Forget for a moment whom the Milwaukee Bucks might pick No. 6 overall when they make their choice on June 28 during the National Basketball Association draft.
Put aside momentarily considerations about Florida power forward Al Horford, Florida shooting guard Corey Brewer, Ohio State point guard Mike Conley Jr., or anyone else you have in mind for Bucks general manager Larry Harris to select.
Consider what the last 15 years say about what kinds of production No. 6s have given their teams in their rookie seasons.
What can Bucks fans expect from whoever is taken at six?
If you average what No. 6s have done in the last 15 seasons, you discover they play major minutes.
Shane Battier of the 2001-'02 Memphis Grizzlies had the highest average minutes in this group with 39.7, and Robert "Tractor" Traylor of the 1998-'99 Bucks had the lowest average with 16.0.
No. 6s played in an average of 71 games out of 82.
The iron man in this category was Chris Kaman of the Los Angeles Clippers, who played in all 82 games his first season in 2003-'04. DaJuan Wagner of the 2002-'03 Cleveland Cavaliers was the low man here, getting into just 47 games.
On the average, No. 6s started 60% of the games they played.
Battier again led the way with 78 starts. Martell Webster of the 2005-'06 Portland Trail Blazers had the least number of starts with 18.
Brandon Roy of last season's Trail Blazers is the only No. 6 in the last 15 seasons to win rookie of the year honors.
The highest scoring average, 17.5 points, belongs to Antoine Walker of the 1996-'97 Boston Celtics.
Just say A.J.
When you ask former driver Rusty Wallace about A.J. Foyt, one of the legendary drivers he faced, Wallace cites their stock car duels at the Milwaukee Mile to make his point about Foyt.
On Sunday A.J. Foyt is to compete in his 50th straight Indianapolis 500 race, 35 as a driver and 15 as a team owner.
Wallace, along with analyst Scott Goodyear, will call the race on ABC-TV.
"A.J. and I raced together a lot, mostly on the United States Auto Club circuit under the stock cars," Wallace said on Wednesday. "I raced with A.J. many times at the Milwaukee Mile. I have been privileged to win a lot of races up there."
Wallace remembers coming to the Mile with an engine without the benefit of a dynamometer, the machine that measures engine power.
"I was a kid back in St. Louis getting my motors from a particular engine builder," Wallace said. "We didn't have an engine dyno or nothing. But I would go up there and win races. And A.J. was doing a lot of development on engines. They weren't having much success. I was winning races. He said, 'Son, what kind of dyno do you have?' I said, 'I don't have a dyno.' He grabbed his crew chief, slapped him and said, 'I told you we were screwing up.' He would say crazy things like that."
Wallace said Foyt's personality helped create and sustain interest in auto racing.
"The thing I like about A.J. is that he is a real down to earth guy when it comes to working on cars," Wallace said. "He's not a real polished guy. He's not a real technical guy. Many times you (saw) him get out of the car after a disappointment at Indy with a hammer and beat on the gear box and throw things.
"I watched him one day with all his engineers trying to calculate fuel mileage at Indy," Wallace said. "They said it was supposed to make it here and it didn't. So he grabbed a computer and threw it across the wall. He's a real guy. I just loved watching him. A lot of people think he is a little crude and not up to the times. Maybe (so). But, man, was he a personality that really helped this sport grow."
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