Former Kansas men’s basketball player, Luke Axtell, is taking a new journey in his quest to put his turbulent and disappointing college career behind him.
Axtell, who played at the University from 1999 to 2001, signed a contract last week with Dynamo, a professional team in Moscow. He left his Austin, Texas, home for Russia yesterday and will play in his first game for Dynamo on Saturday.
“It’s their top league,” Axtell said. “They have an A-league and a B-league, and they’re in the A-league.”
Axtell couldn’t have played competitive basketball at this time last year, when the back problems that helped limit his Kansas career to just 39 games were still nagging him. It wasn’t until late last summer, after enduring a rigorous rehabilitation program and workouts with former NBA player Dave Jamerson, that he finally got to show his stuff on the court again.
In August, Axtell joined an American exhibition team, along with Jamerson and several other former NBA players. It toured Latvia and Lithuania for two-and-a-half weeks. With his back feeling sound, Axtell tore up the opposition and averaged about 22 points per game.
“We got our butts kicked, but it was great over there, man,” he said. “We won two out of six games. But I played well, made lots of contacts.”
After returning to Austin, Axtell hooked up with an agent and began to market himself to teams in Europe looking for a replacement player.
“They look at your tape, talk to some people who have seen me play and decide whether or not they want you,” he said.
“It’s been hard, going through giving tapes to all these European teams. You’re on 48-hour standby.”
Axtell’s stint in Russia will be a big step forward after a college career that ended with more controversy and injury rehabilitation time than memorable moments on the court.
He drew plenty of attention as a freshman in the 1997-1998 season. A long-haired, 6-foot-9-inch, long-range bomber, Axtell started 25 games for the Longhorns and averaged 13.3 points while shooting 39.3 percent from three-point range.
But in March 1998, then-coach Tom Penders suspended Axtell for academic reasons. In the midst of a public war of words, involving reports that Axtell and other members of the Longhorns were criticizing Penders’ coaching style, Axtell received permission to transfer to another school.
Meanwhile, someone on the Texas staff orchestrated the release of Axtell’s grades to a local radio station. Assistant coach Eddie Oran initially took responsibility for distributing the grades but later claimed Penders had been involved in the decision.
Axtell filed a lawsuit against the university, Penders and Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds. The lawsuit was dismissed. Penders, who resigned after the 1997-1998 season, later won a defamation lawsuit that Oran filed against him.
Even after Axtell announced he was transferring to Kansas, the nightmare didn’t end — in fact, it got worse. He received a series of death threats while he was finishing his last semester at Texas.
“I’m walking down campus wondering if I’m about to take one in the back,” Axtell said. “Pretty scary for a 19-year-old kid.”
Today, the ugly split from Texas is in Axtell’s rear-view mirror.
“There’s really no residue of it,” he said. “People know what went down, and I haven’t met one person in the last four years who has had anything negative to say.”
Because of NCAA rules, Axtell’s decision to transfer to another school in the Big 12 Conference left him with just two years of eligibility at Kansas. He joined the Jayhawks for the 1999-2000 season and averaged 8.7 points in 20 games before leaving the team to be treated for an undisclosed medical condition.
He returned the following season but missed 11 more games with a degenerative disc in his back and an ankle injury. After averaging 5.3 points and 2.6 rebounds in his senior season, his career at Kansas was over.
“It just stinks, you know,” he said. “I wish I could have stayed healthy.”
Axtell graduated, returned home and did odd jobs in Austin, as his back slowly began to get better. After a year-and-a-half, he decided to adopt a serious rehabilitation program and began working out with Jamerson, a former member of the Houston Rockets.
Jamerson said a healthy Axtell had a chance to make a living at pro basketball’s highest level.
“I really believe that if he stays healthy and works hard at his game, he can still play in the NBA,” Jamerson said. “He’s only 24, and his best basketball is still ahead of him potentially.”
Jamerson said he thought the three main things were whether he was healthy, continued to work and stayed in the right mind frame, he could do it.”
Axtell is still not willing to reveal the nature of the medical ailment that derailed his junior season, but he said it is a thing of the past.
“I’m definitely healed at this point,” he said. “There’s no lingering effects or anything. To me, it’s no different than the back injury. It’s just another injury.”
As he prepared to join his new team for the last quarter of its season, Axtell said that because his plans never work out, his only long-term goal is to take his basketball talent as far as it will let him go.
“Beyond that,” he said, “I could care less.”
