Bobby Sura

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Born in Wilkes-Barre, where he learned and refined his basketball skills, Bobby Sura will long be known as one of the Diamond City’s all-time greats in the sport.

As a freshman at GAR High School in the 1987-88 season, Sura averaged 10-plus points per game for a Grenadiers team that went 24-3 and won the District 2 Class 2A championship. Playing under head coach John Hopkins, Sura was just getting started. He returned as a sophomore and led GAR to another District 2 Class 2A final. While GAR settled for a silver medal at districts, it went one step further in the PIAA state playoffs, beating Warrior Run, 74-45, in the first round. Sura recorded 22 points and 11 rebounds in the victory.

Sura’s greatest achievements at GAR came as a junior and senior, leading GAR to back-to-back district championships and state championship games. Both seasons, GAR was 30-0 going into the state final. As a junior, Sura averaged 23.1 points per game. As a senior, he averaged 34 points per game and was named the Associated Press Small School Player of the Year in Pennsylvania. He scored a GAR record 2,468 points in high school and his teams never lost a game in league play.

From GAR, Sura enrolled at Florida State and continued his outstanding play as a guard for head coach Pat Kennedy’s Seminoles. As a freshman in 1991-92, Sura averaged 12.3 points per game and was selected the ACC Rookie of the Year. The Seminoles made the NCAA tournament and lost in the Sweet 16. As a sophomore, Sura averaged a team-best 19.9 points per game playing alongside future NBA first-round draft picks Sam Cassell, Doug Edwards and Charlie Ward. The Seminoles made the Elite 8. Sura scored 21.2 and 18.6 points per game as a junior and senior, respectively, and graduated as the first player in ACC history with at least 2,000 points, 700 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals. He remains Florida State’s all-time leader in career points and minutes played.

The Cleveland Cavaliers selected Sura with their first pick — 17th overall — in the 1995 NBA Draft. Sura was part of an iconic draft class loaded with future NBA veterans, including Kevin Garnett, Michael Finley, Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudamire.

Sura played five seasons in Cleveland and was a member of two playoff teams. He played in the 1996 All-Rookie Game; competed in the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest, won by Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers; and participated in the 2000 Three-Point Contest. At the time, he was one of only seven players to compete in all three events.

Sura played the next three seasons with the Golden State Warriors and averaged 10-plus points per game in back-to-back seasons. In August 2003, the Warriors traded Sura to the Detroit Pistons, who later traded him to the Atlanta Hawks.

Following the 2003-04 season, Sura signed as a free agent with the Houston Rockets. At age 31, Sura played some of his finest basketball with the Rockets. He started 59 games and averaged 10.3 points, including a career-high 35 points on Jan. 13, 2005, to defeat the New Jersey Nets, 94-85, in overtime. Sura and his Rockets teammates, including Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, made the playoffs and were eliminated in the first round by the Dallas Mavericks.

Suffering from back and knee injuries, Sura rehabbed at the end of his career in hopes of returning to play in the NBA. However, he ultimately retired, ending a 10-year NBA career in which he played 657 games and recorded 5,654 points, 2,474 assists and 2,240 rebounds.

In 1999, Times Leader readers participated in a poll that ranked Sura the No. 6 local athlete of the century. In 2002, The Citizens’ Voice ranked Sura as the No. 2 athlete of all-time from the Wyoming Valley. He was inducted in 2003 into the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame.