Larry Nance Sr. is a legendary former NBA player, perhaps best known among longtime basketball fans as the soaring winner of the league’s first-ever dunk contest in 1984, an epic, star-studded affair in which he beat out a hoops superhero field featuring Hall of Famers Julius Erving, Clyde Drexler and Dominique Wilkins. Nance retired from the game in 1994, but handed down those aerial genes to his son, Larry Jr.
Like his father, the younger Nance is capable of jaw-dropping slams, resulting in an invite to the 2018 NBA dunk contest. At that event in Los Angeles, Larry Jr. paid tribute to Dad by donning a retro Phoenix Suns No. 22 uniform and replicating one of Pop’s famous cradle dunks, en route to a runner-up finish to Utah’s Donovan Mitchell.
Now seven years into his own pro career, 6-foot-7 Larry Jr. remains capable of highlight-reel throwdowns – even if a taller frontcourt player is standing in the way – but his elite leaping ability is no longer the first thing players mention about the 29-year-old. Less than a month after making his New Orleans debut in a March 24 win over Chicago, Nance is thriving in the role of savvy, established veteran, a “glue guy” for a Pelicans second unit that often changes games. That was never more the case than this weekend, starting Friday with Nance’s 14-point, 16-rebound, four-assist vital outing against the Clippers, as New Orleans advanced to the Western Conference playoffs. In Sunday’s Game 1 at Phoenix – where his father starred as a forward from 1981-88 – he delivered 14 points, six boards and three assists in 20 minutes of action. He shot 5/8 from the field, including sinking a three-pointer that cut NOLA’s deficit to just six points in the fourth quarter, after it had trailed by 20-plus.
“Watching him on the floor, he’s a high IQ player,” Pelicans head coach Willie Green said of what makes Nance successful. “You can put the ball in his hands, and he just makes the right play over and over and over again. That’s on both ends. Defensively, he’s talking, he’s communicating. He just allows us to have different looks offensively and defensively. It adds a different dynamic to our team.”
“He’s athletic,” described forward Brandon Ingram, also a two-year Nance teammate with the Lakers. “He knows the game and sees the game in a different way than some of the guys on the floor. He sets a hard screen and rolls. He understands his role. He’s finishing around the rim and even stepped out and knocked down a three today. Everything he’s been doing, we needed it out of him.”
Nance made his first NBA playoff appearance since 2018, when Cleveland reached the NBA Finals, before LeBron James and the Cavaliers were swept by Golden State. From that ’18 postseason run alone, Nance’s 20 career games of playoff experience ranked him fifth on the Pelicans’ current roster entering Sunday’s Phoenix opener.
“He’s gotten smarter, and that comes with experience,” Ingram said. “He’s played with LeBron. He’s played with different guys. He has experience, so coming into these games, he knows what to expect.”
Nance also knew what to expect on Feb. 8 when he was traded to New Orleans. From afar, the University of Wyoming product saw a Pelicans roster filled with young talent and potential. After three straight losing seasons in Cleveland, Nance indicated that he believed his 2021 offseason trade to Portland would mean a return to the playoffs, but as it turns out, a second deal to the Crescent City got him back where he hoped to be.
Asked Friday about the reaction he and CJ McCollum had to being traded to the Pelicans, Nance responded, “We were thrilled about it. Look at what we’ve got (on the roster). This is a situation anybody can look at from the outside (positively). When I was in Portland I knew it, then when I got here I really knew it.
“Willie Green is a heck of a coach. We have Brandon Ingram who’s an All-Star at (24) years old. CJ is playing like an All-Star, and (we have) a freak on ice (sidelined Zion Williamson) right now. So who wouldn’t be thrilled about coming to this situation? This summer I left Cleveland and wanted to go to a playoff team, and here we sit. So I’m thrilled to be here. Me and CJ both are.”
Based on New Orleans reaching the playoffs – aided greatly by a midseason trade that received little attention, particularly compared to the nonstop drama from teams in the NBA’s biggest markets – so are the Pelicans.