Byron Scott receives ASU degree 37 years after leaving for NBA
Jun 15, 2020, 8:55 AM
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott instructs his team on offense in the first half of an NBA basketball game aginst the Dallas Mavericks, Friday, Nov. 21, 2014, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Arizona State basketball legend Byron Scott won’t get to formally walk until December, but he can finally call himself a Sun Devil graduate.
Scott, who spent 14 years in the NBA, mostly with the Los Angeles Lakers, announced Sunday on Facebook that he’d earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from ASU.
“Today…37 years later, I can once again say that I accomplished another major goal,” Scott wrote on Facebook. “For the past year and a half I have been in school … I have always been a Sun Devil but TODAY I have never been more proud to say ‘I am a Sun Devil!'”
At Arizona State, Scott won Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 1979-80 and made the All-Pac-10 First Team as a junior in 1982-83.
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Scott departed ASU with career averages of 17.5 points, 3.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game.
Leaving ASU after his junior season, he never got to finish his degree. He went fourth overall to the San Diego Clippers and was traded to the Lakers, where he won three NBA titles.
After a decade with Los Angeles, Scott played another two seasons with the Indiana Pacers (1993-95) with a one-year stop in Vancouver before returning to the Lakers for his final season in 1996-97. He averaged double-figures scoring in every season before his final one and in 1,073 NBA games averaged 14.1 points, 2.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
He would go on to become an NBA head coach with the Nets, Hornets, Cavaliers and Lakers. Scott went 454-647 with two NBA Finals appearances with the Nets in 2002 and 2003.
