That Time I Played a Pickup One-on-One Game Against College Basketball All-American Ronnie Lester

Before Ronnie Lester became an Assistant General Manager for the Los Angeles Lakers and later on a scout for the Phoenix Suns, he was an All-American collegiate basketball player for the University of Iowa. He was one of the top players in the nation and widely regarded as the Nation’s Top Guard. Even Magic Johnson remarked that Lester was the best player he ever faced in college.

Unfortunately for Lester, he suffered a career-impacting knee injury in the 1980 NCAA Tournament, a year that the Iowa Hawkeyes made it to the Final Four. Lester would rehabilitate and would eventually get drafted #10 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers, but he was never the same player after the injury.

Our stories intersect before Lester was drafted by the Lakers, when he was still in Iowa City before moving to Los Angeles. I was a short, skinny, curly-afro’d early-teen who had pretty good foot-speed, but if I’m honest, had very little natural basketball skills. One day I was shooting some baskets by myself in the Iowa City Rec Center (not at the Iowa City Field House, where the Iowa Hawkeyes practiced and where one would have expected to run into him). Lester joined me on the court and started shooting jumpers with me. I don’t think he missed a shot. Eventually, Lester asked me if I wanted to play. I recognized who he was but tried to play it off like it was no big deal, and certainly wasn’t about to back down or act scared.