MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia University will retire the number of basketball great Rod Thorn next month, athletic director Shane Lyons said Thursday.
Thorn’s No. 44 will be retired during a halftime ceremony at the Mountaineers’ game with Oklahoma on Feb. 29 in Morgantown. He’ll be the third player to have his number retired at West Virginia.
Thorn was the last player to wear No. 44 during his career from 1961-63. West, who played at WVU before Thorn, had his No. 44 retired at WVU in 2005. Hot Rod Hundley’s No. 33 was retired in 2010.
Thorn scored 1,785 points during his WVU career. He played eight years in the NBA and coached in both the NBA and the ABA before moving into front office positions. As general manager of the Chicago Bulls, Thorn was responsible for drafting Michael Jordan in 1984.
He joined the NBA’s league office in New York in 1986, working under commissioner David Stern as executive vice president of basketball operations. He became president of the New Jersey Nets in 2000, helping the team to their only two Eastern Conference championships.
He was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 1992 and into the Basketball Hall of Fame as an executive and a contributor in 2018.
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