Kansas basketball coach Bill Self has closely monitored the career of one of his best friends, former KU team manager Bill Pope, who worked with Self during the 1985-86 season when he was a grad assistant on Larry Brown’s Jayhawks staff.
“Bill’s been in the NBA a long time. He’s found a niche in the NBA,” Self, now in his 16th year at KU, said of the 53-year-old Pope, who last Monday started a new job as director of pro personnel of the NBA’s Orlando Magic.
Pope, KU’s head student manager during the Jayhawks’ 1988 NCAA championship season, heads to Orlando after five years in the front office of the Sacramento Kings and nine campaigns with the Detroit Pistons.