Michael Finley

Michael Finley

No. 4, 40
Shooting guard / Small forward
Personal information
Born	March 6, 1973 (1973-03-06) Melrose Park, Illinois
Nationality	American
High school	Proviso East (Maywood, Illinois)
Listed height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Listed weight	225 lb (102 kg)
Career information
College	Wisconsin (1991–1995)
NBA Draft	1995 / Round: 1 / Pick: 21st overall
Selected by the Phoenix Suns
Pro career	1995–2010
Career history
1995–1996	Phoenix Suns
1996–2005	Dallas Mavericks
2005–2010	San Antonio Spurs
2010	Boston Celtics
Career highlights and awards
NBA All-Rookie First Team (1995) 2× NBA All-Star (2000–2001) NBA Champion (2007)
Career statistics
Points	17,306 (15.7 ppg)
Rebounds	4,804 (4.4 rpg)
Assists	3,245 (2.9 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals Men's basketball Competitor for United States Goodwill Games Bronze 1994 St. Petersburg National team Summer Universiade Gold 1993 Buffalo National team

Michael Howard Finley (born March 6, 1973, in Melrose Park, Illinois) is a retired American professional basketball player. He last played for the Boston Celtics of the NBA.

High school career

Finley attended Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois, graduating in 1991. In Finley's senior season, Proviso East won the 1991 IHSA class AA boys basketball tournament, and Finley was named to the all-tournament team. Finley's teammates, known collectively as the "Three Amigos", included future NBA draftees Sherrell Ford and Donnie Boyce.

In 2007, Finley was voted one of the "100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament," recognizing his superior performance in his appearances in the tournament.

College career

The 6' 7" shooting guard/small forward was originally drafted out of University of Wisconsin–Madison by the Phoenix Suns as the 21st overall pick of the 1995 NBA Draft. Finley held the all-time scoring record at Wisconsin for eleven years, but was passed by Alando Tucker on March 10, 2007.

NBA career

Phoenix

Finley had an impressive rookie season, being named to the 1995–96 NBA All-Rookie First Team, finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting after averaging fifteen points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. He became only the third rookie in Suns history to score over 1,000 points in a season. Despite his solid play, he was traded by the Suns on December 26, 1996 to the Dallas Mavericks along with Sam Cassell, A. C. Green and a second-round draft pick for Jason Kidd, Tony Dumas and Loren Meyer.

Dallas

In his first season with the Mavericks, he led them in scoring, assists and steals. Along with another Sun Steve Nash and forward Dirk Nowitzki, he became an integral part of the Mavericks' late '90s "run and gun" offense.

In 2000, he was selected to represent the Western Conference in the 2000 All-Star Game, in which he scored eleven points. In 2001 he was again selected to represent the Western Conference on All-Star weekend. He played for the US national team in the 2002 FIBA World Championship, which lost a record three games and failed to win a championship for the first time in a major competition since FIBA opened international competitions to NBA players.

While Finley began to play more of a supporting role as he aged and teammate Dirk Nowitzki blossomed, he remained a clutch player for the Mavericks. For financial reasons, however, in 2005 he was waived by Dallas to avoid luxury taxes (as part of the league's new labor agreement) on his 51.8 million USD salary over the next three years. Finley became an unrestricted free agent and after being aggressively pursued by Detroit, Miami, Minnesota and Phoenix, he elected to remain in Texas with the San Antonio Spurs.

San Antonio

In San Antonio he adapted well to a secondary role as Manu Ginóbili's backup, developing and emphasizing his outside shooting. The Spurs were knocked out of the 2006 NBA Playoffs by his former team one year after he made the switch. During the series, Finley was punched below the belt by former teammate Jason Terry during Game 5, which earned Terry a suspension for the next game of the series.

In the fifth and final game of San Antonio's first-round series against Denver in 2007, Finley set the Spurs' record for three-point field goals in a playoff game, making eight of nine attempts. He eclipsed the previous record of seven set by teammate Bruce Bowen in 2003.

Finley won an NBA championship in 2007 with the San Antonio Spurs in his 12th NBA season. He was given the "game ball" by his teammates, and specifically mentioned in post-game interviews by Robert Horry and Tim Duncan. Out of the original trio from the Dallas Mavericks, he became the first to achieve a title, surpassing the 2006–07 NBA MVP Nowitzki and previous two-time MVP Nash.

At Finley's request, the Spurs bought out the final year of his contract and waived him on March 1, 2010, freeing him to sign with another team.

Boston

On March 4, 2010, Finley reached a verbal agreement with the Boston Celtics to join the team for the remainder of the 2009–10 season. He signed with the Celtics on March 6, 2010.

Personal life

He majored in business management at Wisconsin. Finley attended the same high school as current Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers.

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
1995–96	Phoenix	82	72	39.2	.476	.328	.749	4.6	3.5	1.0	.4	15.0
1996–97	Phoenix	27	18	29.5	.475	.255	.812	4.4	2.5	.7	.2	13.0
1996–97	Dallas	56	36	35.6	.432	.387	.807	4.5	2.8	.9	.4	16.0
1997–98	Dallas	82	82	41.4	.449	.357	.784	5.3	4.9	1.6	.4	21.5
1998–99	Dallas	50	50	41.0	.444	.331	.823	5.3	4.4	1.3	.3	20.2
1999–00	Dallas	82	82	42.2	.457	.401	.820	6.3	5.3	1.3	.4	22.6
2000–01	Dallas	82	82	42.0	.458	.346	.775	5.2	4.4	1.4	.4	21.5
2001–02	Dallas	69	69	39.9	.463	.339	.837	5.2	3.3	.9	.4	20.6
2002–03	Dallas	69	69	38.3	.425	.370	.861	5.8	3.0	1.1	.3	19.3
2003–04	Dallas	72	72	38.6	.443	.405	.850	4.5	2.9	1.2	.5	18.6
2004–05	Dallas	64	64	36.8	.427	.407	.831	4.1	2.6	.8	.3	15.7
2005–06	San Antonio	77	18	26.5	.412	.394	.852	3.2	1.5	.5	.1	10.1
2006–07	San Antonio	82	16	22.2	.412	.364	.918	2.7	1.3	.4	.2	9.0
2007–08	San Antonio	82	61	26.9	.414	.370	.800	3.1	1.4	.3	.1	10.1
2008–09	San Antonio	81	77	28.8	.437	.411	.823	3.3	1.4	.5	.2	9.7
2009–10	San Antonio	25	6	15.8	.381	.317	.667	1.5	0.8	.2	.2	3.7
2009–10	Boston	21	1	15.0	.506	.463	.333	1.6	1.1	.2	.1	5.2
Career		1103	875	34.5	.440	.390	.813	4.1	2.9	.9	.3	15.7
All-Star		2	0	14.5	.476	.250	1.000	2.0	2.5	.0	.0	11.5

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2000–01	Dallas	10	10	43.4	.360	.362	.818	5.3	4.4	1.2	.2	19.7
2001–02	Dallas	8	8	46.6	.466	.378	.900	6.3	2.3	1.5	.5	24.6
2002–03	Dallas	20	20	41.1	.435	.412	.864	5.8	3.0	1.3	.6	18.3
2003–04	Dallas	5	5	39.2	.382	.269	.600	3.2	2.6	.8	.6	13.0
2004–05	Dallas	13	13	37.8	.425	.393	.889	4.3	2.2	1.3	.0	13.1
2005–06	San Antonio	13	4	31.6	.476	.383	.900	3.8	1.4	.6	.2	10.5
2006–07	San Antonio	20	20	26.9	.410	.419	.897	2.9	1.1	.6	.2	11.3
2007–08	San Antonio	17	11	23.0	.402	.365	1.000	1.9	1.0	.3	.2	6.7
2008–09	San Antonio	5	5	28.6	.441	.467	.750	3.0	1.0	.2	.2	8.0
2009–10	Boston	18	0	6.0	.250	.273	1.000	.6	.2	.2	.0	.8
Career		129	96	30.3	.418	.388	.866	3.5	1.8	.8	.2	11.8

See also

• List of National Basketball Association career 3-point scoring leaders
• List of National Basketball Association career playoff 3-point scoring leaders
• List of National Basketball Association players with 9 or more steals in a game

External links

• Michael Finley at NBA.com
• Michael Finley at Basketball-Reference.com
• SI.com – Pro Basketball – Michael Finley Player Page
• Michael Finley on The Internet Movie Database