John Salley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| John Salley | |
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| Position(s): Power Forward |
Jersey #(s): 16, 22 |
| Born: May 16, 1964 Brooklyn, New York |
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| Career information | |
| Year(s): 1986–2000 | |
| NBA Draft: 1986 / Round: 1 / Pick: 11 | |
| College: Georgia Tech | |
| Professional teams | |
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| Career stats | |
| Points | 5,228 |
| Rebounds | 3,356 |
| Blocks | 983 |
| Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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John Thomas "Spider" Salley (born May 16, 1964) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA, actor and talk show host.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Salley was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is a 1988 graduate of Georgia Tech's College of Management and a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Salley played high school ball at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn.[1]
At 6'11" (2.11 m), Salley played both power forward and center for the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Panathinaikos BC and Los Angeles Lakers. He gained the nickname "Spider" for his in-your-face style of guarding his opponent. Salley is also the first player in NBA history to play on three different championship-winning franchises; Robert Horry joined him in this exclusive club in 2005.
[edit] Detroit Pistons
He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the 1986 NBA Draft out of Georgia Tech. He is among the Pistons' all-time leaders in blocked shots, holds Georgia Tech's blocked shot record, and has had his jersey number 22 retired—a very rare honor in college basketball.[2] After joining the Pistons, he became close friends with Adrian Dantley, who taught him proper nutrition, how to exercise, and how to conduct himself off the court. Salley, for his part, called Dantley "The Teacher." Salley would become good friends with comedian Eddie Murphy and made several appearances at comedy clubs in the off-season. In 1989 and 1990, he played on two Pistons championship teams.
[edit] Heat and Bulls
He was traded to the Miami Heat in 1992 and, a few years after that, was left unprotected by Miami in the 1995 expansion draft. Following a short stint with the inaugural Toronto Raptors team where he received little playing time, he negotiated a buyout of his contract in order to sign with the Chicago Bulls, where he helped Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and former Pistons teammates Dennis Rodman lead the Bulls to a record-breaking 72-win season, after which Salley retired. However, in 1996, he came out of retirement to join Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos BC for only a few games.
[edit] Lakers
In 1999, he joined a Lakers team led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. He provided 6'11" of warm torso on the bench for the Lakers en route to their first of three consecutive NBA championships from 2000–2002; he retired again following the first championship season after proudly proclaiming that he had won "four championship rings, with three different teams, in three different decades and two different millenniums."
[edit] Post-basketball career
Currently, he is one of the hosts of The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Network. Salley hosted The John Salley Block Party, a radio morning show on Los Angeles station 100.3 The Beat from May 2005 - 2006.
In 2007, Salley appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. In the first round of competition, Salley matched up against wrestler John Cena and athlete Serena Williams.
For a short time, Salley provided analysis for NBC's NBA Showtime.
In 2006, Salley was named the Commissioner of the American Basketball Association.
In 2004 he was part of the panel of celebrity judges in the TBS Superstation show He's a Lady.
For a short time in the late 1990s, Salley had a late night TV talk show. It did not do well in the ratings. He is now the host of the new hit talk show that comes live from a club, Ballers.
John Salley also has a role in Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2, as a thick-glassed computer hacking nerd who gets out of jail because he helps crack files for Miami Police Department.
Salley has also starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie, The Ultimate Christmas Present as a tall elf.
In 1996, Salley starred as a veteran basketball player alongside Whoopi Goldberg in Eddie about a fan who takes over as coach of The New York Knicks.
[edit] References
- ^ Anderson, Dave. " Sports of The Times; City Teen-Agers Hold A Calm Garden Party", The New York Times, March 19, 1995. Accessed October 10, 2007.
- ^ The retiring of players' jerseys is not uncommon in college basketball, but retirement of numbers is far more rare. The main reason is that far fewer numbers are available for use by college teams than in the NBA. NCAA rules, unlike those of the NBA, prohibit the use of any digits greater than five in player numbers. Georgia Tech has not only retired Salley's number 22, but also the number 25 worn by Salley's teammate Mark Price, the number 15 worn by current NBA player Matt Harpring, the number 20 worn by former NBA player Tom Hammonds, and the numbers 21 and 40 worn by Roger Kaiser and Rich Yunkus, respectively.
[edit] External links
- NBA stats @ basketballreference.com
- John Salley Statistics at Basketball-Reference.com
- FOX Sports: The Scoop On John Salley
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