Desmond Mason

Desmond Mason

Shooting guard/small forward
Personal information
Born	October 11, 1977 (1977-10-11) Waxahachie, Texas
Nationality	American
High school	Waxahachie
Listed height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight	222 lb (101 kg)
Career information
College	Oklahoma State (1996–2000)
NBA Draft	2000 / 17th overall
Selected by the Seattle SuperSonics
Pro career	2000–2009
Career history
2000–2003	Seattle SuperSonics
2003–2005	Milwaukee Bucks
2005–2007	New Orleans Hornets
2007–2008	Milwaukee Bucks
2008–2009	Oklahoma City Thunder
2009	Sacramento Kings
Stats at NBA.com

Desmond Tremaine Mason (born October 11, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player. He was designated as a shooting guard and small forward.

Career

Desmond Mason was drafted out of Oklahoma State University by the Seattle SuperSonics with the 17th pick of the 2000 NBA Draft. In 2001, he became the first Seattle player in franchise history to win the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. He also finished second place in the 2003 contest behind Jason Richardson. In 2003, he and Gary Payton were traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Ray Allen and Ronald "Flip" Murray. On October 26, 2005, he was traded along with a 2006 first-round draft pick to the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets in exchange for Jamaal Magloire. On July 23, 2007 Mason signed a contract with the Bucks after a two-season absence. Initially angry with Bucks general manager Larry Harris for trading him in 2005, Mason said he was happy to be back in Milwaukee. On August 13, 2008, Mason was traded back to the Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly the Seattle SuperSonics) in a three-team, six-player deal involving the Thunder, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers, that sent Milwaukee's Mo Williams to Cleveland, Mason and Cleveland's Joe Smith to Oklahoma City, and Cleveland's Damon Jones and Oklahoma City's Luke Ridnour and Adrian Griffin to Milwaukee. This marked his return to the former Sonics franchise. On September 17, 2009, Mason signed a contract with the Sacramento Kings at league minimum. After playing in just five games (and starting 4), he was waived by the Kings.

Media appearances

In February 2007, Mason recorded a hip-hop video called We Dem Hornets in which he gave an inspirational roll-call of the entire 2006–07 Hornets team. He said: "Brandon (Bass) and I write a lot on the bus... I wrote a song about the team and let them listen to it. I rapped it to them on the bus and on the plane and a lot of the guys really liked it. I tweaked it, cleaned it up, and went over to (videographer intern and son of head coach Byron Scott) Thomas Scott's house and we put it down and then they wanted to put a video to it. It was just for fun." Commenting on the fact that the Hornets started to win after the video was shown, Mason commented: "I think it went over well. They showed it in the locker room and everybody liked it, all of the players liked it. It was done well and (the highlights) fit together really well."

Physical attributes

• Height: 6'5" (196 cm)
• Weight: 222 lb (100 kg)
• Wingspan: 7'0"
• Vertical leap: 38 inches

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2000–01	Seattle	78	14	19.5	.431	.269	.736	3.2	.8	.5	.3	5.9
2001–02	Seattle	75	20	32.3	.464	.271	.848	4.7	1.4	.9	.4	12.4
2002–03	Seattle	52	15	34.8	.436	.291	.740	6.4	1.8	.9	.4	14.1
2002–03	Milwaukee	28	25	34.0	.474	.294	.765	6.7	2.4	.7	.4	14.8
2003–04	Milwaukee	82	31	30.9	.472	.231	.769	4.4	1.9	.7	.3	14.4
2004–05	Milwaukee	80	71	36.2	.443	.125	.802	3.9	2.7	.7	.3	17.2
2005–06	NO/Oklahoma City	70	55	30.0	.399	.167	.682	4.3	.9	.6	.2	10.8
2006–07	NO/Oklahoma City	75	75	34.3	.452	.000	.663	4.6	1.5	.7	.3	13.7
2007–08	Milwaukee	59	56	28.8	.482	.000	.659	4.3	2.1	.7	.5	9.7
2008–09	Oklahoma City	39	19	27.3	.435	.000	.541	4.0	1.2	.4	.8	7.5
2009–10	Sacramento	5	4	13.2	.417	.000	.750	2.6	.4	.2	.2	2.6
Career		643	385	30.5	.449	.260	.740	4.5	1.6	.7	.3	12.1

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2001–02	Seattle	5	5	41.0	.421	.333	.588	6.2	1.8	.8	.4	11.8
2002–03	Milwaukee	6	6	34.0	.509	.000	.710	7.0	.8	1.0	.7	13.0
2003–04	Milwaukee	5	5	39.6	.338	.000	.846	4.8	2.4	.8	.4	14.4
Career		16	16	37.9	.414	.111	.730	6.1	1.6	.9	.5	13.1

External links

• NBA.com player profile
• rap song by Mason about the Hornets' roster