He already has a couple nicknames. “Pike” for one. The “Polish Rifle” for another, and judging by a fan poll on Huskers.com, maybe Eric Piatkowski should have a third nickname.
Like “Most Popular.”
One of only three Nebraska basketball players ever to have his jersey retired, Piatkowski was a runaway winner in a Huskers.com poll to determine the fans' choice as their "all-time favorite Husker basketball player." Piatkowski collected 579 votes and commanded 60 percent of the overall total.
Piatkowski's closest individual challengers in the poll were Dave Hoppen, Aleks Maric and Jerry Fort. Each finished with 7 percent of the vote, and Andre Smith received 4 percent.
Because only five players were listed in the poll, 15 percent of the voters chose to check the box that said "my favorite was not one of the five all-time leading scorers." The player mentioned most frequently, who was not part of the ballot, was Stuart Lantz, the guest of honor at last Friday's Doc Sadler golf tournament and fundraiser. Other players mentioned included Al Maxey and Fred Hare from the 1950s-1960s and Bruce Chubick, a teammate of Piatkowski's.
"Pike" said Friday he doesn’t know why he’s such a fan favorite, but he hopes his personality has something to do with his popularity.
“I tell everybody all the time that I just try to do the right thing,” Piatkowski said. “When I speak to kids across the country, and even when I speak to my own kids, I tell them it’s all really simple. No matter what you do, somebody is always watching you, so always try to do the right thing. Most people know the difference between right and wrong, and I just kind of live by that. Maybe that’s why I’m up there in the poll. I try to be a good example for everyone.”
Now the color analyst for Nebraska basketball games on Fox Sports Midwest, Piatkowski spent the first nine of his 14 NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers before moving on to play for Houston, Chicago and Phoenix.
From his redshirt freshman season, where he once scored 42 points on Nebraska’s highest scoring team ever, to his senior season, when his 20-point average led the Huskers to a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, Piatkowski has been a fan favorite.
And he always will be with his "do the right thing" philosophy.
