Rusty LaRue on winning NBA title with the Bulls and coaching

The Kernersville, NC native grew up playing against, and with, his older brother in all sports.  In high school, LaRue became an All-State performer in baseball, basketball and football.  When being recruited, he made it known he wanted to be a multi-sport athlete in college and eventually chose Wake Forest where he would play football for coaches Bill Dooley and Jim Caldwell, basketball for Dave Odom and also baseball for George Greer.  In fact, LaRue is just the second ACC student-athlete to play all three sports in the same year when he did so in his junior year (1994-95). While he set a number of records on the football field, his greatest team success came on the basketball court where he teamed with Deacon greats such as Rodney Rogers, Randolph Childress and Tim Duncan. Those teams won two ACC titles (1995 and 1996), made four NCAA Tournament appearances and won at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium where LaRue went 4-0 (1 of just 4 players to claim the feat). LaRue was also a standout in the classroom winning Wake’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1996. He would eventually be inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.  From Wake, LaRue became a journeyman pro basketball player with several stops in the NBA including the 1997-98 season when he was a member of the NBA Championship Chicago Bulls team alongside Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr while being coached by Phil Jackson (That season was featured in the documentary “The Last Dance”).  When his playing career ended in 2004, LaRue moved onto coaching which took him back to Wake Forest as an assistant coach. Now working with Dairi-O Restaurants and living in a renovated farm house, LaRue reflects on his career and his life. He also tells how he turned down the opportunity to attend Florida to play quarterback for Steve Spurrier opening the door for Danny Wuerffel to take that spot (the former Heisman Trophy winner was our guest in Episode 22 found here: bit.ly/3IwCiF3).