Todd Samuel Lichti (born January 8, 1967) 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. At 6'4" (1.93 m) and 205 lb (93 kg) he played at

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 ...

. He was selected with 15th pick in the

1989 NBA draft The 1989 NBA draft took place on June 27, 1989, in New York City. Despite eight of the top ten picks being considered busts, including the first two picks Pervis Ellison and Danny Ferry, the draft produced many talented players such as Shawn Ke ...

by the Denver Nuggets where he stayed for 4 years. He also had short stints with Orlando Magic, Golden State Warriors, and Boston Celtics before moving to Australia to play for the

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Perth Arena, ...

. Lichti was inducted into the

College Basketball Hall of Fame The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is a hall of fame and museum dedicated to men's college basketball. The museum is an integral portion of the College Basketball Experience created by the National ...

in 2019.

College career

In four seasons with Stanford, Lichti averaged 18.8 points per game, 5.3 rebounds per game, and 2.5 assists per game, appearing in 124 games. At graduation, Lichti was Stanford's all-time leading scorer with 2,336 points, a record broken by

Chasson Randle Chasson Randle (born February 5, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal. As a senior in 2014–15, he was considered one of the to ...

on March 31, 2015.

Professional career

NBA

Lichti started his professional career when he was drafted via the 15th overall pick by the Denver Nuggets in the

1989 NBA Draft The 1989 NBA draft took place on June 27, 1989, in New York City. Despite eight of the top ten picks being considered busts, including the first two picks Pervis Ellison and Danny Ferry, the draft produced many talented players such as Shawn Ke ...

. With the Nuggets, he performed well in his first season (8 points per game), and continued to improve in his second season (14 points per game), before knee injuries limited him to 29 of 82 contests. Various injuries (including being involved in a serious car accident, which killed his fiancée, Kirstin Gravrock of Bellevue, Washington) further kept him from playing at a competitive level. Lichti stayed on in Denver for two more seasons until August 19, 1993, when he was traded to the Orlando Magic for Brian Williams. He played a combined 13 games with three different teams before being waived by the Golden State Warriors in 1993-94, his final NBA season.

NBL

His last appearance was in the Australian National Basketball League with the

. Lichti's recruitment was in part due to his association with native

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

player

Andrew Vlahov Andrew Mitchell Vlahov (born 1 April 1969) is an Australian retired professional basketball player. He played his entire eleven-year professional career for the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League (NBL), with whom he won three cha ...

, with whom he was teammates at Stanford. Lichti played 82 games over four seasons for the Wildcats from 1996–99, and averaged impressive NBL career stats of 16.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

References

External links

* *
Todd Lichti: A career of broken dreams
@ paloaltoonline.com, published March 11, 1994 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lichti, Todd 1967 births Living people All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Australia American men's basketball players Basketball players from California Boston Celtics players Denver Nuggets draft picks Denver Nuggets players Golden State Warriors players Orlando Magic players People from Concord, California Perth Wildcats players Shooting guards Sportspeople from Walnut Creek, California Stanford Cardinal men's basketball players