo has returned from a second major knee surgery a provided a spark to Miami.
The former NBA All-Star averaged 12.4 points in eight games to close out the regular season, and he has averaged 11.4 points in eight playoff appearances with one start. He had 23 points in Miami’s decisive game five win over Atlanta, and Oladipo added 19, 15, and 13-point games in Miami’s series against Philadelphia. He has averaged 25.6 minutes during the playoffs to this point.
Boston and Miami open their best-of-seven series on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.
Cuban’s Mavericks open their series against Golden State on Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern.
A 1981 IU graduate, Cuban helped turn Dallas into one of the NBA’s top franchises. Since taking over in 2000, Cuban’s Mavericks have only missed the playoffs five times in 23 seasons, and they won the 2011 NBA championship.
The Mavericks are currently valued at $2.7 billion — ninth-highest in the NBA — according to Forbes.
Cuban came back for an Indiana game in 2020 when legendary head coach Bob Knight returned to Assembly Hall, and he remains a big fan of the program. He made his initial fortune with Broadcast.com, a company inspired by the idea of streaming IU basketball radio broadcasts over the internet.
Update: A reader reminded us former IU wing Will Sheehey is with the Warriors as an assistant video coordinator.
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