Larry Pounds, #9 on the Pasadena City College men's basketball all-time scoring list, went on to be drafted in the NBA by the Golden State Warriors. The 1973 alumnus would take his talents to Finland and become one of the greatest players in that country's history. This week, the City of Kotka honored him by unveiling a painting of Pounds in his playing days for KTP-Basket.
Pounds, now 70, was the Korisliiga Most Valuable Player in 1991, an award given to the Finnish League's best player. He helped KTP earn four Finland League championship gold medals between 1987 and 1994. In a lengthy career, he averaged 26.2 points a game.
A personal painting of the KTP Eagles legend was revealed on Oct. 8 at the Karhuvuori Sports Hall. The painting was made by artist Olavi Heino and was ordered as a celebration of Pounds' career by the City of Kotka, where he still resides.
The PCC great, who played for the Lancers between 1971-73 and was one of just 11 PCC players to ever reach 1,000 points in his community college career, happens to be the father of PCC Hall of Famer Dionne Pounds.
The younger Pounds was PCC women's basketball's first 1,000-point scorer, matching her dad's achievements, and led PCC to back-to-back state championship finals in 2004 and 2005. She was the State Player of the Year in 2004-05 as well as the South Coast Conference MVP.
Pounds was raised in Kotka, but her father sent her to the United States to play high school ball at Muir High and then at PCC to play under the college's all-time leader in victories in all sports in head coach Joe Peron. She earned a college scholarship at Lamar University.
In 2013, Dionne Pounds was inducted into the PCC Sports Hall of Fame. She later played for Finland's national team for several seasons.
Larry Pounds earned a scholarship and played two seasons at Pac-8 Conference University of Washington in 1973-1975. He was picked in the fifth round and 87th overall by Golden State in the 1975 NBA Rookie Draft. That draft produced such NBA talents as David "Sky Walker" Thompson, World B. Free, Darryl Dawkins AKA "Chocolate Thunder," and Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, the father of NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
While Pounds found his success internationally, he is still considered one of the best players to ever play for PCC. Pounds scored 1,040 points for the Lancers, just 30 behind Lakers Showtime great and PCC Hall of Famer/CCCAA State Hall of Famer Michael Cooper (1974-76 PCC). Both Cooper and Pounds played under then Lancers head coach Joe Barnes.