Jump to content

John Salley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 99.226.100.40 (talk) at 16:04, 21 June 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Infobox NBAretired

John Thomas "Spider" Salley (born May 16, 1964) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA, actor and talk show host.

Biography

Early life and career

Salley was born in Brooklyn, New York. Salley played high school ball at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn.[1] He is a 1988 graduate of Georgia Tech's College of Management.

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. 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. The nickname "Spider" is a reference to Salley's lifelong fear of the arachnid, which he claims to have conquered during his stint on the reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

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.

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 teammate Dennis Rodman (as well as former teammate James Edwards) 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.

Lakers

In 1999, he joined a Lakers team led by Shaquille O'Neal. He saw little action 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."

Post-basketball career

Salley advertising for an electric shaver before the 2008 USC-UCLA game.

John Salley had 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 the Miami Police Department. In 1996, Salley appeared as a veteran basketball player alongside Whoopi Goldberg in the film Eddie, about a fan who takes over as coach of the New York Knicks.

In the fall of 1998, Salley hosted the game show I Can't Believe You Said That, which aired on the Fox Family Channel. During that time, he also guest-starred as a panelist on Hollywood Squares.

In 2001, Salley made an appearance in the Luther Vandross music video, "Take You Out".

In 2004 he was part of the panel of celebrity judges in the TBS Superstation show He's a Lady.

In 2006, Salley was named the Commissioner of the American Basketball Association.

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 professional wrestler John Cena and tennis star Serena Williams.

Salley joined the cast of the reality competition show I'm a Celebrity...Help Me Out of Here!, which premiered on June 1, 2009.[3]

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.

For a short time, Salley provided analysis for NBC's NBA Showtime.

Salley appeared in the Disney Channel original movie, The Ultimate Christmas Present as a tall elf.

Personal life

Salley is a devoted vegan and has appeared on PETA's testimonial videos.[4]

References

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "I'm a Celebrity Cast Announced; Blagojevich Inexplicably Still Involved". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
  4. ^ "I am an athlete and I am a vegan", Featured Veggie Testimonial, PETA, Accessed July 04, 2008.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Salley.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Salley&oldid=297747142"