Adrian Dantley

Adrian Delano Dantley ( born February 28, 1956 in Washington, DC ) is a former American professional basketball player for the Buffalo Braves, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Detroit Pistons, Dallas Mavericks and Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA. 2008, the 1.97 m wide winger in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has been selected.

Career

In his youth, Adrian Dantley was a star college player of the " Fighting Irish " of Notre Dame University in Indiana and broke several records points. Together with the U.S. team, he won the gold medal in the Olympic Games in Montreal.

Committed by the Braves at position 6 in the 1976 NBA Draft, Dantley scored 20.3 points per game right off the bat, hit over 50 % of his throws and was appointed as a rookie of the year in the NBA All- Rookie Team. However, it was then traded for Billy Knight at Indiana Pacers because winger Knight was still considered by the Braves as talented. For the Pacers, he was also only half a year before he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers of center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Together with Abdul- Jabbar played Dantley another six months before he was again weitergetradet to the Utah Jazz. Bitter for Dantley that coach Jerry West thought long and hard whether he should give Dantley or teammate Jamaal Wilkes. He kept Wilkes, and thus missed Dantley the chance to be part of the legendary Lakers team led by Magic Johnson to be, which was five times NBA champion.

The Jazz is Dantley established in 1979 as one of the most effective points scorer of the league and had four seasons in a row, in which he scored more than 30 points per game and was the best basketball player twice. But Dantley felt the game at the mediocre jazz as frustrating, often criticized coaches and teammates and rarely showed leadership qualities. In 1986 he was traded to the emerging Detroit Pistons, who were known for their hard work and defensive with Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars put the most dangerous point guard pair of NBA. Thus Dantley missed the chance to play together with the young, then-unknown future NBA superstar Karl Malone and John Stockton, the Jazz titles.

The Pistons Dantley reached the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals in two years. Although Dantleys statistical yield was satisfactory ( he scored the third throw option behind Thomas and Dumars still 20 points per game ), he was considered too headstrong and soft for the Pistons and was eventually traded on the advice of Thomas for Mark Aguirre to the Dallas Mavericks. Dantley was so shocked that he was the first game of the Mavericks against the Pistons to Thomas and said: ". I'll never forgive you for what you 've done to me " The Pistons won in 1989 and twice in 1990 the NBA championship. Dantley was thus just traded when the team was successful as with the Lakers. In the last year of his career, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, and then he finished at the age of 35 his NBA career. With 23177 points he was ever at that time ninth- best NBA basketball player. He then played a year in Italy, before he stopped altogether.

Although Dantley was considered eternal unlucky person who always played at the wrong time in the wrong team, he was honored for his career several times. In return for his services the Jazz withdrew his jersey number 4, and in 2008 Dantley was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.