As a fellow former Hawkeye, Bobby Hansen is near and dear to my heart. Bobby Hansen played for Iowa during the Lute Olson days, before Lute headed to Arizona to dominate college basketball. He teamed up with basketball legends such as Ronnie Lester, Greg Stokes, and Brad Lohaus...okay, so maybe Iowa doesn't have the greatest basketball tradition. Still, Bobby Hansen's senior year where he scored 15.4 points and had 5.4 rebounds per game were enough to get him drafted in the third round by the Utah Jazz.
After spending his first seven seasons in Utah, he played a year with Sacramento before being traded two days into the season to the Chicago Bulls (along with a pick that would become Corey Williams
) in exchange for future article subject, Dennis Hopson. Fun fact: In Hansen's last game with the Sacramento Kings, they would lose by 62 points to the Golden State Warriors. The Bulls partly acquired Hansen because he had a low salary, so it wouldn't be a big deal if they decided to release him to acquire someone better as a backup guard.
But Bobby Hansen defied the odds and stayed an active member of the roster for the entire season through the playoffs. He played in a total of 66 games, with his best performance coming against the Charlotte Hornets when he went 6-7 from the field with 13 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, and three steals. Maybe his most interesting individual contribution on the season is that he shot a putrid 28% from the free throw line. But basketball is a team sport, and the Bulls won their first 14 games that Bobby Hansen played in. In fact, the Bulls would go on to have a 58-8 record when Hansen got playing time but just 9-7 when he did not. I'm not saying the Bulls were only a fringe playoff team without Bobby Hansen, but the stats don't lie.
Although Hansen played sparingly in the early rounds of the playoffs (only four games through the first three rounds), when the Bulls were on the precipice of greatness, they knew to get Hansen on the court. He played in five of six games, including a memorable performance in game six. The Bulls entered the fourth quarter trailing by 15 points, so Phil Jackson rested Michael Jordan to start he period and put in Hansen.
Hansen got the comeback going, nailing his only shot, a three pointer, and adding an assist and a steal. The Bulls would go on a 14-2 run to close the gap, and then Michael Jordan came in to secure a four-point victory to give the Bulls back-to-back championships.
After the season, like many players from these Bulls teams, he called it a career. Bobby Hansen got to go out like a champion. He now is a radio broadcaster for Iowa Hawkeyes basketball and retires with the greatest missed layup in NBA history.
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