Indiana royalty: Mr. Basketball in 1973, then the anchor of Bob Knight's 1976 Hoosiers, the most recent Division I team to finish a perfect season, and the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. Milwaukee made him the No. 1 overall pick in 1977, and two minutes into his first game an elbow to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar drew a punch that broke Kareem's hand and left Benson concussed. He came to Utah with Kelly Tripucka in the 1986 trade that sent Adrian Dantley to Detroit.
Twice in his 11-year career he was traded for a future Hall of Famer. After a final year in Italy he worked 14 years in life insurance and called car auctions for Kruse International. Four daughters followed, including Indiana All-American volleyball player Ashley.
HOW HE CAME & WENTDetroit sent him and Kelly Tripucka to Utah in August 1986 for Adrian Dantley, whose relationship with Frank Layden had collapsed. Benson backed up Mark Eaton for one season, then went to Cleveland with Dell Curry for Darryl Dawkins and Mel Turpin.
No photograph of this signature is online yet.
| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986–87 | UTA | 73 | 12.3 | 4.5 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 | .443 | .286 | .810 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 1 SEASON | 73 | 12.3 | 4.5 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 | .443 | .286 | .810 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗