ASU's 50 Best Professional Athletes: No. 40 Basketball's Alton Lister

The first hooper to appear in our top-50 group is former NBA center Alton Lister.

Out of Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Lister originally played for San Jacinto Junior College before he arrived at ASU in 1978. He stood at an impressive height of seven feet.

In three seasons with the Sun Devils, Lister averaged 12 points and 8.2 rebounds per contest in a total of 82 games. He tallied a career-high 15.4 points and 9.7 rebounds during his junior season, earning him All-Pac-10 honors.

After his third year at ASU, he left for the NBA.

Lister was selected in the first round by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 21st overall pick in the 1981 draft. He spent his first five seasons with the Bucks, and at one point was even considered an NBA MVP candidate, before being dealt to the Seattle Supersonics ahead of the 1986-87 NBA campaign.

The former Sun Devil averaged a career-best 11.6 points and 9.4 rebounds per game during his first of three seasons with Seattle. However, at 31 years old, Lister was traded to the Golden State Warriors. During his four-year tenure with Golden State, Lister was on the wrong end on one of the most famous dunks in league history.

Following his time with Golden State in 1993, Lister was waived, but eventually rejoined the Bucks. He was traded to the Boston Celtics during the 1995-96 season, where he spent two years prior to finishing his career with the Portland Trailblazers.

Lister was 39 years old when he retired from the NBA, finishing his 17-year career averaging 6.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.

Following his professional playing career, Lister has served as a head coach at Mesa Community College, an assistant coach of the Atlanta Hawks, and as a skills coach for the San Miguel Beermen of the Philippine Basketball Association.

He also served as a skills coach for the Meralco Bolts of the PBA, and was hired earlier this year as an assistant coach of Tropang TNT of the PBA.