{"id":135312,"date":"2025-08-10T21:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T21:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/135312\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T21:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T21:27:10","slug":"pro-basketball-players-from-augusta-rockingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/135312\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro basketball players from Augusta, Rockingham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dell-curry.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><img data-no-lazy=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dell-curry.jpg\" alt=\"dell curry\" width=\"555\" height=\"312\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><\/a>Augusta County native Dell Curry. Photo: David Allio\/Icon Sportswire<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dell Curry (Fort Defiance)<\/strong> and <strong>Ralph Sampson (Harrisonburg)<\/strong> were both born at old <strong>Rockingham Memorial Hospital<\/strong> in <strong>Harrisonburg<\/strong>, both stayed in state to star in college (<strong>Virginia Tech, Virginia<\/strong>, respectively) and combined to score more than 20,000 points in the <strong>NBA<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>(<strong>Steph Curry <\/strong>and<strong> LeBron James<\/strong> were born in the same <strong>Akron<\/strong> hospital and have combined to score more than 67,000 points in the NBA \u2013 but that is another story.)<\/p>\n<p>Sampson led the \u2018Hoos to the <strong>Final Four<\/strong> in 1981, after winning the <strong>NIT<\/strong> crown his freshman year. \u201cWe felt we deserved to be in the <strong>NCAA Tournament<\/strong>\u201d in 1980, he said in an interview in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>While Curry and Sampson are the most prominent hoopsters from <strong>Augusta County<\/strong> and <strong>Rockingham County<\/strong> high schools, several other local graduates have played at the pro level overseas.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a look at some of them<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cory Alexander (Waynesboro) <\/strong>Alexander, who played at <strong>Flint Hill<\/strong> and <strong>Oak Hill<\/strong> after <strong>Waynesboro<\/strong>, was a first-round pick out of <strong>Virginia<\/strong> in 1995 by <strong>San Antonio<\/strong>. He also played in the NBA for <strong>Denver, Orlando <\/strong>and<strong> Charlotte<\/strong>, and in <strong>Italy<\/strong>. He made the transition to basketball analyst after his playing career.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Joey Allen (TA)<\/strong> Allen had a standout career at <strong>Randolph-Macon <\/strong>in<strong> Ashland<\/strong>, leading the Yellow Jackets to three national tournaments. Allen then played 15 years in <strong>France, Sweden <\/strong>and<strong> Norway<\/strong>, according to the school. A 1977 graduate of Randy Mac, he went into the school\u2019s athletic Hall of Fame in 2017.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pee Wee Barber (Harrisonburg)<\/strong> A guard with <strong>Allen Iverson<\/strong>-like flair, he went to JUCO at <strong>Ferrum<\/strong> before starring at <strong>Florida State<\/strong>. He was drafted by <strong>Portland<\/strong> in the fourth round in 1987 but never played in the NBA. Off-the-court problems, namely drug distribution, landed him in jail for a long stretch, according to published reports.<\/li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/augustafreepress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kirby-burkholder.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"kirby burkholder\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kirby-burkholder-400x225.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a>TA grad Kirby Burkholder was the CAA Player of the Year as a senior at JMU.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kirby Burkholder (Turner Ashby)<\/strong> A walk-on at JMU, she worked her way up the rotation and was the <strong>CAA Player of the Year<\/strong> in 2014 as a senior. After a tryout with the <strong>Washington Mystics<\/strong>, she played in <strong>Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Poland <\/strong>and<strong> Puerto Rico<\/strong> before retiring in 2024. \u201cMajor money issues,\u201d including late payments, she said of her time in Poland. She has worked in the recreation department in <strong>Loudoun County<\/strong> as a program coordinator. Burkholder will go into the <strong>JMU Hall of Fame<\/strong> on Aug. 29. (Note: Burkholder is the daughter of this writer\u2019s first cousin).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lyn Burkholder (Broadway)<\/strong> He never played pro ball, but Burkholder was drafted by the <strong>Baltimore Bullets<\/strong> of the NBA in the first round in 1967 after playing at the <strong>University of South Carolina<\/strong>. \u201cThat was a big jump\u201d from <strong>Broadway<\/strong> to South Carolina, he said in a 2020 interview. He is most likely a distant relative of Kirby Burkholder.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tyler Crawford (Staunton)<\/strong> After starring at <strong>Staunton High<\/strong>, Crawford played for the Hoyas of <strong>Georgetown<\/strong> through 2008 and then in <strong>Slovenia <\/strong>and<strong> Serbia<\/strong> \u2013 two former members of <strong>Yugoslavia<\/strong> where hoops is a big deal. Crawford scored more than 2,000 points with more than 1,000 rebounds for the late <strong>Paul Hatcher<\/strong> in high school.<\/li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/augustafreepress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/daniel-dixon.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"daniel dixon\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/daniel-dixon-400x225.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a>Daniel Dixon played a post-graduate season at Fishburne Military Academy, then became an all-CAA player with the Tribe of William &amp; Mary. Photo: William &amp; Mary Athletics<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Dixon (Fishburne Military School)<\/strong> Dixon starred at <strong>Langley High<\/strong> in <strong>McLean<\/strong>. He was lightly recruited, so he spent a post-grad year in <strong>Waynesboro<\/strong> and was an All-CAA standout at <strong>William &amp; Mary<\/strong>, ending his college career in 2017. Dixon played in the <strong>G League<\/strong> and in <strong>France<\/strong>, and in 2024 was named an assistant coach with <strong>Oklahoma City<\/strong> in the NBA. The shooting guard signed with the <strong>Boston Celtics<\/strong> out of college but didn\u2019t play in an NBA contest.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stephanie Howard (Harrisonburg)<\/strong> A standout at <strong>Radford<\/strong> and Hall of Famer there, she played nine years in <strong>Switzerland<\/strong>. Since then, she has worked for several years as the <strong>Lucy Simms Center <\/strong>supervisor with <strong>Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation<\/strong>. Howard said she had never been overseas until she went to Switzerland. \u201cI lived in <strong>Lausanne<\/strong> for five years and then in <strong>Wetzikon<\/strong> for four years. The best part was that it provided me an opportunity to live out a dream of playing the sport I loved, professionally \u2026 pre- WNBA!\u00a0Also, the opportunity to live abroad and experience a different country, learn a new language, and meet new friends,\u201d she wrote to <strong>AFP<\/strong> in July.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Justin Kier (Spotswood)<\/strong> Perhaps the best player to come out of <strong>Grottoes<\/strong> since Dell Curry, he played in college at <strong>George Mason, Georgia <\/strong>and<strong> Arizona<\/strong>. The guard played his first season overseas this past season for <strong>Heroes Den Boesch<\/strong>, annually one of the top clubs in the <strong>Netherlands<\/strong>. Heroes won the <strong>Dutch Cup<\/strong> this past March. In July, Kier played for a group of <strong>JMU<\/strong> alums (<strong>The Founding Fathers<\/strong>) in Harrisonburg in <strong>The Basketball Tournament<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kristi Tolliver (Harrisonburg)<\/strong> As a freshman guard, she helped <strong>Maryland<\/strong> win the <strong>NCAA title<\/strong> in 2006. After that she played in the <strong>WNBA<\/strong> for <strong>Chicago, Los Angeles <\/strong>and<strong> Washington<\/strong> and overseas in <strong>Israel, Turkey, Hungary <\/strong>and<strong> Russia<\/strong>.\u00a0The daughter of a former NBA referee, Toliver was named an assistant coach with <strong>Phoenix<\/strong> in the WNBA in 2024. She was very involved in social issues after the murder of <strong>George Floyd<\/strong> in 2020, and she sat out that WNBA season as a player. \u201cThe women in this league have always been the leaders in doing the right things,\u201d she said in an interview in 2020. \u201cI am extremely proud to be part of that.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jerry Venable (Booker T. Washington) <\/strong>From <strong>Staunton<\/strong>, Venable was an All-American at <strong>Ferrum<\/strong> in 1968 and then played at <strong>Kansas State<\/strong>. Venable, who averaged 15.5 points per contest in two seasons at Kansas State, was drafted by the <strong>Philadelphia Warriors<\/strong> in the sixth round in the <strong>1970 NBA Draft<\/strong> but didn\u2019t play in the NBA. He spent several years playing for the <strong>Harlem Globetrotters<\/strong>, and he went into the <strong>Ferrum Hall of Fame<\/strong> in 2018.<\/li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/augustafreepress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/john-wetzel.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"john wetzel\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/john-wetzel-400x225.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a>John Wetzel (right) is the only graduate of Wilson Memorial to play in the NBA. Born in Waynesboro, he went to Saint Francis in Staunton before heading to Fishersville for high school. A former assistant and head coach in the NBA, Wetzel and his wife Diane (left) split their time between Hawaii and Arizona. Wetzel turns 81 in October.<\/p>\n<p><strong>John Wetzel (Wilson Memorial)<\/strong> Dell Curry is not the only Augusta County product who played in the NBA after starring for the Hokies. Wetzel, born in <strong>Waynesboro<\/strong>, was an eighth-round pick by the <strong>Los Angeles Lakers<\/strong> out of <strong>Blacksburg<\/strong> in 1966. He played in the NBA for the Lakers, <strong>Phoenix Suns<\/strong> and <strong>Atlanta Hawks<\/strong> before he began his coaching career. Wetzel was an assistant one season at Virginia Tech before becoming an assistant in the NBA \u2013 and he was the head coach with the Suns in 1987-88.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cool Lenny Rosenbluth story<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lenny Rosenbluth (Staunton Military Academy)<\/strong> A <strong>New York City<\/strong> native, he starred at <strong>North Carolina<\/strong> in college and then was a first-round pick of <strong>Philadelphia<\/strong> in 1957. He played for the Warriors for two years after leading the Tar Heels to a perfect season and national title in 1956-1957.<\/p>\n<p>Rosenbluth passed in 2022 at the age of 89; he is in the college basketball Hall of Fame. According to <strong>basketballreference.com<\/strong>, he went to Staunton Military Academy during the 1952-1953 season after attending <strong>James Monroe High<\/strong> in the <strong>Bronx<\/strong>. <strong>Kirby Dean<\/strong>, the former boys\u2019 basketball coach at <strong>Waynesboro High<\/strong> and ex-head coach at <strong>EMU<\/strong>, met Rosenbluth at the <strong>ACC Tournament <\/strong>in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegina (Kirby\u2019s wife) and I had just picked up food inside the arena, and when we looked for a table to sit, everything was completely full,\u201d Dean, also a former <strong>VMI<\/strong> assistant, wrote to <strong>AFP<\/strong> in late July. \u201cThere was one table with four chairs in which two of the chairs were occupied by an older couple fully clad in <strong>Carolina Blue<\/strong> attire.\u00a0 Mind you\u2026\u2026Regina and I were fully decked out in our <strong>Duke Blue<\/strong> outfits.\u00a0 I looked at the gentleman, and he looked back at me, and neither knew what to say.\u00a0 He broke the ice by saying, \u2018I guess there are worst things than having lunch with Dookies.\u2019 We both laughed!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until we sat down and began to chat that I realized it was Lenny Rosenbluth. We had a GREAT conversation. He told us all about his Carolina days, and I told him about our improbable run at EMU (to the <strong>Elite Eight<\/strong> in D3 in 2010).\u00a0He really enjoyed hearing about my coaching career, and I really enjoyed hearing about his days at Carolina.\u00a0We probably spent a good 30 minutes with no breaks in the conversation.\u00a0I was so sad when I saw he had passed several years back.\u00a0I actually made a Facebook post about it telling that story of how we met.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Up next?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/augustafreepress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/tyler-nickel-virginia-tech.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"tyler nickel virginia tech\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tyler-nickel-virginia-tech-400x225.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/a>Tyler Nickel at Virginia Tech. Photo: ACC<\/p>\n<p>So, who will be the next pro player from Augusta or Rockingham? One candidate is <strong>Tyler Nickel (East Rockingham),<\/strong> who began his college career at <strong>North Carolina<\/strong> and has since then played at <strong>Virginia Tech <\/strong>and<strong> Vanderbilt<\/strong>. The 6-foot-7 Nickel averaged 10.4 points per game last season at Vanderbilt for coach <strong>Mark Byington<\/strong>, the previous mentor at <strong>JMU<\/strong>. It seems a career in <strong>Europe<\/strong>, at the least, is very likely for Nickel if he wants to go on that route.<\/p>\n<p>Another Euro prospect: <strong>Carmelo Pacheco (Spotswood),<\/strong> who averaged nearly 10 points per contest last season as <strong>Mount St. Mary\u2019s<\/strong> made the <strong>NCAA Tournament<\/strong>. He was injured and didn\u2019t play in <strong>March Madness<\/strong> and is transferring to <strong>Central Florida<\/strong>, according to social media posts.<\/p>\n<p>Did we miss anyone? If so, contact <a href=\"http:\/\/augustafreepress.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#6f0b0e19060b1c0b1d06190a1d2f0e0003410c0002\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Notes\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sue Blauch (Eastern Mennonite)<\/strong> She didn\u2019t play pro hoops, but the former <strong>EMHS<\/strong> and <strong>EMU<\/strong> player was an official in the WNBA and in major events overseas before becoming the supervisor of WNBA officials in 2018. \u201cI\u2019ve seen WNBA games begin to lose their integrity,\u201d Blauch said during a press briefing in July with national reporters. \u201cSome of them are starting to look more like boxing matches than basketball games.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ranker.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.ranker.com<\/a>, the top six players from Virginia: <strong>Allen Iverson, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Grant Hill, Ralph Sampson <\/strong>and<strong> Dell Curry<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TA grad Raevin Washington<\/strong> is on the 2025-2026 basketball roster for <strong>Duquesne<\/strong>, a Division I member of the <strong>Atlantic 10 Conference<\/strong>. Dukes\u2019 coach <strong>Dan Burt<\/strong>\u2019s wife, <strong>Kata<\/strong>, is from <strong>Hungary<\/strong> and played at <strong>West Virginia <\/strong>and<strong> UNC Wilmington<\/strong>. Burt has sent several of his players to the pro ranks in Europe. Washington is related to Ralph Sampson, according to the Duquesne website.<\/li>\n<li>Another member of the <strong>2025 JMU Hall of Fame class<\/strong> is <strong>Roanoke\u2019s Kevin Munson<\/strong> (baseball), a <strong>Cave Spring<\/strong> grad who reached the <strong>Triple-A<\/strong> level with <strong>Arizona<\/strong> and <strong>Seattle<\/strong> as a pitcher. He was drafted out of JMU by Arizona in 2010 in the fourth round.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>David Driver is a Harrisonburg native who played baseball at Turner Ashby, Harrisonburg Legion Post 27, EMU (one light-hitting season) and for Clover Hill in the RCBL. He is the co-author of \u201c<strong>From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia\u2019s Rich Baseball Legacy,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0which is available on the websites of\u00a0<strong>Amazon<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Barnes and Noble<\/strong>\u00a0and at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.daytondavid.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">daytondavid.com<\/a>. He was the sports editor of the Daily News-Record from 2019-21 and worked for the paper in the 1980s. He is also the author of \u201cHoop Dreams in Europe: American Basketball Players Building Careers Overseas,\u201d which is available on Amazon. The inside design of the book was done by AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Augusta County native Dell Curry. Photo: David Allio\/Icon Sportswire Dell Curry (Fort Defiance) and Ralph Sampson (Harrisonburg) were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[81584,1339,1317,1337,1338,81585,62,81586,67,132,68,81587],"class_list":{"0":"post-135312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-augusta-county","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaabasketball","13":"tag-rockingham-county","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-staunton","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-waynesboro"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115006593134009649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}