Whether it's fair or not, Jon Koncak is regarded as being the player who popularized the trend among NBA teams of paying crappy basketball players ridiculous sums of money. Before we could have seriously overpaid losers like Jim McIlvaine and the entire current Knicks roster, there had to be a pioneer, and Koncak was that man.

Koncak was a mega-bust of epic proportions, being drafted 5th overall in the 1985 Draft, but spending basically all of his career as a reserve. In 12 NBA seasons he produced career totals of 3,520 points and 3,856 rebounds.

But what set him apart was that in 1989 the Hawks resigned him to a six-year contract worth $13 million. As soon as he signed the deal, he was officially making more than Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. If that wasn't enough, his large contract also prevented the Hawks from taking part in any other major free agent signings for several years. And you wonder why the Atlanta Hawks have never won an NBA Championship. The Koncak signing would be exhibit A.

And just to top it all off, some broadcasters still refer to bad contracts as "Koncaks."

But tomorrow, the man who helped bring us Jerome James and countless other horrible signings, is having his jersey lifted up to the rafters at SMU. What, you thought it'd be by the Hawks?

Koncak was actually a more than decent player at SMU. He is one of two consensus All-Americans from SMU men's basketball, earning the honor during the 1984-85 season. Koncak holds SMU career rankings of first in rebounds (1169), first in blocks (278), third in scoring (1784 points), and second in field-goal percentage (.559). He also won a gold medal with the 1984 USA Men's Basketball Team.

But all those accomplishments aside, the NBA might want to have similar ceremony tomorrow. Except instead of lifting Koncak's jersey to the rafters, they should light it on fire.