MSL to NBA: Boys and Girls Who Made Basketball's Biggest Stages
Players - and a coach - who Reached the NBA, ABA, WNBA and WBL (Women's Professional Basketball League)
As of December 5, 2024
Cam Christie of Rolling Meadows is now officially in the NBA record books along with his brother Max. Cam, the second-round pick of the LA Clippers in the 2024 draft, made his debut on Dec. 4 in a 108-80 loss to Minnesota. He played 18 minutes and scored 5 points on 2-for-7 shooting with a 3-pointer and had 3 rebounds and 2 steals.
While there haven’t been a lot of stories of Mid-Suburban League basketball players reaching the highest professional levels they do include ties to some of the games greats. Hersey’s Dave Corzine was a Bulls’ teammate of Michael Jordan in his formative NBA years. Rolling Meadows’ Max Christie is a Lakers’ teammate of LeBron James. Palatine’s Kevin McKenna won an NBA title with the Lakers’ Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and a relatively unknown new coach named Pat Riley.
Palatine’s Ron Kozlicki had a one-year stint in the ABA but it got him a mention in one of the great sports books, Terry Pluto’s “Loose Balls” about the history of the league that battled the NBA in the 1960s and 1970s. On the women’s side, Wheeling’s Sandy Rainey basically went from high school to the Chicago Hustle of the fledgling Women’s Professional Basketball League in the late 1970s and Fremd star Haley Gorecki became the MSL’s first WNBA player in 2020.
Rolling Meadows’ Aaron Williams had the longest NBA career of anyone from the MSL in a study of perseverance since he was a late bloomer in high school and undrafted out of college at Xavier. The Lloyd brothers, Chuck and Scott, are also stories of perseverance and what might have been since Scott Lloyd’s family moved to Arizona just before he would have started high school at Arlington.
On the coaching side, Jeff Bzdelik went from a MSL championship player at Prospect to becoming a head coach with the Denver Nuggets as part of a long career in college and the NBA.
Sources of information include the Basketball Reference, NBA and WNBA websites and the Daily Herald.
Cam Christie
Rolling Meadows
Position: Guard, 6-5
NBA Experience: Los Angeles Clippers (2024)
NBA Stats: Had 5 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals in his first game on Dec. 4
College: Minnesota
NBA Draft: 2024 Los Angeles Clippers Round: 2nd Pick: 46
MSL to NBA: Christie scored his first NBA points in memorable fashion with a two-hand breakaway slam off a turnover in a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. In 5 preseason games he scored 14 points and in his first 9 games with the San Diego Clippers of the G-League he had per-game averages of 31 minutes, 13.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists.
Like his older brother Max, Cam played one year in college in the Big Ten and made his NBA debut at age 19. Cam made the Big Ten all-freshman team at Minnesota as he was second on the team in scoring (11.3 ppg) and made 3-pointers (70). He also averaged 3.6 rebounds a game.
Christie scored 1,889 career points at Rolling Meadows and most likely would have surpassed 2,000 if not for the COVID-shortened 2021 season that cut the schedule in half. Christie scored 22 points and teamed with Max to lead the Mustangs to their fourth MSL title and a 15-0 finish. Cam is also the only player in MSL boys history to score 20 points three times in title games with 25 as a junior and 26 as a senior.
Max Christie
Rolling Meadows
Position: Guard, 6-6
NBA Experience: Los Angeles Lakers (2022-current)
NBA Stats: 119 games (through Nov. 15, 2024), 3.9 ppg, 2.0 rpg,
College: Michigan State
NBA Draft: 2022 Los Angeles Lakers Round: 2nd Pick: 35
MSL to NBA: Two years after Christie broke the MSL career scoring record of Buffalo Grove’s Brian Allsmiller and finished with 2,100 points he was playing for one of the NBA’s iconic franchises at age 19. Christie was a four-year starter at Rolling Meadows and in a COVID-shortened senior season in 2021 he led the Mustangs to an MSL title and a 15-0 overall record.
Christie then went to Michigan State to play for Tom Izzo and made the Big Ten’s all-freshman team as he averaged 9.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 35 games. After the season he opted to enter the NBA draft and was chosen by the Lakers and has seen his minutes slowly increase each season. As a rookie he averaged 3.1 ppg in 41 games and made 9 postseason appearances as the Lakers reached the Western Conference finals.
In 2023-24 he got into 67 games (7 starts) and averaged 4.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 14 minutes per game. Career-highs in a game are 14 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Younger brother Cameron was chosen in the second round of the 2024 draft by the LA Clippers but has yet to appear in a regular-season game.
Dave Corzine
Hersey
Position: Center, 6-11
NBA Experience: Washington Bullets (1978-80), San Antonio Spurs (1980-82), Chicago Bulls (1982-89), Orlando Magic (1989-90), Seattle Supersonics (1990-91)
NBA Stats: 891 games, 8.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 48.4 FG pct., 74.7. FT pct.
College: DePaul
NBA Draft: 1978 Washington Bullets Round: 1st Pick: 18
MSL to NBA: Corzine provided early glimpses of future stardom with a still-MSL title game record 45 points as a Hersey sophomore in 1972. Then he drove the Huskies to become the MSL’s first team to reach the Elite Eight in Champaign in 1974, where they gave heavily favored Bloom all it could handle in a 56-51 Class AA quarterfinal loss. The 6-foot-11 Corzine was a first-team all-tourney pick and in a 39-31 supersectional win over Waukegan at Northwestern he had 20 points and 11 rebounds to 16 points and 4 rebounds from future NBA center Jerome Whitehead.
Corzine then joined former Hersey teammate Andy Pancratz to start the renaissance of DePaul basketball under Ray and Joey Meyer. Corzine averaged 17.1 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists in his four-year college career and as a senior averaged 21 ppg, 11.3 rpg and 3.8 apg as the Blue Demons were ranked third in the final regular-season Associated Press poll and reached the Elite Eight.
Corzine didn’t get his wish of getting drafted by his hometown Bulls but he would eventually come to Chicago after two-year stints in Washington and San Antonio in a July 1982 trade with Mark Olberding for Artis Gilmore. His first year with the Bulls was his best in the NBA statistically at 14 ppg and 8.7 rpg while shooting 49.7 percent from the field. Corzine would be a regular part of the rotation during the formative Michael Jordan years and was traded to Orlando after the 1989 season for a pair of second-round picks, one of which was used to get Toni Kukoc.
Corzine was durable and dependable - playing 82 games five consecutive seasons (1980-81 to 1984-85) and six times overall - and from 1979-80 to 1988-89 he played at least 78 games a season. He has been a longtime radio analyst for DePaul basketball.
Haley Gorecki
Fremd
Position: Guard, 6-0
WNBA Experience: Phoenix Mercury (2021)
WNBA Stats: 3 games, 0 points, 2 rebounds
College: Duke
WNBA Draft: 2020 Seattle Storm Round: 3rd Pick: 31
MSL to WNBA: Gorecki was like “Haley’s Comet” with some of her accomplishments for Fremd unlikely to be seen any time soon. Gorecki led the Vikings to four MSL West titles and three overall league crowns and she is the only girls or boys player to score 20 or more points in four MSL title games. She was a four-time Daily Herald all-area pick and as a senior she led Fremd to second place in the Class 4A state tournament and its first state trophy in 38 years.
Success continued for Gorecki at Duke as she averaged 14.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 3.4 assists per game and made 170 3-pointers in her four-year career. She was a third-team all-American selecton by the U.S. Basketball Writers of America as a senior (17.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 3.9 apg) and the two-time all-Atlantic Coast Conference pick averaged 18.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg and 4.4 apg as a junior.
Gorecki was taken in the third round of the WNBA draft in 2020 by Seattle but did not make the team. In 2021, she signed a contract in May with the Phoenix Mercury and appeared in 3 games with 2 rebounds and 1 shot attempt before getting released in June. She also had training-camp trials with Seattle in 2021 and Indiana in 2022 and played professionally in Europe, most recently in Poland in 2022-23 where she averaged 12.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg and 3 apg.
Ron Kozlicki
Palatine
Position: Forward, 6-7
ABA Experience: Indiana Pacers (1967-68)
ABA Stats: 37 games, 2.9 ppg, 1.9 rpg
College: Northwestern
NBA Draft: 1967 San Diego Rockets Round: 4th Pick: 41
Note: Palatine was in the North Suburban Conference when Kozlicki played
MSL to ABA: Kozlicki was arguably the northwest suburbs’ first big basketball star. The all-stater lifted a struggling Palatine program to consecutive North Suburban Conference and regional titles and held the school’s career scoring record until it was broken by Kevin McKenna. Kozlicki chose Northwestern over powerhouse Kentucky and legendary coach Adolph Rupp.
Kozlicki averaged 12.1 points a game and hit 41 percent of his shots at Northwestern while playing out of position at center his last two seasons. Coming out of college he had another choice and picked the Pacers in the brand new American Basketball Association over the expansion San Diego Rockets of the NBA and a chance to study and play in Italy.
Kozlicki played in nearly half of the Pacers’ games as they finished 38-40 and in third place in the ABA’s Eastern Division. He made brief appearances in the final 2 games as they were swept in the 3-game division semifinals by eventual champion Pittsburgh. The Pacers had the nucleus for three ABA titles with Roger Brown, Freddie Lewis and Bob Netolicky and Kozlicki would be part of another key piece the Pacers needed. He was traded after the season with former York and Illinois star Jim Dawson to Minnesota for big man Mel Daniels. The trade garnered Kozlicki and Dawson a mention in Terry Pluto’s best-selling “Loose Balls” about the history of the ABA and ultimately brought an end to Kozlicki’s brief pro career.
There was no stability in the ABA and Minnesota was moving to Miami. Kozlicki told the Daily Herald’s Bob Frisk they wanted to cut his salary so he opted to being a successful career in the financial industry.
Chuck Lloyd
Arlington
Position/Height: Forward, 6-8
ABA Experience: Carolina Cougars (1970-71)
ABA Stats: 14 games, 4.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg
College: Yankton College (S.D.)
NBA Draft: 1970 Seattle Supersonics Round: 10th Pick: 159
College: Yankton College (S.D.)
Note: Arlington was in the West Suburban Conference when Lloyd played
MSL to ABA: Chuck Lloyd was the epitome of a late bloomer. He started as a senior on Arlington’s 1965 regional champions but didn’t make the West Suburban Conference’s all-league team. His path to the pros was also unconventional as he briefly went to Kansas before landing at Yankton College, an NAIA school in southeastern South Dakota on the Nebraska border that closed in 1984 after more than 100 years. Yankton’s best-known athlete, football legend Lyle Alzado, was in school at the same time as Lloyd, who became a three-time NAIA District All-Star and averaged 20.7 ppg as a junior and 23.2 as a senior. Going 14-for-18 in an NAIA tourney game put him on the pro radar.
Lloyd decided to go to the ABA’s Carolina Cougars as a free agent since there would likely be more opportunities to play. He was cut in training camp and hooked on with the Scranton Apollos of the Eastern Basketball Association, the forerunner to the popular Continental Basketball Association (CBA). Lloyd averaged 20.3 points and 12.6 rebounds in 19 games as Scranton won the league title and he got a chance with Carolina in late February 1971. His best offensive game was his debut with 11 points against the Virginia Squires.
Lloyd played at Scranton in 1971-72 and for the Allentown Jets in 1972-73 and he averaged 16.6 points and 8.2 rebounds in 81 EBA games. He played two more years professionally in France before a broken foot ended his career. He owned a car interior business in Arizona.
Scott Lloyd
Arlington Heights
Position: Center-Forward, 6-10
NBA Experience: Milwaukee Bucks (1976-77), Buffalo Braves (1977-78), San Diego Clippers (1978), Chicago Bulls (1978-79), Dallas Mavericks (1980-83)
NBA Stats: 372 games, 4.6 ppg, 3 rpg
College: Arizona State
Draft: 1976 Milwaukee Bucks Round: 2nd Pick: 24th
Note: Lloyd’s family moved to Arizona before he entered high school.
MSL to NBA: Unlike his older brother Chuck, Scott Lloyd seemed destined for stardom at Dryden Grade School and South Junior High in Arlington Heights. Lloyd became a three-time all-stater in high school, but unfortunately for Arlington coach George Zigman it happened in Arizona because the family moved there after their father retired. Zigman, who took teams at Arlington and Hersey to the Elite Eight, believed his 1971 sectional finalist might have been the best team out of the northwest suburbs if Lloyd’s family didn’t leave.
Lloyd went to Arizona State and averaged 13.2 points and 6.7 rebounds in his three varsity seasons. As a senior he averaged 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds and led the Sun Devils to the NCAA Elite Eight, where he scored 20 points and had 9 rebounds in a loss to retiring John Wooden’s final UCLA championship team.
Lloyd came back to the Midwest and had a promising start to his NBA career with the 1976-77 Bucks when he averaged 5.8 points and 3 rebounds in 69 games. Then he bounced to the Buffalo Braves, who moved to San Diego to become the Clippers, and after 5 games in 1978-79 he was traded to the Bulls to back up Artis Gilmore. It was not a happy homecoming as Lloyd was a target of Chicago Stadium boo-birds and averaged just 7 minutes, 1.7 points and 1.4 rebounds in 67 games on a 31-51 team.
Lloyd went to Italy the next year, tried to hook on again with the Bucks and was released but found a spot with the expansion Dallas Mavericks and ex-Bulls coach Dick Motta. He impressed Motta as he averaged 8.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 30.4 minutes in 72 games. Lloyd’s got into 74 games in 1981-82 but his playing time was cut in half. He was waived by the Mavericks in December 1982 after 15 games.
Kevin McKenna
Palatine
Position: Guard, 6-7
NBA Experience: Los Angeles Lakers (1981-82), Indiana Pacers (1983-84), New Jersey Nets (1984-85, 1986-88), Washington Bullets (1985-86)
NBA Stats: 243 games, 5.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 82 pct. FT
College: Creighton
Draft: 1981 Los Angeles Lakers Round: 4th Pick: 88th
MSL to NBA: McKenna not only overcame the odds of making the NBA as a fourth-round pick, he got a championship ring as a rookie during the Los Angeles Lakers’ memorable roller-coaster 1981-82 season with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar where Pat Riley replaced the deposed Paul Westhead. McKenna led Palatine to a regional title as a senior in Ed Molitor’s first year as head coach in 1977. He broke the career scoring record of Ron Kozlicki and held it for 47 years until he was passed by Connor May of the 2024 Class 4A fourth-place state finisher. McKenna had a solid college career at Creighton career where he averaged 13.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists a game and went to NCAA tournaments as a freshman and senior.
McKenna and first-round pick Mike McGee of Michigan were the only rookies to make the Lakers from the 1981 draft. Their second- and third-round picks never played in the NBA and only seven players taken after McKenna in the 10-round draft saw any NBA action. He had a key basket late in a double-OT win at Indiana and averaged 1.9 ppg in 36 games but didn’t appear in any postseason games as the Lakers won their second title in three years.
McKenna spent the next season in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and returned to the NBA in 1983-84 to average 6.3 points in 61 games with Indiana. He also averaged 7.2 points in 56 games with the New Jersey Nets in 1986-87 and made his only postseason appearance and played one season with Washington. He helped lead the LaCrosse Catbirds to the 1990 CBA title as a player-assistant coach and is the only Missouri Valley Conference player to win regular season and postseason MVC titles and NBA and CBA crowns.
McKenna was also a CBA head coach, NBA scout, assistant at Creighton to Dana Altman and head coach at Indiana State and Nebraska-Omaha. He has been an assistant to Altman at Oregon since 2010.
Sandy Rainey
Wheeling
Position/Height: Guard, 5-10
WBL Experience: Chicago Hustle (1978-80)
WBL Stats: 19 games, 1.6 ppg, 0.6 rpg
College: Lewis University
Draft: Undrafted
MSL to WBL: Going from Wheeling High School, with a brief detour to Lewis in Romeoville, to playing in the new Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL) exemplified Rainey’s trailblazer spirit. She was the first girl in the country to tryout and make a boys junior high basketball team. The 2010 Wheeling Athletics Hall of Fame inductee was a four-time all-MSL pick in basketball, three-time all-MSL in volleyball, a four-time state meet high jump qualifier who took third in 1978 and she also played tennis. Rainey was the Daily Herald’s second girls athlete of the year in 1978.
Rainey originally planned to go to school and play at Lewis University and took part in a summer tour of New Zealand. But nine weeks into her freshman year she wasn’t enthused with school or the direction of the Lewis program, so she decided to try out with the Chicago Hustle in the new eight-team WBL. Rainey made the team coached by legendary Doug Bruno. Teams played a 34-game regular-season schedule and Rainey averaged 3.7 minutes and 1.6 points in 19 games, according to the Stats Crew website.
The 19-year-old Rainey had 2 points and 4 rebounds in the Hustle’s first home game when they beat New York 137-107 at DePaul’s Alumni Hall. Her best game came in a 114-97 win over Milwaukee when she came off the bench to score 10 points with 6 in the second quarter on 3-for-3 shooting. She also had the record-breaking layup when the Hustle set a WBL scoring mark in a 153-113 win over Dayton. The Hustle finished 21-13 to share the WBL Midwest Division title with Iowa but they lost a 3-game playoff series.
Rainey was dealing with back issues when she tried to play again in the 1979-80 season but there is no record of her appearing in any more WBL games. The league folded in the fall of 1981. Sandra Rainey Ernst passed away on June 26, 2018 at 59.
Aaron Williams
Rolling Meadows
Position/Height: Forward-Center, 6-9
NBA Experience: Utah Jazz (1993-94), Milwaukee Bucks (1994-95), Denver Nuggets (1996-97), Vancouver Grizzlies (1996-97), Seattle Supersonics (1997-99), Washington Bullets (1999-2000), New Jersey Nets (2000-04), Toronto Raptors (2004-06), New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets (2005-06), Los Angeles Clippers (2006-08)
NBA Stats: 715 games, 5.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 49.3 pct. FG, 74 pct. FT
College: Xavier
Draft: Undrafted
MSL to NBA: Williams was the quintessential late bloomer/grinder He started high school at Forest View during its final year, didn’t play at all as a sophomore, had a high school growth spurt, didn’t get drafted out of college and spent time with 10 organizations during 14 NBA seasons. Williams grew 4 inches before his senior year to 6-7 and that put him on the path to Xavier to play for Pete Gillen. His continued growth physically to 6-9 and on the court - which included averaging 18.5 ppg and 8.5 rpg in two NCAA tourney games as a senior - wasn’t enough to get selected in an NBA draft reduced to two rounds.
Williams went to Italy but was cut and played 5 games with Grand Rapids in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) when he was signed by the Utah Jazz and played 6 games in the 1993-94 season. That led to even bigger and better opportunities and he would miss only two games during his four seasons from 1999-2003 with Washington and New Jersey. Williams’ best season came in 2001-02 with the Nets when he played all 82 games and averaged 10.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 28.5 minutes a game.
Williams also appeared in 53 playoff games, with all but 3 for the Nets between 2002-04, and he averaged 5.6 ppg and 3.4 rpg. He helped the Nets reach the NBA Finals in 2002 (swept by Lakers) and 2003 (lost in 6 games to San Antonio) and averaged 4.7 points and 3.3 rebounds. His best playoff series was in a 2002 Eastern Conference finals victory over Boston where he played all 6 games and averaged 9.8 ppg and 3.8 rpg.
On the Bench
Jeff Bzdelik
Prospect
NBA Coaching Experience: Denver Nuggets (2002-2004)
NBA Record: 73-119
MSL to NBA Bench: Bzdelik helped lead Prospect in 1971 as it won the first MSL championship game over Hersey. He went to play at UIC and was a four-year letterwinner and team MVP as a senior and not long after graduation his reputation as one of the game’s top defensive minds led to a 40-year coaching odyssey in college and the NBA.
His NBA head coaching opportunity finally arrived in 2002 when he took over the Denver Nuggets. They made a 26-win improvement from his first to second season at 43-39 in 2003-04 and made the playoffs where they lost in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was sixth in the NBA Coach of the Year voting, but after a 13-15 start the next season, Bzdelik was fired in late December 2004.
Bzdelik was an assistant at Davidson and Northwestern before getting his first head coaching opportunity at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County as it made its transition from Division II to Division I. UMBC, best known for becoming the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed (Virginia) in the NCAA tourney in 2018, went 25-31 in two seasons under Bdzelik before he jumped to the NBA and was an assistant with the Washington Bullets (1988-94) and Miami Heat (1995-2001).
He landed at Air Force after being let go by the Nuggets and led the school to its best season ever at 24-7 with a trip to the NCAA tournament in 2005-06. After a 26-win season and trip to the NIT semifinals, he moved on to head coaching stints for three years at Colorado (36-58) and four years at Wake Forest (51-76). Bzdelik returned to the NBA as an assistant coach with Memphis (2014-16), Houston (2016-19) and New Orleans (2019-20).