Top 20 former Michigan State Spartans to play in the NBA

17. Terry Furlow

Terry Furlow was a 12th overall pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1976 NBA Draft after four years at Michigan State, where he averaged 29.4 points per game in his senior season.

After only four seasons in the NBA, Furlow’s career tragically ended in his death following a car accident in 1980.

Furlow’s production was slow in his first two seasons, but he showed continued improvement in each of his final two seasons, averaging 16 points and 4 assist per game in 55 games with Utah before his death.

With a slow start to his career and an untimely death that ended that career short, Furlow’s numbers are less-than-impressive. However, using Furlow’s trajectory, his potential moves him up on this list.

To estimate a potential trajectory, Tayshaun Prince provides a decent model.

If Furlow’s career lasted as long as Prince’s (14 seasons), and he continued to average 75 games per season (which two games less than what he averaged between his final two seasons), Furlow would have ended his career with a similar amount of games played as Prince.

If Furlow could have maintained only a 16 point-per-game average across the rest of his career, he would have easily cracked into the top 150 scorers of all time, perhaps making him one of all-time great Spartan players to play in the NBA.