In 1998, the LSU basketball program was in bad shape.
Coach John Brady was entering his second season as head coach of the Tigers in a program riddled by NCAA restrictions because of violations committed during the Dale Brown era.
LSU was coming off a 9-18 record in Brady’s first season, including a 2-14 Southeastern Conference mark.
It seemed like the days of Shaquille O’Neal and Chris Jackson were light years away.
Then Brady and company signed a player from Shreveport, La. that changed everything about LSU basketball at the time.
Stromile Swift, a 6-foot-9 freakishly athletic forward from Fair Park High School, was going to be part of the LSU basketball program.
Brady said Swift’s signing changed everything.
“He turned us around,” Brady said. “He gave us immense credibility in a short period of time because of his talent. He was an outstanding player, and he along with [Sacramento Kings] center Jabari Smith made a great tandem in the inside, as good as there was in college basketball that year.”
Brady said the timing of Swift’s signing was very important.
“Signing a guy like him at the time that we did, signing him after our first year here on NCAA probation, was a significant recruit for us,” Brady said.
Unfortunately, Swift was not able to play the entire 1998-99 season because he did not qualify, but he did play the second half of the season and started to learn the system in place.
In the 1999-2000 season, Swift was able to play the whole year and made an immediate impact. He led the Tigers to a 28-6 record, including 12-4 in the SEC, which was good enough for a championship. He averaged 16.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. He had 95 blocks, a whopping 62 more than the next best effort on the team. Swift was also named SEC Co-Player of the Year by the Associated Press and led the Tigers to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
“He was a tremendous athlete,” Brady said. “He had a nice perimeter game for his size, but he was an excellent, outstanding shot blocker. He had long arms and he was extremely athletic.”
Swift was so effective as a sophomore, he began to explore the viability of himself entering the NBA Draft. What Swift found out was great for him, but not so good for LSU.
Swift entered the draft, and after workouts and interviews, was chosen second overall by the then-Vancouver Grizzlies, who now reside in Memphis.
“Our team won 28 games, we won the SEC, he was MVP of the league, and he had a great game on national TV in the second round of the NCAA [Tournament] against Texas,” Brady said of Swift’s rise to No. 2 in the draft. “Plus he worked very hard the summer between his freshman and sophomore year in the weight room and he got tougher, he got stronger and he matured a little bit. You know, he just exploded on the scene his sophomore year. And he got better and better as the year went along.”
Swift struggled his first year in the NBA, averaging 4.9 points per game in only 16.4 minutes per game.
But when the Grizzlies moved to Memphis, Swift’s game picked up to the point where it is right now.
Swift has started all four of the Grizzlies’ games this season, averaging 25.3 minutes to go along with 12.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
“He’s doing well,” Brady said. “He’s gotten better each year. He ended the year very good last year for them and he’s started the year on a good note. So hopefully he’s where a No. 2 pick ought to be, and that’s having an impact on his team.”