Troy Hudson
The undrafted backup who became the Laker Killer, torching Shaq and Kobe for 37 in the 2003 playoffs, then chasing an NBA payday and a rap dream in Minnesota.
For two weeks in the spring of 2003, the biggest surprise in a Timberwolves playoff series was an undrafted backup point guard named Troy Hudson, whose 23.5 points a night against the Lakers gave Minnesota reason to believe.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 13, 1976, Carbondale, Illinois |
| College | Missouri, then Southern Illinois |
| Drafted | Undrafted, 1997 |
| Signed | Free agent, summer 2002 |
| Seasons as a Wolf | 5 (2002–2007) |
| Number | 16 |
The no-name signing. Minnesota signed Hudson in August 2002 as a backup, the kind of signing that barely registers. He was a 26-year-old undrafted guard who had already bounced through the Jazz, the CBA’s Yakima SunKings, the Clippers and Orlando, where he’d averaged a useful, anonymous 12 points a night off the Magic bench. He arrived to be depth behind a roster built around Garnett. He wouldn’t remain a backup for long.
The takeover. Handed the starting job, Hudson turned in the year of his life: 14.2 points and 5.7 assists across all 79 games in 2002-03, a career year. Then came the Lakers, three-time defending champions chasing a four-peat, in the first round. In Game 2 Hudson dropped 37 points and 10 assists in a 119-91 demolition, outscoring Garnett’s 35 and everyone in a purple jersey. He averaged 23.5 for the series, second only to Garnett’s 27.0, and earned the nickname “Laker Killer.” He dragged Minnesota to six games against Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant before the Wolves fell 4-2. For a franchise still chasing its first playoff series win, Hudson’s fortnight was the closest thing to a takeover its fans had seen.
The delayed payday. The breakout spring did not buy an immediate raise. Hudson played 2003-04 on his original contract, and ankle trouble limited him to just 29 games, so he watched Garnett’s MVP season and the franchise’s first Western Conference Finals run mostly from the bench. Minnesota rewarded the promise of 2002-03 anyway: in August 2004 the Wolves signed him to a six-year deal worth roughly $37 million, real money for a player who two years earlier had been a throw-in signing. The production never again matched the paycheck. He appeared in just 70 games combined across 2005-06 and 2006-07 before the Wolves bought out the contract in August 2007.
By the numbers
Regular-season stats, per Basketball-Reference:
| Season | GP | PPG | RPG | APG | FG% | 3P% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002-03 | 79 | 14.2 | 2.3 | 5.7 | .428 | .365 |
| 2003-04 | 29 | 7.5 | 1.2 | 2.4 | .386 | .403 |
| 2004-05 | 79 | 8.7 | 1.3 | 3.6 | .401 | .345 |
| 2005-06 | 36 | 9.5 | 1.2 | 2.9 | .381 | .396 |
| 2006-07 | 34 | 5.9 | 1.4 | 2.1 | .379 | .350 |
Wolves career totals
257Games 2,576Points 415Rebounds 984Assists 285Threes Career totals with Minnesota per StatMuse.
Accolades- ”Laker Killer”: 23.5 ppg vs. the Lakers, 2003 first round
- Career-high 14.2 ppg, 2002-03
- 37 points in Game 2 of the 2003 playoffs, a personal postseason high
Lore
The Laker Killer. Hudson’s Game 2 explosion is the reason the entry exists at all. Thirty-seven points against the three-time defending champions, in a 28-point rout, from a guard who had been a throw-in signing eight months earlier. StatMuse and Basketball-Reference both preserve the box score; the memory needs no help.
Undrafted, the album. Hudson’s second act was hip-hop. In 2007 he released a full-length record on his own Nutty Boyz Entertainment label, titled — with a straight face — Undrafted, stacked with guest spots from Ray J, Three 6 Mafia and UGK. The commercial verdict was brutal: reports had the album selling roughly 78 copies its first week. Hudson was undeterred, and kept recording for years afterward.
The label boss. The rap ambition outlasted the sales. In 2011 Hudson reportedly signed 50 Tyson, an autistic teenage rapper who had gone viral on YouTube, to his label, a genuinely warm (if strange) footnote to a former point guard’s post-NBA life.
Back to the gym. The circle eventually closed in Minnesota. Years after the buyout, Hudson returned to the Twin Cities to coach high school basketball. He taught the position the state once watched him torch the Lakers with.
The Wolves have employed better point guards and forgotten most of them. Nobody around here forgets the two weeks an undrafted backup went toe-to-toe with the three-time champions.