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Paul Pressey

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Paul Pressey
Pressey at a banquet event in June 2016
Personal information
Born (1958-12-24) December 24, 1958 (age 65)
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High schoolGeorge Wythe (Richmond, Virginia)
College
NBA draft1982: 1st round, 20th overall pick
Selected by the Milwaukee Bucks
Playing career1982–1993
PositionSmall forward
Number25, 8, 5
Coaching career1994–2016
Career history
As player:
1982–1990Milwaukee Bucks
1990–1992San Antonio Spurs
1992–1993Golden State Warriors
As coach:
1992–1994Golden State Warriors (assistant)
1994–2000San Antonio Spurs (assistant)
2000–2004Orlando Magic (assistant)
2004–2006Boston Celtics (assistant)
2007–2010New Orleans Hornets (assistant)
2010–2013Cleveland Cavaliers (assistant)
2014–2016Los Angeles Lakers (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
As player:

As assistant coach:

Career NBA statistics
Points7,664 (10.6 ppg)
Rebounds2,798 (3.9 rpg)
Assists3,715 (5.1 apg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

Paul Matthew Pressey (born December 24, 1958) is an American former professional basketball player who was also an assistant coach for seven different National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. Pressey is widely credited as being one of the initial point forwards,[1][2] combining the attributes of a point guard and forward.

Basketball career

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In 1979, while at Western Texas, Pressey and his teammates went 37-0 and won the NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.[3]

In 1982, while playing for Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball, Pressey was awarded MVC Player of the Year after averaging 13.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 3.2 steals.[4]

While playing small forward for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1980s, Pressey took on many of the ball handling duties, even leading the team in assists for five straight years. As a rookie on March 26, 1983, Pressey scored a season-high 23 points and recorded 4 steals in a 89–81 victory against the New York Knicks.[5]

A renowned defender throughout his career, Pressey was named to the All-NBA Defensive Team three times, and was top 20 in the league in defensive rating, an advanced metric, four consecutive seasons from 1982–83 to 1985–86.[6] He participated in the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, finishing in 6th place out of 8. During his tenure in Milwaukee, alongside hall-of-famers Sidney Moncrief, Bob Lanier, and Marques Johnson, Pressey and the Bucks reached the Eastern Conference Finals three times, although they never advanced to the NBA Finals.[7]

In the 1984-85 NBA season, Pressey helped the Bucks to a 59–23 record, starting 80 games and leading the Bucks in assists with 6.8 per game, while adding 16.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.[8] In that year's playoffs, Pressey and the Bucks advanced past the Michael Jordan-led Bulls in the first round, with Pressey scoring 20 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, and 6 steals in a deciding Game 4 victory.[9] However, in the following round the Bucks would lose in a sweep to the Philadelphia 76ers.[10]

On February 19, 1986, Pressey scored 26 points on 11-15 shooting and recorded 11 assists while leading the Bucks to a 124–107 victory against the Dallas Mavericks.[11] A week later, on February 25, Pressey set a career high with 16 assists in a 114–99 win against the Los Angeles Clippers.[12] In the 1986 NBA Playoffs, Pressey recorded a triple-double with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 16 assists in Game 5 of the 1986 Eastern Conference Semifinals versus the Philadelphia 76ers on May 7, 1986.[13] The Bucks would win the series in 7 games, before being eliminated in the Conference Finals by the Celtics in the next round.

On November 7, 1988, Pressey played 48 minutes, the entire game, due to injuries to various teammates and scored 21 points, while recording 8 assists, and grabbing 6 rebounds, in a loss against the New Jersey Nets.[14]

During the 1990 NBA Playoffs, his last with the Bucks, Pressey helped Milwaukee to a Game 3 win over the Chicago Bulls with 19 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals.[15] However, the Bucks would go on to lose the series. On August 1, 1990, Pressey was traded to San Antonio for Frank Brickowski.[16]

On November 7, 1990, Pressey scored 14 points and recorded 10 assists in one of the highest scoring games in NBA history, as the Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets 161–153.[17] Teammates David Robinson and Terry Cummings combined for 74 points.

On May 5, 1992, Pressey was released by the Spurs.[18]

In 1992–93, he came out of semi-retirement while an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors to help the team deal with many injuries to other players. He played 18 games before getting injured too.

Career statistics

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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

NBA

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Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1982–83 Milwaukee 79 18 19.3 .457 .111 .597 3.6 2.6 1.3 0.6 6.7
1983–84 Milwaukee 81 18 21.4 .523 .222 .600 3.5 3.1 1.1 0.6 8.3
1984–85 Milwaukee 80 80 36.0 .517 .350 .758 5.4 6.8 1.6 0.7 16.1
1985–86 Milwaukee 80 80 33.8 .488 .182 .806 5.0 7.8 2.1 0.9 14.3
1986–87 Milwaukee 61 60 33.7 .477 .291 .738 4.9 7.2 1.8 0.8 13.9
1987–88 Milwaukee 75 75 33.1 .491 .205 .798 5.0 7.0 1.5 0.5 13.1
1988–89 Milwaukee 67 62 32.4 .474 .218 .776 3.9 6.6 1.8 0.7 12.1
1989–90 Milwaukee 57 2 24.6 .472 .140 .758 3.0 4.3 1.2 0.4 11.0
1990–91 San Antonio 70 18 24.0 .472 .281 .827 2.5 3.9 0.9 0.5 7.5
1991–92 San Antonio 56 7 13.6 .373 .143 .683 1.7 2.5 0.5 0.3 2.7
1992–93 Golden State 18 0 14.9 .439 .000 .778 1.7 1.7 0.6 0.3 4.4
Career 724 420 27.2 .485 .222 .749 3.9 5.1 1.4 0.6 10.6

Playoffs

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1982–83 Milwaukee 9 - 16.7 .404 .000 .400 3.7 1.6 1.0 0.7 5.1
1983–84 Milwaukee 16 - 21.9 .520 .000 .679 3.7 3.1 1.4 0.6 8.9
1984–85 Milwaukee 8 8 37.0 .511 .333 .816 6.0 7.6 2.3 0.6 15.3
1985–86 Milwaukee 14 14 37.9 .484 .333 .761 4.3 7.9 1.3 0.9 16.1
1986–87 Milwaukee 12 12 38.8 .466 .125 .739 5.2 8.6 2.3 0.7 14.3
1987–88 Milwaukee 5 5 35.6 .460 .333 .767 3.8 6.6 0.8 0.6 14.0
1989–90 Milwaukee 4 2 32.3 .432 .000 .808 5.3 7.5 1.5 0.3 14.8
1990–91 San Antonio 4 0 31.0 .406 .250 .667 2.8 4.0 2.0 0.8 8.3
1991–92 San Antonio 3 2 15.3 .333 .500 .000 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.3 4.3
Career 75 43 30.3 .471 .244 .728 4.2 5.6 1.5 0.7 11.7

College

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1980–81 Tulsa 33 32 31.8 .476 - .579 5.4 5.2 2.9 0.8 10.3
1981–82 Tulsa 30 30 32.4 .560 - .664 6.4 4.0 3.2 0.7 13.2
Career 63 62 32.1 .517 - .624 5.9 4.6 3.0 0.7 11.7

Post-playing career

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During the 1998–99 season, Pressey won a championship as an assistant coach for the Spurs.[19]

His daughter Angie [20] attended the University of California, Berkeley and was a member of the Golden Bear volleyball squad that was a semifinalist at the women's 2007 NCAA Final Four. His sons Jeremiah (Paul Jr.)[21] and Phil[22] played basketball for Missouri.[23] Phil played for multiple teams in the NBA from 2013 to 2016, and now plays in Europe.[24]

In 2010, Pressey became an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers.[25] He served in that role until 2013.[26] On September 16, 2014; he was added to Byron Scott's coaching staff for the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2019, he became an assistant coach for St Johns University.[27]

In a September 2019 interview, while looking back on being drafted and then playing a relatively long NBA career, Pressey said “It was a dream but a far-fetched dream. I wanted it to happen but felt that I would just get my degree and maybe get into coaching. I thought that I might get picked in the 2nd or 3rd round but never thought I would go in the 1st round.”[28]

References

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  1. ^ "Lakers Assistant Paul Pressey was the NBA's 1st Point-Forward". Lake Show Life.
  2. ^ "WHO ACTUALLY CAME UP WITH 'POINT FORWARD'? It wasn't Scottie Pippen". Basketball Network.
  3. ^ "Season preview: HoopsHD interviews St. John's special assistant Paul Pressey". September 2019.
  4. ^ "Paul Pressey College Stats".
  5. ^ "Milwaukee Bucks at New York Knicks Box Score, March 26, 1983".
  6. ^ "Paul Pressey Stats".
  7. ^ "Milwaukee Bucks Franchise Index".
  8. ^ "1984-85 Milwaukee Bucks Roster and Stats". Basketball Reference.
  9. ^ "1985 NBA Eastern Conference First Round Game 4: Milwaukee Bucks at Chicago Bulls Box Score, April 26, 1985". Basketball Reference.
  10. ^ "76ERS SWEEP BUCKS". The New York Times.
  11. ^ "Milwaukee Bucks at Dallas Mavericks Box Score, February 19, 1986".
  12. ^ "Paul Pressey Career High 16 Assists". Statmuse.
  13. ^ "Paul Pressey Triple Double Playoffs".
  14. ^ "New Jersey Nets at Milwaukee Bucks Box Score, November 17, 1988".
  15. ^ "1990 NBA Eastern Conference First Round Game 3: Chicago Bulls at Milwaukee Bucks Box Score, May 1, 1990". Basketball Reference.
  16. ^ "Paul Pressey Stats".
  17. ^ "Denver Nuggets at San Antonio Spurs Box Score, November 7, 1990".
  18. ^ "Paul Pressey Stats".
  19. ^ "Spurs by the Numbers- the history of #8 continues with Paul Pressey". June 5, 2020.
  20. ^ Angie Pressey Archived 2007-12-14 at the Wayback Machine. Calbears.cstv.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-04.
  21. ^ "Matt Pressey". University of Missouri Sports Information. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
  22. ^ Phil Archived September 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ "Phil Pre". University of Missouri Sports Information. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
  24. ^ "Phil Pressey Stats".
  25. ^ NBA transactions, 2010–11. Nba.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-04.
  26. ^ Cleveland Cavaliers might move quickly to court Mike Brown before other teams do, NBA source tells Plain Dealer
  27. ^ "St. John's adds Pressey, DeMeo to coaching staff". Newsday. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  28. ^ "Season preview: HoopsHD interviews St. John's special assistant Paul Pressey". September 2019.
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