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R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Published: 11/3/2006 8:49 AM
Last Modified: 11/3/2006 8:49 AM


Who said a breakup has to be all bad?
Stephen Holman/Tulsa World


I have a lot of respect for one of the players that the Tulsa 66ers drafted on Thursday night.
Frans Steyn is a giant who used to play for Oklahoma State. He got picked in the ninth round of the D-League draft by the 66ers.
Steyn was a rugby player in his native South Africa and came to the U.S. because he thought he could make a dollar or two playing hoops. And he will.
Steyn first landed in San Antonio and hung out with the Detmer family, the one that produced quarterbacks Ty and Koy. Then he was offered a scholarship at OSU and spent all but his senior year there, playing mostly mop-up minutes.
Before his final season, Steyn decided he needed to go somewhere else to get substantial game experience and he transferred to Southwest Baptist in Bolivar, Mo. I respect Steyn because the split wasn't nasty. He remained on good terms with the OSU staff and said good things about his time at the school. It doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes people throw stones on their way out the door. May we all be so diplomatic in the future.
A few other thoughts about the D-League draft:
1, I wonder if Bart Simpson would have fun with the pronunciation of the last name of former Stanford post player Matt Haryasz, who was picked by a team other than the 66ers.
2, One of the players in the draft pool was Milone Clark, who spent the summer working out with JamesOn Curry in Houston.
3, There seem to be a lot of recognizable names on the draft list, which reminds me that these guys are bonafide players and not just some stiffs from the local rec center.
Sports Illustrated did a great piece on former Memphis guard Darius Washington.
Michael Harris presented all kinds of problems for Tulsa when he was at Rice.
Eddie Robinson, formerly of Central Oklahoma, used to be a super sub with the Hornets and cashed that into a lucrative contract with the Bulls.
B.J. Elder and Isma'il Muhammed played on the Georgia tech team that beat OSU in the 2004 Final Four. Clifton Lee was on the Northwestern State team that upset OSU and Iowa last season.
Julius Lamptey is a former Oklahoma City kid. Terrance Crawford, no introduction is necessary. Frank Williams was a heck of a point guard for Bill Self at Illinois and Julian Sensley was a nice player at Hawaii.
Who are these guys in the D-League? My guess is you know many of them.




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xlnb@mail.com (6 years ago)
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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