He's a three-time NBA champion and was voted a starter for an All-Star game. He's one of the best three-point shooters in NBA history. He's the most successful No. 18 draft pick in Bulls history.
"I had a sense I was going to go one of three places, Seattle, Philadelphia or the Bulls," B.J. Armstrong, the Bulls No. 18 selection in the 1989 NBA draft, was saying the other day when reminded about his draft. "I really didn't have a preference. I just said I was going to have an opportunity to play in the NBA, and I really didn't care where that was at. It wasn't like I don't want to play here, I want to play there. I just wanted an opportunity."
That opportunity turned into a six-year run with the Bulls, three NBA titles and a starting spot on the 1994 Eastern Conference All-Star team.
Michael Jordan and BJ Armstrong talk during a game against the Boston Celtics circa 1991 at the Boston Garden.
The Bulls Thursday have the No. 18 selection in this year's NBA draft. They can only hope their choice becomes as successful as Armstrong, who was one of two all-time No. 18 picks for the Bulls. The other was in 1976 when No. 18 was in the second round. It was Willie Smith, a high scoring University of Missouri guard who played briefly for the Bulls in 1976 before a few limited appearances in four NBA seasons.
Armstrong became a vital reserve contributor for the 1991 and 1992 Bulls champions and then a starter for the 1993 title team. And then an All-Star the following year during Michael Jordan's first retirement when Armstrong averaged a career high 14.8 points per game.
Armstrong also was something of a case study for the vagaries of the draft, who takes you, where you are taken and how that team's composition. Armstrong offers no regrets about an 11-year NBA career that ended with the Bulls in 2000. Armstrong then worked in basketball operations for the Bulls and then as a player representative with Wasserman Media Group.
But he might have been Steph Curry.
Armstrong, 6-2 and slightly built and tough like Curry, was one of the elite three-point shooters in college and then in the NBA. Armstrong shot 52 percent on threes as a sophomore at the University of Iowa and almost 45 percent for his collegiate career. When he finally became a full-time Bulls starter, he led the NBA in three-point shooting that season and then during the next three years finished in the top five twice and the other season ninth. He's essentially tied with Curry all-time among NBA three-point shooters with most ahead of them spot-up specialists like Steve Kerr, Jason Kapono and Tim Legler. While Curry and Armstrong directed offenses.
BJ Armstrong shoots a long-distance shots against Philadelphia in 1993.
But unlike Curry who went to one of the worst teams in the league without an All-Star and where he could expand his game without fear of consequences, Armstrong joined the star-studded Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen with the team was on the verge of playing for a title. Curry also went to play for the free-style, iconoclatic coach Don Nelson. Armstrong joined the system-oriented Bulls with Tex Winter's triangle offense. And Jordan.
So Armstrong played his designated role. He got to wear three championship rings. Though you also wonder as not only an elite shooter but a playmaker like Curry what would have been if Seattle at No. 17 had selected Armstrong. They probably don't wonder since they got the steal of that draft with Shawn Kemp at No. 17. Kenny Payne was selected at No. 19 and Jeff Sanders to the Bulls at No. 20. That was the draft the Bulls had the No. 6 pick from a prior trade and selected Stacey King.
It's also little recalled that in his Bulls tenure Armstrong was the team's iron man. He missed one game in his six years with the Bulls. And that was a DNP-CD in his rookie season when Jackson elected to keep taller player on Magic Johnson throughout The game instead of the usual substitution pattern. Armstrong played all 82 games his next six years in the NBA, including 1995-96 when he was left unprotected in the expansion draft and eventually traded to the Golden State Warriors.
"I wanted to be a pro, and to me that meant to show up. When I was in high school my grandmother always demanded I show up," Armstrong said. "She always said, 'No matter what, you have to show up.' In high school I never missed a day. She always said, ‘If you want to be good at your job, you show up.' That was my mentality. That was more than just being there. In my neighborhood, if you laid 40 on me, I was going to run it back on you. That stayed with me, being there. I wanted to be at every practice, every game. I wanted to be available and live with the results. What I could not live with was not showing up, not being ready. I just wanted to play."
BJ Armstrong was drafted by the Bulls with the No. 18 selection in the 1989 NBA Draft
The other curiosity about Armstrong's Bulls career is that he grew up and learned to play as a Piston. He was from Detroit and he learned from playing against pros like the Pistons' John Long, Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, Terry Tyler, Isiah, all the Bad Boys. And then be ready to be called by the NBA.
"I had seen all the horror stories where these guys, supposed to be No. 1 player in country, and they didn't make it," Armstrong said. "I had seen so many who were better than me, but their mentality was an issue. They didn't make it because of other, off the court things, didn't have the discipline, didn't work, bad practice habits. I had seen all of this. So I just wanted to make sure when my opportunity came I was ready.
"I grew up all Detroit. Detroit was everything; my identity was Detroit," said Armstrong. "How we played was how those teams played; that's what embodied Detroit. It's how we all wanted to play. I didn't know the game was physical. It's just how we played. I remember thinking (about the Bad Boys reputation), ‘I didn't know this was a thing.'"
So perhaps it was no surprise that what many Bulls from that first championship season called the seminal moment of the regular season was the team's first win in Auburn Hills, which came just before the 1991 All-Star break. It became the catalyst for the big post All-Star and post season season runs that swept through to the first title. Armstrong was the star of that game with clutch, late shots off the bench. Bad Boys? Not to him.
It was a no fear attitude. Armstrong wore No. 11 in high school, the number of his hero, Isiah Thomas. But he changed to No. 10 during high school after a talk with his coach.
"He told me, ‘At some point you'll face the best players in the world and you better be ready,'" Armstrong remembered. "‘You can't have fear or give in.'"
Or show you are in awe.
The Bulls perhaps got a little fortunate before that draft. Armstrong broke his left hand in one of the predraft camp games and couldn't do individual team workouts. So he slipped and the Bulls grabbed hm at No. 18.
"They were saying if you played well you'd go higher," Armstrong said. "I wasn't concerned. I was naive. I didn't say to get in the first round, the lottery. I just wanted a chance. I felt if I could get on the floor, I can do the rest."
So what will the Bulls' No. 18 selection this year be saying and thinking?