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SALT LAKE CITY — History has always been at the center of the friendship between Taylor Braun and Nate Wolters.
Now teammates on the Salt Lake City Stars, the two 26-year-old guards are in their first seasons with the team after warring as former Summit League rivals at North Dakota State and South Dakota State.
“I’ve stayed in contact with Nate pretty much ever since (leaving college),” Braun said. “We’ve got a lot of unique ties.”
The two went head-to-head six times from 2010 to 2013, including once in the Summit League championship game where they combined for 50 points with the conference’s auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament at stake. In what was the penultimate game of Wolters’ college career, South Dakota State punched their ticket to the Big Dance with a 73-67 win.
“He was probably the best player on his team, and I was the best player on my team,” said Wolters, a former Wooden Award finalist during his junior year. “We had some good battles. … It’s fun, we always talk about it.”
While both Braun and Wolters ultimately achieved varying levels of folk hero status before leaving the Dakotas, the two former Summit League Player of the Year winners weren’t considered Division I talents coming out of high school.
Wolters, who played at St. Cloud Tech High School in Minnesota, initially received interest from only the Division II level before being lavished with scholarship offers from North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State late in his senior year. At the behest of his parents, the Minnesota native took time in weighing his options, waiting all the way until May before committing to SDSU.
Having been rejected by the point guard in the 11th hour of recruiting, North Dakota State went on to offer the available scholarship to Braun, who was days away from committing to in-state school Western Oregon.
In the end, Wolters’ scholarship turned into Braun’s.
“I had only Division II offers at the time,” Braun said. “And then I got a phone call at the end of May saying that [North Dakota State] had offered a guy, he had turned it down and they were kind of stuck with like a free scholarship.
“I took a visit out there the following week and then I signed right when I was there.”
North Dakota State’s interest in Braun and Wolters primarily stemmed from their size; the former stands at 6-foot-7 and the latter at 6-foot-4, respectively. While Braun’s natural position is that of a guard-forward, the Oregon native eventually progressed into playing point guard for the Bison by his senior season.
“We still wanted a bigger guard, I’ve always like big guards,” former North Dakota State and current Ohio head coach Saul Phillips said of the reason for targeting Braun. “He could get from end-to-end in a hurry with ball in hand. He had great ball skills for being that big.”
Both players have enjoyed intermittent stints within the NBA and overseas in the afterglow of their decorated college careers.
Wolters, a second-round pick of the Washington Wizards in the 2013 NBA draft, has spent time with two NBA teams and one D-League team since leaving his college hometown of Brookings and has most recently played in Turkey and Serbia. Braun, on the other hand, has played for the Phoenix Suns’ and Orlando Magic’s summer league teams, as well as for professional teams in Belgium and Germany.
After years apart, the duo converged with the Utah Jazz in September — with Braun signed to the training camp roster and Wolters to one of the team’s allotted two two-way contracts that allows him to toggle between the parent and minor league clubs.
Eight days after signing, however, Braun was the Jazz’ first training camp cut. His free agency didn’t last long, though, because he quickly signed with the Stars.
“They just voiced some interest in me,” Braun said. “I had been overseas for the last three years and I wanted to try this whole route before I get any older. So I decided to stay in the states and felt like it was a good opportunity.”
Having played in lesser situations, Braun says he has not taken his new opportunity for granted. In speaking on his new surroundings, he described the entire Jazz organization as “professional” and “family-oriented.”
Wolters, for his part, has been equally impressed by the organizational culture.
“Organization seems really good,” Wolters said. “They try to take care of us. The new D-League coaching staff has really been working really hard and they seem like good guys, so I’m excited for the experience.”
