‘Couldn’t write it any better’: Langford, KU alumni basketball team excited for TBT

Starting in less than a week, former University of Kansas men’s basketball guard Keith Langford will have one more chance to leave it all on the court.

After announcing his retirement from pro basketball in May, Langford will be suiting up for the KU alumni team known as Mass Street in The Basketball Tournament, or TBT.

With the winner-take-all $1 million event beginning Wednesday, the team held an open practice Sunday at Cutting Edge Performance Center in Lawrence. Although the entire team hadn’t arrived in time to make it to the first session, Langford said that he was soaking in every second.

“I’m literally going to go until, you know, my body has nothing,” he said. “This is it for me, this is the last time I will play basketball in any kind of competitive setting.”

For Langford, 39, the tournament represents more than a last dance opportunity. Rather than getting to retire on his own terms, he said, an Achilles injury short-circuited his pro career.

After playing 17 seasons and becoming one of the top American European League scorers of all-time, Langford was disappointed that he didn’t get the farewell tour he felt he deserved. So when he got the call from Mass Street’s general manager, Dan Beckler, and head of content Stephanie Temple, he knew it could be the perfect sendoff.

“I really couldn’t write it any better,” Langford said. “It’s going to be local, my family is going to be able to watch (and) I’m going to be able to play — I had surgery, so my injury has healed.”

Because he was competing overseas, some of Langford’s family never got the chance to see him play as a pro. He hopes to put on a show for his family and Jayhawks fans as one of just two on the team who aren’t still playing pro ball.

Coached by Marcus Morris and his twin brother Markieff Morris, the KU TBT squad consists of program staples like Langford, Tyshawn Taylor, Thomas Robinson and more.

A Unique Opportunity

Sunday’s hour-and-a-half gym session concluded with a three-on-three pickup game featuring Langford, Mitch Lightfoot and Kevin Young versus Taylor, Jamari Traylor and LeGerald Vick.

Even though just six players were able to make it — others trickled in on later flights — Taylor said such scrimmages and shoot-arounds are a part of the chemistry-building process.

“We’re all high-level guys that play basketball at a high-level so it shouldn’t be hard to build chemistry,” Taylor said, “but this is a part of it. All the teams that we’re playing are going to play, potentially can play, will have active basketball players.”

Each player on the Mass Street roster will be notable to KU faithful. But most never got the chance to take to the hardwood together during their college days. Langford noted that he’s the only player on the team who played under Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams, who left KU after the team’s national championship run in 2003.

Both Taylor and Langford were excited about this aspect of the event, and the chance to reminisce about KU hoops during the tournament.

Langford was one of the players whom Taylor — the other KU alum who isn’t on an active pro roster — had most looked forward to seeing. Emphasizing it in a past interview with TBT and again during Sunday’s open practice, he said that as a 13-year-old he watched Langford in the national championship game against Syracuse.

Without social media, Taylor said it was difficult to follow Langford’s overseas journey consistently. But after his own college career concluded, Taylor said, Langford was one of the first people to call him about playing abroad. After a few years in the NBA, Taylor went on to play overseas from 2014-21.

Now, they get to lace up their basketball shoes and compete together.

“I’m excited to just be able to play with him on the court before he hangs them up and he’s all done,” Taylor said. “Obviously (because of) the person that he is and his route, but just admiring how good he’s been all of these years.”

Readying for Wednesday

The Mass Street team will have a couple more open practices before heading down to Wichita for the TBT “super regional,” which was to include a Monday scrimmage against the current KU basketball team.

Mass Street’s first-round game will be against We Are D3, and Traylor said he’s excited to see former teammates he hasn’t seen in years.

More importantly, though, he’s even more eager to get on the floor and compete.

“Once (Tyshawn and Keith) get going, you follow behind them,” Traylor said. “We’re all high-level competitors. We’re not going to want to lose, and I know once that ball goes up, we’re going to go out there and want to win.”