Former Arizona State standout Lu Dort is on the verge of joining a short-list of Sun Devil basketball royalty.
Dort, who played for ASU in the 2018-19 season, has the chance to be the first NBA champion from Arizona State since Jeff Ayres (formerly Pendergraph) won a championship with the Spurs in 2014. If his Oklahoma City Thunder can defeat the Indiana Pacers in a series that tips off Thursday, Dort would become the sixth Sun Devil to win an NBA championship.
Early in his NBA career, Dort quickly carved out a role in the NBA as a reliable shooter and a lockdown defender — a role that earned him the nickname “The Dorture Chamber.”
Those traits were something Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley saw before Dort began his brief career in Tempe.
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“He just had that real desire to get after it on defense — a big part of why we were attracted to bring him here. And so that’s just grown as he’s grown,” Hurley said Wednesday from ASU’s practice facility while hosting Ayres at his old stomping grounds. “You got to find something at that level that you can really hang your hat on, and that’s him being a lockdown defender has been his niche with that team, and just a great teammate.”
Now in his sixth season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dort has been an invaluable piece of the young Thunder core, helping lead them to a 68-14 record.
Dort had a solid statistical year, averaging 10.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and shooting an impressive 41.2% from behind the arc.
But his value goes much further than scoring points. Dort is often tasked with guarding the opposition’s best perimeter players, and his work was rewarded with NBA All-Defensive First Team nod this season, his first such honor.
Lu Dort’s defensive presence was a draw when ASU’s Bobby Hurley recruited him
“I mean, from the first time I saw him and watched him compete, I had a feeling he was going to take it the distance,” Hurley said. “It’s hard to be in that 1% NBA guy, and it’s not easy, but he had all the intangibles and the makeup and physical ability to do it. He just had a harder path. He had a different path. But he was great here, he was Pac-12 Rookie of the Year, he averaged 16 a game. [He] was great on defense, got us to the NCAA Tournament and with some other good players on that team. But I’m not surprised. What he’s done is he’s always been a great worker and I think nothing was going to stop him.
“We played Nevada, I think, in Staples, and they were No. 6 in the country,” Hurley said of an early nonconference game where Dort scored 24. “(He) wasn’t really known for being a scorer, more of a defensive guy and a rebounder at his position. But really showed me a lot in a game like that, that he could play at that level. So kind of knew pretty early in that season that he may not be at Arizona State too long.”
Although Dort had a successful freshman campaign at Arizona State, winning the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, his journey to the NBA was anything but easy.
While Dort even had conversations with Hurley about coming back to school for his sophomore season, he decided to bet on himself. He went undrafted after declaring for the 2019 NBA Draft, in part because his representatives tried to direct him to a landing spot where he could thrive, even if it meant telling teams not to select him in the second round.
Dort eventually worked his way into the Thunder rotation and became a starter shortly thereafter. It led to him signing a massive multi-year deal three years later.
More than a decade after the last Sun Devil product won an NBA title, Ayres stopped by ASU’s Weatherup Center to talk to the current Sun Devils on Wednesday.
A four-year starter at Arizona State from 2005-09 and still a prominent name among the Arizona State basketball record books, Ayres was asked if he had any advice for Dort on handling the pressure of the championship stage.
“It’d just be to enjoy the moment,” Ayres said. “Don’t think too much. Just have fun with your teammates, like your best friends right now. So enjoy the moment. Experience it all. Take it in, and then just have fun. Trust all the work y’all put in, all season, all the ups, the downs, the trials, the tribulations, and trust it.
“Enjoy the moment, man, because you might not get another one, or you might get a whole bunch. Whatever it is, you only get this one.”
Which former ASU men’s basketball players have won the NBA Finals?
Jeff Ayres, Spurs (2014)
Eddie House, Celtics (2008)
Byron Scott, Lakers (1985, 1987, 1988)
Mark Landsberger, Lakers (1980, 1982)
Lionel Hollins, Trail Blazers (1977)
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