Ex-Rolling Hills Cager Jay Bilas Has Bounced to Unexpected Places

It’s fair to say Jay Bilas has had an eventful year, having been branded a basketball Benedict Arnold in Spain, been dunked over by a 4-foot-2 child prodigy in a TV commericial, then having spent several months as an alien life form in Houston.

And that was all by Memorial Day.

The career of the former Rolling Hills High basketball star will soon take another turn when he returns to Duke University as an assistant basketball coach while pursuing his law degree.

For the past three years, since his collegiate career ended at Duke, that’s been the way the Bilas bounces. In that relatively short time he has played two and a half seasons as a basketball pro in Europe, done radio and television commentary, performed in two television commercials, taken the law SAT exam and acted in a science fiction adventure movie to be released later this year.

“You could say my life’s been back and forth,” Bilas said last week in a brief hometown stopover. “My resume looks pretty diverse.”

Though he summers in the South Bay, Bilas was out of sight for most of his first two years after college, playing professionally in Verona, Italy, where he regained his scoring touch and played against the likes of former Laker Bob McAdoo.

Bilas has been more recognizable lately. He can currently be seen in two television commercials--for Minolta cameras and Budweiser, playing basketball in both.

To show he’s not typecast, Bilas also will be seen in an upcoming Dolph Lundgren movie tentatively titled “Dark Angel.” Bilas just returned from filming in Houston, where he played an alien policeman. The role was a stretch for a ballplayer, even one from the rugged Atlantic Coast Conference. “I don’t kill anybody but I blow up a lot of things,” Bilas confided.

Personable and articulate, he has also done some sports commentary for ESPN-TV and was a color commentator for ACC basketball games last season.

But all his traveling and career dabbling convinced the 25-year-old Bilas his heart was still in Durham, N.C. So when Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski offered him an assistant coaching spot while he attends law school, Bilas jumped at it.

In a few weeks he’ll be back at Duke, working Krzyzewski’s summer camps and preparing to return to school. He found the desire for a law degree and the lure of Duke enough to hang up the hightops, for now.

“I probably could have had a nice 10-year career in Europe, but I was concerned I’d be 30 and not have the drive to go back to school,” he said. “The coaching (position) is not something I would’ve asked for. I was pleased Coach K offered it. I was really flattered. I guess once school starts I’m not gonna have a minute to myself, but Coach K understands I’ll be a full-time student and spend as much time as I can with the team. He’s always been very supportive of academics.”

It’s clear Bilas has a special fondness for Duke and Krzyzewski, who recruited the all-CIF, 6-foot-8 forward out of Rolling Hills in 1982. Bilas became a role player at Duke, averaging 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds in a four-year career. He finished with 1,062 career points with best games of 23 points and 13 rebounds--a solid career but not imposing. But as part of an outstanding group that included Mark Alarie, Johnny Dawkins and Tommy Amaker, Bilas started 106 collegiate games and helped vault the Blue Devils into the basketball elite. Bilas’ last collegiate appearance was in the 1986 NCAA championship game, where Duke was beaten by Louisville, 72-69.

“College was fun. I had a great time at Duke,” Bilas said. “My first year we started four freshmen and we kind of got beat up. But we turned it around. My senior year we were (ranked) No. 1 the whole year. That’s something we’ll keep with us our whole life. The guys there now don’t have the same perspective we had. We experienced both ends of the spectrum. When I talk to Dawkins and Alarie we still talk about it. Now you see Duke T-shirts everywhere. It wasn’t always like that.

“If I’d gone to Iowa or Syracuse I might’ve been a better individual player. I think I could’ve scored a lot more points somewhere else. But I don’t think I would’ve gotten the all-around experience.”

Bilas was drafted, and cut, by the Dallas Mavericks, who still hold his NBA rights. He landed in Italy and found European ball a refreshing experience.

“I decided I was gonna get off the plane shooting,” he said. “I averaged about 21 points and 10 rebounds. It was fun for me to start scoring again, to get to shoot from the outside. It was a renewing-type experience. I loved it.”

Things turned sour this season after he signed with a team in Spain. Bilas said it was written into his contract that he could miss one day of practice to take the LSAT in Madrid, the only day of the year it was being given. But when that day approached, the team owners tried to stop him from going to Madrid.

“I was there and back in one day. I missed one practice. They fined me $2,000,” Bilas said. “It got kind of ugly. I said (if they fined me) I wouldn’t play anymore. They bought out my contract. They asked me when I wanted to leave. I said as soon as possible. They handed me a plane ticket for the next day.

“It was a real early flight. In fact, a team official drove me to the airport. In the terminal there was this guy reading the paper and he kept looking at the paper, then looking at me, and it wasn’t the normal this-guy-is-huge stare. When I picked up a paper the headline was ‘Bilas Abandons Team.’ They said I left in the middle of the night and they didn’t even know where I was. They made me the bad guy.”

Bilas got several offers from other overseas teams--the Yugoslavs would have let him play as a national because of his family origin--but Bilas had had enough basketball for a while. When his agent, Larry Fleischer, died, it was time to look elsewhere. When the commercial offers came along he was ready to go Hollywood.

“My sister (Shari) did a little modeling. She and my mom said I should try some. I just laughed, like yeah, right. Then I got a call to try out for the Minolta commercial. It was the kind of thing where if I had the time, I’d show up. I went to a casting call, then got a callback. There were 20 or 30 guys in a gym in Hollywood. Then I got another callback. They said I had the part.”

The commercial was filmed at picturesque Point Fermin in San Pedro. A child actor-basketball player was flown in from New York. In the ad, he plays one-on-one against Bilas, then dunks over him. “We spent a day at wardrobe in Hollywood, then filmed for a day. It’s amazing how many people it takes to do one commercial,” Bilas said. “It was a neat deal. The little kid had done other commercials; he was a pro. He’d say, ‘Now this is gonna happen, now that’s gonna happen.’ The director yelled a lot. I was gonna tell him, ‘I’ve been yelled at by tougher guys than you. I’ve been yelled at by Coach K and Bobby Knight.’ I’m used to getting yelled at.”

In the course of filming, someone on the set suggested Bilas get an agent. He did, and quickly got a tryout for the Budweiser commercial. He showed up at a gym with a lot of other ballplayers. “It was almost like a tryout for a basketball team. I saw a lot of guys I played ball against in high school. I got the commercial, and we filmed it in a day.” Bilas’ big moment comes at the end, where he wearily sits after a game and clasps hands with another player. Bigger things were to come.

“My agent called and said, ‘Go read for this part.’ He didn’t think I was gonna get it. It was really strange: You go in this room and stand before these guys and read. I was really nervous. I read a couple pages. They kept saying, ‘Very nice.’ I got a call (later) that day and went back and read again. They signed me right there. It was really exciting.”

Bilas discovered he had a full-fledged role as an extraterrestrial. The film, featuring the hunky Lundgren and a series of pyrotechnic effects, was shot in the Houston area from February through May. To play his character, Bilas had the front part of his head shaved and a braided ponytail added in back. His hair is just now growing back to a crew cut.

“I get used to being stared at, but this was different,” he said. “When I was going around Houston a lot of people thought I was sick. People thought I was a patient. I had to explain it three or four times a day.”

But he had fun filming. “We blew up about half of downtown Houston,” he noted.