’Burgh’s Best to Wear It, No. 45: Schenley's DeJuan Blair stayed home, almost led Pitt to Final Four

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 45: DeJuan Blair

DeJuan Blair stood 6-foot-4 in eighth grade when he was first spotted dunking a basketball.

That feat occurred at the Ammons Recreation Center on Bedford Avenue in the Hill District. It launched one of the great college basketball careers anyone achieved in Pittsburgh, and it is just one reason Blair is the Tribune-Review’s choice as the best in the city to wear jersey No. 45.

Blair didn’t need to travel far — or at all — to begin his All-American career at Pitt. He grew up in the Hill District in a home 600 yards from campus. He went to Schenley High School, located less than a mile from Pitt, and led the Spartans to a state title in 2007.

He received 18 college scholarship offers, but he chose Jamie Dixon and the Panthers.

Blair was a bit of a pioneer for his day. He was the first City League athlete to play basketball at Pitt since Darelle Porter (1987-91) and the first Schenley graduate to sign with the Panthers since Sonny Lewis in 1976.

By the time he got to college, Blair was listed as a 6-7, 265-pound man, with a 7-2 wing span and a reputation as one of the college game’s best freshmen.

He was freshman All-American, Big East co-Rookie of the Year and an All-Big East honorable mention selection in 2007-08. He also was the first player in school history to surpass the 400-point and 300-rebound marks as a freshman.

During the 2008-09 season, Blair led Pitt to the top of the Associated Press rankings for two weeks in January and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

He scored 550 points and grabbed 432 rebounds, second-most rebounds in school history for a season (12 behind Jerome Lane, 1987-88). Blair averaged 12.3 rebounds, joining Lane, Sam Clancy and Aaron Gray as the only Pitt players in the past 42 years to rebound in double digits.

Pitt’s championship quest died one game from the 2009 Final Four in a heartbreaking Elite Eight loss to Scottie Reynolds and Villanova. Only 11 days later, Blair declared for the NBA Draft after two years in college.

During Blair’s tenure, Pitt was 58-15, with only two of the defeats at Petersen Events Center. He fell 21 shy of 1,000 career points,but still averaged a career double-double (13.6/10.7), a feat he achieved in 35 games.

Blair was chosen in the second round by the San Antonio Spurs and played seven seasons in the NBA. He might have been a first-round pick with a longer career if not for one detail — he had no ACL in either knee as a result of previous surgeries.

In the NBA, Blair, now 31, played in 424 games (179 starts), concluding his career in 2016 with the Washington Wizards after four years with the Spurs and one with the Dallas Mavericks. He averaged 6.8 points and 5.1 rebounds for his career.

In the middle of the 2015-16 season, the Wizards traded Blair to the Phoenix Suns, who released him four days later.

In 2017, Blair joined Schenley teammates DeAndre Kane and D.J. Kennedy on the Overseas Elite team that won The Basketball Tournament at Coppin State.

Blair had no insignificant competition in claiming the No. 45 jersey crown. Another 6-7 giant did OK in Pittsburgh, too.

Pirates pitcher John Candelaria pitched 19 seasons in the majors, 12 in Pittsburgh. With the Pirates, he compiled a record of 124-87 with a 3.17 ERA and 1.174 WHIP. For his career, he went 177-122 with a 3.33 ERA and 1.184 WHIP.

He is the only Pirates pitcher to throw a complete-game no-hitter at Three Rivers Stadium, shutting out the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-0, on Aug. 9, 1976. The Candy Man, as he was known, was only 22 at the time. Before the game, the Pirates gave away candy bars to everyone in attendance — all 9,860 of them.

Gerrit Cole, the first overall choice in the 2011 MLB Draft, also wore No. 45 in Pittsburgh, winning 59 games in five seasons and striking out 734 in 782⅓ innings.

Aware he would become too expensive, the Pirates traded him to the Houston Astros in 2018. Cole signed a nine-year, $324 million contract with the New York Yankees this year.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.