Pros vs. Joes No. 2: Lester Conner is taking on a new experience in old stomping grounds
Lester Conner with his 16-year-old twin daughters, Simone (left) and Alana (courtesy Lester Conner)
It had been more than three decades since Lester Conner called the Oakland area home.
An Oakland native, the former Oregon State great is back, living in surburban Alameda while assisting fellow ex-Beaver Gary Payton with the fledgling Lincoln University basketball program.
On the daily 10-minute drive from his Alameda home to the Lincoln campus in downtown Oakland, it has been disheartening for Conner to see the disrepair as he covers the Webster Street Tube on his way go practice. As he describes it, it reminds of what has happened to the city of Portland over the past two years.
“I have mixed emotions about it,” Conner, now 62, tells me. “This is my hometown. I have some great feelings about (Oakland). But the city is really bad in some areas. … the homelessness, the graffiti, the trash. You drive through the tunnel and see the mattresses and couches and old cars and tents … it’s all around. I know things change, but when I came back, I wasn’t expecting all that. I reminisce and … it’s just a different feeling now. It’s depressing to see that. And you hear about the killings … it’s really sad. But Gary and I are trying to do some positive things here.”
The Conner girls with their pet Rottweilers at Christmas in 2011 (courtesy Lester Conner)
Lincoln, founded and chartered in 1926 and with an enrollment of just over 500 students, chose to begin intercollegiate sports for the 2021-22 academic year with five programs — football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and women’s soccer. Landing Hall of Famer Payton as head coach was a coup, but adding Conner — with 12 years experience as an NBA player and 17 more as an NBA coach — as chief assistant was an additional feather in their cap.
Conner, Pac-10 Player of the Year in leading the Beavers to the Elite Eight in 1981-82, played for seven NBA clubs — Golden State, Houston, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Indiana, the Clippers and the Lakers. After the 6-4 guard retired as a player in 1994, he served from 1998 to 2015 as an assistant coach with six clubs — Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Indiana, Atlanta and Denver. Conner’s last NBA job was as a scout for the Lakers. He had been retired and living in Las Vegas when he received the call from Payton, asking him to join him on the Oaklanders coaching staff.
“I really like teaching,” Conner says. “I’ve never taught kids at this level, but I’m always looking for new experiences. I’ve been in basketball forever. Throw in my years with Ralph Miller (at OSU), it’s half my life. Getting to do this with Gary, who is also from Oakland — I couldn’t pass this up.”
Lincoln played a COVID-abbreviated schedule as an independent this season, going 3-6. The players — who included guard Jairren Lillard, brother of the Blazers’ Damian Lillard; Julian Payton, Gary’s son, and Isaiah Attles, grandson of Hall of Famer Al Attles — knew about Gary’s pedigree, but not that of Conner. (It’s no stretch, by the way, to say that Payton and Conner are the two best defensive guards in 122 years of Oregon State basketball.)
“They didn’t know who I was when I got introduced before the first practice,” Les says with a laugh. “But they Googled me, and when we started the second practice, they knew a little bit more. They liked the fact that both Gary and I grew up here. We’re making some in-roads, but it takes time.”
Lincoln officials are the midst of deciding at what level the Oaklanders will compete, and with what conference affiliation. Conner says he plans to be back for a second season with them in 2022-23.
Les says he pays a fair amount of attention to college basketball, more now than he is coaching in it. He isn’t saying he will be the most knowledgeable of those celebrities participating in the “Pros vs. Joes” Bracket Challenge in picking games at the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament for kerryeggers.com.
“I’ll look and see who shoots the 3-ball, who is breaking hot at the right time,” he says. “Hey. I’ll give it a shot. But I don’t have any advantage — trust me.”
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