This week in What the Hell Happened To, we go back to the 1980s to remember Carlos Clark.  Carlos was drafted in the 4th round of the 1983 draft out of the University of Mississippi and was considered a real long shot to make the team.  The Celtics were loaded with guards with Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, Quinn Buckner, Rick Carlisle, and ML Carr.  But head coach KC Jones loved Clark's defensive intensity and he made the team.  He'd win a title with the Celtics in 1984.

In 1985 his odds were even more difficult as the Celtics had drafted Michael Young from the University of Houston with their first round pick.  But Clark made the cut again, sticking around for the season.



Carlos wouldn't be so lucky for the 1986 season as Rick Carlisle would make the team over him.  The Celtics had tried to orchestrate a trade to the Chicago Bulls to keep Clark in the league because they really thought he was good enough to play in the NBA.  The deal fell through though.  Once Clark cleared waivers he signed on with the LaCrosse Catbirds of the CBA, who were coached by Flip Saunders.  Right when he thought he had a deal in place with the Sacramento Kings, and was waiting to board his plane, he received a page from Saunders saying Bill Russell (the Kings GM at the time) reneged on the deal last minute with no explanation.  Russell never bothered to contact Carlos either (not the first instance in which a WTHHT player complained about how they were treated by Bill Russell; Zaid Abdul-Aziz mentioned it in his autobiography as well.)

Clark would never play in the NBA again.  He'd get cut in the Bucks training camp during the 1987 season and then after one year in the WBL where he played for the Calgary 88s, he'd head over to Europe.  He played in the Belgium league for the following 9 seasons after that (meaning his playing career was pretty long!) and make 7 all star teams while averaging 26 points per game.

I remember I had a Star basketball card of Carlos Clark growing up.  He was in his warm-ups sitting on the bench.

Today Carlos is the head high school boys basketball coach at Barron Collier High School in Naples Florida.  Their team has a website here as well.  He lives in Naples with his wife Barbara and their son Deion.  I'm pretty sure this is the same Deion who is a shooting "guarg" on that team lol.


For a complete list of the "What the Hell Happened To" Series please click here.

tb727