RIP Joe Wolf

What? NOOO!!! He was one of my favorite players in my early years of watching UNC hoops. We’ve lost a lot of greats over the course of the past 3 years.
 
RIP, Joe. So solid fundamentally, and that's a big reason why he stayed in the League so long.

In 2005, a vote was conducted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to select the all-time Wisconsin high school boys basketball team. As a result of this vote, Joe Wolf was named Wisconsin's all-time greatest high school basketball player based on his dominant four-year performance at Kohler High School, which included 3 state championships.
 
Heard it was a heart attack. Would have been my guess. Chances of Afib go up about 3% for every extra inch of height above average.
 
Damn!! That's terrible. Fell in love with the Heels in '82 after moving to NC the previous year. So many great memories of that era including Joe. Such a solid player. RIP, big fella.
 
The 3-point line was introduced to college hoops Joe’s senior year. That year, Joe shot 57.5% from 3.

He wasn’t a particularly high volume 3-point shooter, and there were only a handful of those back in those days, but his 1.2 attempts per game were the fourth most on the team after Kenny Smith, Jeff Lebo, and Ranzino Smith. Having big guys shoot 3s was very rare back then. I imagine if he did shoot at a high volume, as he would if he played in today’s game, he still would have shot at a very high %. Not over 50%, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was high-40s.
 
Icky Mettle said:
The 3-point line was introduced to college hoops Joe’s senior year. That year, Joe shot 57.5% from 3.

He wasn’t a particularly high volume 3-point shooter, and there were only a handful of those back in those days, but his 1.2 attempts per game were the fourth most on the team after Kenny Smith, Jeff Lebo, and Ranzino Smith. Having big guys shoot 3s was very rare back then. I imagine if he did shoot at a high volume, as he would if he played in today’s game, he still would have shot at a very high %. Not over 50%, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was high-40s.
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He was, IIRC, a first-round NBA pick. A bad pick, but a pick nonetheless.

You're right that he would have done better in today's game.
 
superrific said:
He was, IIRC, a first-round NBA pick. A bad pick, but a pick nonetheless.

You're right that he would have done better in today's game.
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He lasted 11 years in the NBA, which is more than the 8.8 year average for a first round pick. Most of those years were as a backup. That said, he must have been a heck of a team-first guy to stick around as a backup for 11 years.

www.basketball-reference.com

Joe Wolf Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft Status and more | Basketball-Reference.com

Checkout the latest stats of Joe Wolf. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, shoots, school and more on Basketball-Reference.com
www.basketball-reference.com www.basketball-reference.com
 
superrific said:
He was, IIRC, a first-round NBA pick. A bad pick, but a pick nonetheless.

You're right that he would have done better in today's game.
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He was the 13th pick, picked right after Muggsy Bogues. It still blows my mind that a 5’3 player was drafted not only in the first round of the NBA draft, but with a top-12 pick.

But I don’t think anyone viewed Wolf as a bad pick with that 13th pick. He was a quality big man with a jump shot. And UNC players had a reputation for becoming good pros.
 
superrific said:
He was, IIRC, a first-round NBA pick. A bad pick, but a pick nonetheless.

You're right that he would have done better in today's game.
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Wasn’t much to draft in 1987 after Wolf (picked 13th).

Mark Jackson, Reggie Lewis, and Ken Norman. That’s pretty much it for players taken after Wolf.

Sarunas Marciulionis doesn’t count because he didn’t join Golden State until 1989 after being a late round pick in ‘87.

Mid-first round often is a crap shoot in the NBA draft.
 
Zoo_View said:
Wasn’t much to draft in 1987 after Wolf (picked 13th).

Mark Jackson, Reggie Lewis, and Ken Norman. That’s pretty much it for players taken after Wolf.

Sarunas Marciulionis doesn’t count because he didn’t join Golden State until 1989 after being a late round pick in ‘87.

Mid-first round often is a crap shoot in the NBA draft.
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It certainly was in those days. There's so much more talent in the draft now that you can usually find a good player anywhere in the first round. Maybe not a star, but not a bum like, let's see, "Tellis Frank" or "Chris Welp."

I remember Mark Jackson slipping that far, and remember thinking, "someone should have taken him much earlier."
 
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