One could say that UCLA’s blue and gold run through Kiki
Vandeweghe’s veins.
Just look at the Denver Nuggets’ uniforms. Is it any
coincidence that a striking color resemblance exists between
Vandeweghe’s college team and the NBA team he is currently the
general manager for?
“A little,” Vandeweghe admitted bashfully.
Vandeweghe’s UCLA ties run deeper than just the
Nuggets’ recognizable hues. Rather, his life has been spent
in and around the university.
Born in Weisbaden, Germany on Aug. 1, 1958, Ernest Maurice
Vandeweghe III, as he is formally known, grew up only two blocks
away from the sprawling Westwood campus, dreaming about one day
attending the storied school.
“I grew up sneaking into Pauley Pavilion and watching UCLA
play,” he said. “I think I hold the record for getting
kicked out of (there).”
His dream became a reality in 1976, when he became a member of
the UCLA basketball team, finally able to play without fear of
getting shown the door.
“There was never really, in my mind, much of a doubt. The
only question was (that) they really didn’t want me,”
he said jokingly.
If Vandeweghe’s family was any clue, his ability in
basketball was destined. His father, Ernest, played for the New
York Knicks for seven years and was an All-American at Colgate. His
uncle, Melvin, was a four-time NBA All-Star from 1951-58.
That is not to say that Vandeweghe’s career path was
predetermined, however.
“Actually, (my father and uncle) discouraged me from
(playing) basketball because they thought it was difficult,”
he said. “I was actually a really good swimmer. They
encouraged me to stay in swimming, and I really wasn’t a very
good basketball player.”
It was nothing a few people couldn’t fix for the big
man.
“I was very lucky; I had a lot of great coaches,” he
said. “When I first started playing, my dad was very
influential. He was very supportive. He never made me practice or
anything like that. He always encouraged me and was there to take
me if I wanted to go.”
If the choice of basketball was the first good decision made by
Vandeweghe, then the two-block trek over to UCLA was his
second.
And if his 12.2 points and five rebounds per game average, as
well as a distinction as a two-time academic All-American and a
Rhodes Scholar finalist weren’t enough, then 1980 surely
was.
That year, Vandeweghe’s senior season and Larry
Brown’s first as head coach, was one of the memorable ones
not involving the name John Wooden.
“It was a really interesting year,” Vandeweghe
said.
The team stumbled through its first 14 games, with losses to
unranked USC and Oregon.
“We started off 8-6, which, at that time, was a terrible
record for us,” the Bruins’ former center remembered.
“We had a team meeting and just decided “¦ to
re-dedicate ourselves to the team and the tradition that was UCLA
basketball.”
The results were more than startling. The Bruins won nine of
their final 13 regular season games, en route to a 17-10
record.
“It was amazing when we did that,” Vandeweghe said.
“We just went on a really nice run, and (although) nobody
expected us to make the tournament, we were the last team
selected.”
It was a small consolation for a program that was only five
years removed from the last of Wooden’s 10 championship
runs.
Nevertheless, in the tournament the eighth-seed Bruins lived by
the cliché of taking it one game at a time.
And leading the way was No. 55.
They won the first four games of the tournament, including a
34-point effort by Vandeweghe against Old Dominion in the first
round, and a win against DePaul, who was led by future NBA
stalwarts Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings.
“We surprised a lot of people,” Vandeweghe said.
“The only people who weren’t surprised, I think, were
Coach Brown and the team because we really believed in ourselves,
and somehow, the UCLA magic worked for us.”
The Bruins pulled yet another rabbit out of the hat when, in the
Final Four, Vandeweghe and company knocked off Purdue, behind the
Bruin great’s 24 points. The stage was then set for a matchup
with Louisville on college basketball’s biggest stage.
In the game, UCLA held a two-point halftime lead and led by six
points late in the second half, but a run by the Cardinals with
about four minutes remaining led to a 59-54 defeat for the Bruins,
their first in over a month.
“It was difficult,” Vandeweghe said of the loss.
“I really believed we had the game. They just played a really
lights out kind of a game, and we unfortunately came up a little
bit short.”
Vandeweghe was named the team’s most valuable player for
his effort during the 1980 season, one he said was the most
memorable of his career.
“It was a great run, and I had probably the most fun of my
basketball career ““ that includes the pros,
everything,” he said.
The professional portion of Vandeweghe’s career began when
he was drafted 11th overall by the Dallas Mavericks. In a 13-year
NBA career that also included stints with the Nuggets, Portland
Trailblazers and a reunion with Coach Brown on the L.A. Clippers,
he averaged 19.7 points per game while shooting 52.5 percent from
the floor and 87.2 percent from the line, displaying the inside
presence that made him a favorite on the Pauley hardwood.
After retiring from the game in 1993, Vandeweghe formed a
financial planning business and taught at a number of basketball
clinics. He spent two years as assistant coach and director of
player development for the Mavericks.
He is a proven mentor for big men, having molded frontcourt
players such as Dirk Nowitzki, Austin Croshere, and Kenyon Martin
in his image.
“I enjoy being out on the floor working with
players,” he said. “I think what you try to do is look
at a player ““ look at his strengths and weaknesses ““
and just try to show them the path.”
Vandeweghe’s path led him to the general manager’s
position in Denver beginning in August of 2001. In only his fourth
season on the job, the UCLA alumnus was partly responsible for
drafting phenom Carmelo Anthony.
With the Syracuse star’s help, the Nuggets had an
impressive season before losing to Minnesota in the first round of
the playoffs.
“I’m proud of the way our guys played,”
Vandeweghe said. “They came to play every single night. We
competed well every night.”
The addition of scrappy, hard-nosed veterans like Jon Barry,
Earl Boykins, Voshon Lenard and Andre Miller have complemented
Anthony, forging a squad with similarities to Vandeweghe’s
UCLA team of nearly 25 years ago.
“I really do believe chemistry is important,”
Vandeweghe said. “Good, solid veterans are extremely
important.”
A veteran of the game in his own right, the 46-year-old
Vandeweghe continues to devise the same winning formula that worked
so well for him during his four-year career at UCLA.
In 1994, Vandeweghe was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of
Fame, becoming a Bruin legend for life.
Although the current team has changed, the blue and gold and
especially the memories still remain the same.