Dan Grunfeld has been Cardinal since at least junior high school. “If you’d asked me when I was in seventh grade, I would have said I was going to Stanford,” the senior shooting guard says. “I remember [thinking], ‘Wow, great mix of academics and basketball.’ It wasn’t like a five-year plan, but I wanted to go there.”
Last year, Grunfeld led the men’s basketball team with 17.9 points per game. Then came the February 12, 2005, match-up against Cal. Grunfeld had already knocked down 16 points when he attempted a layup at the beginning of the second half and landed awkwardly. His torn anterior cruciate ligament would take him out of the final nine games of the season. He was in rehab all summer, and returned to practice at the beginning of fall quarter. Halfway through Pac-10 play this year, he is averaging 12.7 points per game and 5.8 rebounds. Senior Matt Haryasz leads the Cardinal (12-7, 8-3 Pac-10) with 18.5 points per game and 9.3 rebounds.
“Danny won’t make excuses, but all you have to do is look at a game tape from last year to see that he’s not back to where he was,” head coach Trent Johnson said earlier this season. “But he’s on the floor and he’s pushing. It speaks volumes to his competitive toughness that he’s able to go out there and continue to work.”
“I haven’t built up the ability to do what I used to be able to do—some nuances haven’t come back yet,” Grunfeld said several weeks after notching a career-high 29 points against UC-Irvine. “But I’m really happy with where I’m at, and just blessed to be able to play.”
After his injury, Grunfeld talked with several former Stanford players, including Kamba Tshionyi, ’98, and Jarron Collins, ’01, who’d faced similar rehabilitation challenges. “It just helped to get that perspective.” And he had one other expert to consult with—his father, Ernie, president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards.
The elder Grunfeld played for the New York Knicks while Danny was growing up, then took turns as a broadcaster and assistant coach. He didn’t coach his son’s teams, but rarely missed his games. “I had a little hoop in the basement and I’d go down there for hours, and make my sister and mom come down to watch me dunk and stuff,” Dan Grunfeld recalls. “And my dad would play me on his knees, because I was so small.”
Today, the 6-foot-6 guard is a preseason John Wooden All-American candidate and the sixth player in Stanford basketball history to be named an Academic All-American. As he anticipates the NBA draft this spring, Grunfeld says his game is all about having an aggressive mindset. “You don’t want to let other people dictate the tempo or the speed you play. You want to be in control out there.”
The Cardinal’s 71-49 win over Denver in December was a good example of how Grunfeld thinks the game should be played. “We had a pretty substantial lead, and they kind of cut it down,” he recalls. “But in the end we showed poise in maintaining our composure. Things got rough there for a minute, but we stuck together and built the lead back up.” And Grunfeld was right there, showing the team how to persevere.
