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The best 80s NCAA small forwards turned into some of the more promising players in professional basketball. From Rodney McCray to Chris Morris. Or, you know, Scottie Pippen and Dominique Wilkins, these are the best 80s college small forwards! Take a look at this list of college small forwards from the 80s and vote for your favorites!One can't discuss the top 1980s NCAA small forwards without bringing up Scottie Pippen or Dominique Wilkins, two of the best college SFs of the 1980s. I already brought them up twice. That's how good they are. No matter who you're in to, there are plenty of options to choose from among the top 80s college small forwards! These best NCAA SFs 80s brought the goods!So take a look at this list of the greatest NCAA small forwards from the 80s!

Best 80s NCAA Small Forwards | Greatest  1980s College SFs

The Best NCAA Small Forwards of the 80s

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FREEFORM

Daren Queenan

Daren Queenan (born October 19, 1966) is a retired American professional basketball player. Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he attended Norristown High School as a teenager but went virtually unrecruited by colleges to play basketball except for nearby Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Queenan was an undersized center in high school, standing at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), but then-assistant Lehigh coach Fran McCaffery signed him to play for the Mountain Hawks and turned him into a shooting guard/small forward (toward the end of Queenan's career at Lehigh, McCaffery said, "You wouldn't believe how many coaches told me Daren couldn't play for them. Every coach makes mistakes, but when you say a kid can't play, and he scores 3,000 points, that's a mistake.") McCaffery would become Lehigh's head coach for Queenan's final three seasons.

Chris Mullin

Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American retired professional basketball player and former head coach of the St. John's Red Storm. He previously served as special advisor for the Sacramento Kings and general manager of the Golden State Warriors. He is a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (in 2010 as a member of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team ("The Dream Team"), and in 2011 for his individual career).
Mullin played shooting guard and small forward in the NBA from 1985 to 2001. During his playing time at St. John's University, he was named Big East Player of the Year three times and was a member of the 1984 U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball team, Mullin was chosen as the seventh pick by the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft.  He returned to the Olympics in 1992 as a member of the "Dream Team", which was the first American Olympic basketball team to include professional players.
He played with the Warriors from the 1985–86 until the 1996–97 season. Thereafter, Mullin played with the Indiana Pacers from 1997 until the 1999–2000 season. He retired after the 2000–01 season, playing for his original team, the Warriors.
On March 30, 2015, he was named 20th head coach of the St. John's University men's basketball team, his alma mater. On April 9, 2019 he stepped down as the head coach of the St. John's University men's basketball team.



James Worthy

James Ager Worthy (born February 27, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player who is currently a commentator, television host, and analyst. Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven-time NBA All-Star, three-time NBA champion, and the 1988 NBA Finals MVP with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
A standout at the University of North Carolina, the 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) small forward shared College Player of the Year honors en route to leading the Tar Heels to the 1982 NCAA Championship.  Named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, he was No. 1 pick of the 1982 NBA draft of the defending NBA champion Lakers.

Scottie Pippen

Scotty Maurice Pippen (born September 25, 1965), commonly spelled Scottie Pippen, is an American former professional basketball player. He played 17 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. Pippen, along with Michael Jordan, played an important role in transforming the Bulls into a championship team and in popularizing the NBA around the world during the 1990s.Considered one of the greatest small forwards of all time, Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team eight consecutive times and the All-NBA First Team three times. He was a seven-time NBA All-Star and was the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1994. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the 1996–97 season, and is one of four players to have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls (the others being Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, and Michael Jordan). He played a main role on both the 1992 Chicago Bulls Championship team and the 1996 Chicago Bulls Championship team which were selected as two of the Top 10 Teams in NBA History. His biography on the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame's website states, "The multidimensional Pippen ran the court like a point guard, attacked the boards like a power forward, and swished the nets like a shooting guard." During his 17-year career, he played 12 seasons with the Bulls, one with the Houston Rockets and four with the Portland Trail Blazers, making the postseason sixteen straight times.
Pippen is the only NBA player to have won an NBA title and Olympic gold medal in the same year twice (1992, 1996). He was a part of the 1992 U.S. Olympic "Dream Team" which beat its opponents by an average of 44 points. Pippen was also a key figure in the 1996 Olympic team, alongside former Dream Team members Karl Malone, John Stockton, and Charles Barkley as well as newer faces such as Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway and Grant Hill. He wore number 8 during both years.
Pippen is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (for his individual career, and as a member of the "Dream Team"), having been inducted for both on August 13, 2010. On December 8, 2005, the Chicago Bulls retired his number #33, while his college, University of Central Arkansas, retired his number #33 on January 21, 2010, as well.

Clyde Drexler

Clyde Austin Drexler (born June 22, 1962) is an American former professional basketball player who is the commissioner of the Big3  3-on-3 basketball league. Nicknamed "Clyde the Glide", he played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), spending a majority of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers before finishing with the Houston Rockets. He was a ten-time NBA All-Star and named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Drexler won an NBA championship with Houston in 1995, and earned a gold medal on the 1992 United States Olympic team known as "The Dream Team". He was inducted twice into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2004 for his individual career and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team". He currently serves as a color commentator for Houston Rockets home games.

Michael Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American former professional basketball player and the principal owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 15 seasons in the NBA, winning six championships with the Chicago Bulls. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." He was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.Jordan played three seasons for coach Dean Smith with the North Carolina Tar Heels. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982. Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984 as the third overall draft pick. He quickly emerged as a league star and entertained crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames Air Jordan and His Airness. He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball before the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season, and started a new career in Minor League Baseball, he returned to the Bulls in March 1995 and led them to three additional championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as a then-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in January 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include six NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, ten scoring titles (both all-time records), five MVP Awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game selections, three All-Star Game MVP Awards, three steals titles, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game). In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press' list of athletes of the century. Jordan is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, having been enshrined in 2009 for his individual career, and again in 2010 as part of the group induction of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team ("The Dream Team"). He became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015.
Jordan is also known for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1984 and remain popular today. Jordan also starred as himself in the 1996 film Space Jam. In 2006, he became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets), and bought a controlling interest in 2010. In 2014, Jordan became the first billionaire player in NBA history. He is the third-richest African-American, behind Robert F. Smith and Oprah Winfrey.

Dominique Wilkins

Jacques Dominique Wilkins (born January 12, 1960) is an American retired professional basketball player who primarily played for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Wilkins was a nine-time NBA All-Star, and is widely viewed as one of the best dunkers in NBA history, earning the nickname "The Human Highlight Film". In 2006, Wilkins was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
In addition to his eleven seasons with the Hawks, Wilkins had short stints with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Boston Celtics, Panathinaikos Athens (a professional team in Greece's top-tier level Greek Basket League, with whom he won his first titles, the FIBA European League and the Greek Cup), Fortitudo Bologna (a professional team in Italy's top-tier level LBA), the San Antonio Spurs, and the Orlando Magic before he retired in 1999.

Larry Johnson

Lawrence Demetric Johnson (born March 14, 1969) is an American retired basketball player who spent his professional career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Charlotte Hornets and New York Knicks. At an officially listed height of 6'7" (2.01 m) tall, he played at the power forward position, due to his strength.

Robert Horry

Robert Keith Horry (born August 25, 1970) is an American retired basketball player and current sports commentator. He played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning seven championships, the most of any player not to have played on the 1960s Boston Celtics. He is one of only two players (the other is John Salley) to have won NBA championships with three teams: two with the Houston Rockets, three with the Los Angeles Lakers and two with the San Antonio Spurs.  He earned the nickname Big Shot Bob because of his clutch shooting in important games; he is widely considered to be one of the greatest clutch performers and winners in NBA history. Horry now works as a commentator on Spectrum SportsNet.

Mark Aguirre

Mark Anthony Aguirre (born December 10, 1959) is an American retired basketball player in the National Basketball Association. Aguirre was chosen as the first overall pick of the 1981 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks after playing three years at DePaul University. Aguirre played in the NBA from 1981 until 1994 and won two championships with the Detroit Pistons after being traded to Detroit from Dallas in exchange for Adrian Dantley. Aguirre was a three-time All-Star for Dallas.

Glen Rice

Glen Anthony Rice, Sr. (born May 28, 1967) is an American retired professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A 6'8" guard/forward, Rice was a three-time NBA All-Star, and made 1,559 three-point field goals during his 15-year career. Rice won both an NCAA championship and NBA championship during his collegiate and professional career. In recent years, Rice has taken up MMA fight promotion as owner of G-Force Fights based in Miami, Florida.

Rick Fox

Ulrich Alexander Fox (born July 24, 1969) is a Canadian-Bahamian retired basketball player, actor, businessman, and esports franchise owner. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, and played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels. He is the owner of the esports franchise Echo Fox.

As a member of three consecutive NBA Championship teams with the Los Angeles Lakers, former basketball star Rick Fox was also no stranger to the world of Hollywood. Born on July 24, 1969 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Fox was raised by his father, Ulrich, and his mother, Diane Gerace, who was a world champion high jumper and women's pentathlete who represented her native Canada at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. When he was three years old, Fox moved to his father's native Bahamas, where he later played basketball for the Kingsway Academy in Nassau. Fox later played high school basketball in Warsaw, IN, where he was voted onto the Indiana All-Star team in 1987. From there, he became a star player at the University of North Carolina, helping to lead the Tar Heels to the NCAA Final Four in 1991.

Detlef Schrempf

Detlef Schrempf (born 21 January 1963) is a German-American retired professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Washington Huskies from 1981 to 1985, and was drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA) by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft, with the eighth overall pick. He was an All-NBA Third Team member in 1995, a three-time NBA All-Star and the NBA Sixth Man of the Year twice.
Schrempf played in the NBA for sixteen seasons, including stints with the Indiana Pacers, the Seattle SuperSonics, and the Portland Trail Blazers. In 1996, he reached the NBA Finals with the SuperSonics. He played for the West German, and later German, national team in the 1984 and 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1983 and 1985 EuroBasket championships.

Dan Majerle

Daniel Lewis Majerle (; born September 9, 1965), also known by the nickname "Thunder Dan", is an American retired professional basketball player and current coach of the Grand Canyon Antelopes. He played 14 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. He won a bronze medal with the US national team at the 1988 Summer Olympics, and a gold medal at the 1994 FIBA World Championship.

Tom Chambers

Thomas Doane Chambers (born June 21, 1959) is an American retired National Basketball Association (NBA) player. Having a strong shot along with high-flying dunks, Chambers played professionally from 1981 to 1997. At 6'10", he played at the power forward position as a professional, and was selected to four NBA All-Star Games as a member of the Seattle SuperSonics and the Phoenix Suns.
Chambers is one of two players, along Antawn Jamison, with 20,000 or more career points eligible,  but not elected to, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Kenny Walker

Kenneth Walker (born August 18, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed Kenny "Sky" Walker, he played primarily for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Walker won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1989. He is currently a radio host for WVLK in Lexington, Kentucky.
Walker played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats. He was a first-team consensus All-American as a senior in 1986, and twice he was named the player of the year in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). He was selected by the Knicks in the first round of the 1986 NBA draft with the fifth overall pick.

Tyrone Corbin

Tyrone Kennedy Corbin (born December 31, 1962) is an American retired basketball player, and current assistant coach of the Orlando Magic in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was first appointed the assistant coach of the Phoenix Suns, then was named the Utah Jazz’s head coach, on February 10, 2011 following the resignation of longtime coach Jerry Sloan. He was also the brief interim head coach of the Sacramento Kings in the 2014-15 season before being replaced by George Karl. Prior to that, Corbin played 16 seasons in the NBA.

Sean Elliott

Sean Michael Elliott (born February 2, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who starred at small forward in both the college and professional ranks.  He attended the University of Arizona, where he had a standout career as a two-time All-American, winner of the 1989 John R. Wooden Award, the 1989 Adolph Rupp Trophy, the 1989 NABC Player of the Year, 1989 AP Player of the Year, and two time Pac-12 Player of the Year (in 1988–1989).
He was the third pick of the 1989 NBA draft, was named to the 1990 NBA All-Rookie Second Team, was a two-time NBA All-Star, and earned an NBA championship in 1999.
His #32 is retired by both the University of Arizona and the San Antonio Spurs.

Danny Manning

Daniel Ricardo Manning (born May 17, 1966) is an American college basketball coach and retired National Basketball Association player. He is the current men's head coach at  Wake Forest. Manning played high school basketball at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas, college basketball at The University of Kansas, and played in the NBA for 14 years. After retiring from professional basketball Manning became an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Kansas. He won the national championship with the Jayhawks in 1988 as a player, and again as an assistant in 2008. He is the all-time leading scorer in Kansas basketball history with 2,951 points. The next closest player to his point total is Nick Collison, who is 854 points behind Manning.

Chris Morris

Christopher Vernard Morris (born January 20, 1966) is a retired American professional basketball player. In his 11-season (1988–1999) National Basketball Association career, the 6'8" small forward played for the New Jersey Nets, Utah Jazz, and Phoenix Suns. He is a graduate of Atlanta's Douglass High School where his jersey has been retired and played for the Auburn University Tigers. He scored 8,184 total points in his NBA career.

Rodney McCray

Rodney Earl McCray (born August 29, 1961) is an American former basketball player.  A 6'7" small forward, he spent 10 seasons (1983–93) in the National Basketball Association (NBA), tallying 9,014 career points and 5,087 career rebounds.

Cedric Ceballos

Cedric Ceballos (August 2, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. As a small forward, he played mostly for the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers, later finishing his National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat.

Kelly Tripucka

Peter Kelly Tripucka (born February 16, 1959), is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 to 1991.  He was a two time NBA All Star and averaged over twenty points a game in five of the ten season that he played in. Tripucka played for the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz and was a member of the Charlotte Hornets during their inaugural season in the NBA.  The son of NFL Pro-Bowl (and CFL) quarterback Frank Tripucka, Kelly was a color analyst for the New York Knicks for four years, ending with the 2011–12 season.

Dennis Rodman

Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American retired professional basketball player who played for the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, and Dallas Mavericks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was nicknamed "The Worm" and is famous for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities.
Rodman played at the small forward position in his early years before becoming a power forward. He earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times and won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award twice. He also led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years and won five NBA championships. His biography at NBA.com states that he is "arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history". On April 1, 2011, the Pistons retired Rodman's No. 10 jersey, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later that year.Rodman experienced an unhappy childhood and was shy and introverted in his early years. After aborting a suicide attempt in 1993, he reinvented himself as a "bad boy" and became notorious for numerous controversial antics. He repeatedly dyed his hair in artificial colors, had many piercings and tattoos, and regularly disrupted games by clashing with opposing players and officials. He famously wore a wedding dress to promote his 1996 autobiography Bad As I Wanna Be. Rodman pursued a high-profile affair with singer Madonna and was briefly married to actress Carmen Electra. Rodman also attracted international attention for his visits to North Korea and his subsequent befriending of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2013.
In addition to being a retired professional basketball player, Rodman is a retired part-time professional wrestler and actor. He was a member of the nWo and fought alongside Hulk Hogan at two Bash at the Beach events. In professional wrestling, Rodman was the first ever winner of the Celebrity Championship Wrestling tournament. He had his own TV show, The Rodman World Tour, and had lead roles in the action films Double Team (1997) and Simon Sez (1999). Both films were critically panned, with the former earning Rodman a triple Razzie Award. He appeared in several reality TV series and was the winner of the $222,000 main prize of the 2004 edition of Celebrity Mole.

Mike O'Koren

Michael F. O'Koren (born February 7, 1958) is an American basketball coach and former player and broadcaster originally from Jersey City, New Jersey. O'Koren was last an assistant coach at Rutgers University, serving under head coach Eddie Jordan.
A graduate of The University of North Carolina, where he played under Dean Smith, O'Koren was a first round draft pick of the New Jersey Nets in 1980 and played for the Nets and Washington Bullets in a career that ended in 1988.
After his retirement, O'Koren joined the Nets' broadcast team and remained there until 1999, when he joined Don Casey's staff as an assistant coach. He returned to Washington in 2003 when Eddie Jordan, with whom he had served in New Jersey, hired him to be the associate head coach of the Wizards. O'Koren also served as an assistant under Jordan with the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2009–10 season.
After he was let go by the 76ers, O'Koren returned to broadcasting and called high school games for FiOS1 New Jersey before Jordan hired him to serve on his staff at Rutgers in 2014.

The best 80s NCAA small forwards turned into some of the more promising players in professional basketball. From Rodney McCray to Chris Morris. Or, you know, ...