Phoenix Suns: Jeff Hornacek and Ronnie Lester

One of the most-popular basketball players in Iowa State's history and one of the most-popular players in Iowa's history were hired by the NBA's Phoenix Suns this weekend.

The Phoenix Suns hired Jeff Hornacek to be their new head coach. Hornacek had been an assistant coach with the Utah Jazz, the third and last NBA team he was with as a player. They liked Hornacek at Utah. They liked him at Phoenix, and he clearly was highly thought of in the Valley of the Sun though he last played there in 1992.

Hornacek was a walk-on from suburban Chicago to helped Johnny Orr pull the Cyclones from the doldrums and into the NCAA tournament. This Cyclones.com story tells his story of the Hornacek buzzer-beater that won a first-round NCAA tourney game against Miami (Ohio).

For a player picked 46th in an NBA draft, Hornacek sure had a nice NBA career, averaging 14.5 points and 4.9 assists. He averaged 20.1 points in his final season with Phoenix, then was part of a trade that brought Charles Barkley from Philadelphia to Phoenix.

Monday, the Suns hired former Iowa great Ronnie Lester as a "master evaluator." Another term for the job might be "super scout."

Lester was a long-time front-office guy with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was assistant general manager for 10 years. He was fired in 2011 as part of a staff purge that lopped 21 people from the Lakers' staff.

Lester was perhaps the finest basketball player in Iowa history, leading the Hawkeyes to the 1980 Final Four. Injury-plagued, he had a six-year playing career in the NBA before moving into scouting with the Lakers.