John Laskowski (born June 7, 1953) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. He played two seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA).

College career

A 6'6"

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

born in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

, Laskowski played basketball for Bob Knight and the Indiana University Hoosiers from 1971 to 1975. He averaged 10.8 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game in three seasons as his team's

sixth man The sixth man in basketball is a player who is not a starter but comes off the bench much more often than other reserves, often being the first player to be substituted in. The sixth man often plays minutes equal to or exceeding some of the sta ...

, earning him the nickname "Super-Sub." He came off the bench to score in the 20s six times and in double figures 40 times. In his sophomore year, 1972–73, Indiana reached the Final Four losing to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. His senior season, the 1974-75 season, the Hoosiers went undefeated the entire regular season and swept the entire Big Ten by an average of 22.8 points per game. However, in an 83-82 win against Purdue they lost consensus All-American forward Scott May to a broken left arm. With May's injury keeping him to 7 minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

92-90 in the Mideast Regional.

Professional basketball career

In 1975 he was selected by the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...

in the second round of the National Basketball Association Draft and by the Kentucky Colonels in the fourth round of the 1975 ABA Draft. He played two seasons with the Bulls, averaging 7.1 points and 2.4 rebounds.

Later life

Since retiring as a player, Laskowski has worked as a television

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

and

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

analyst for Indiana University basketball games for the Big Ten Network. He also authored the 2003 book ''Tales from the Hoosier Locker Room'' (). He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2018, he opened a

Culver's Culver Franchising System, LLC (Culver's) is an American fast-casual restaurant chain. The company was founded in 1984 by George, Ruth, Craig, and Lea Culver. The first location opened in Sauk City, Wisconsin on July 18, 1984 under the name "Cul ...

restaurant in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...

Notes

1953 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from South Bend, Indiana Chicago Bulls draft picks Chicago Bulls players Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players Kentucky Colonels draft picks Shooting guards {{1950s-US-basketball-bio-stub