Kevin Willis

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Kevin Alvin Willis (born September 6, 1962 in Los Angeles, California) is a 7-foot former basketball player in the NBA at the center and power forward and positions and during the 2004-05 season was the oldest active player in the league at 42 years of age.

Willis was drafted in 1984 out of Michigan State University by the Atlanta Hawks. He played with the Hawks for nine seasons (plus two games of a tenth season) until 1994. Willis teamed with Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb, and Doc Rivers to often guide the Hawks to Playoffs appearances as well as providing a fierce rebounding presence in the post. Near the end of his stint with the Hawks, he and Wilkins were both made team captains. Willis was traded to the Miami Heat in 1994. Since then he has played with the Golden State Warriors, two separate stints with the Houston Rockets, the Denver Nuggets, the Toronto Raptors and the San Antonio Spurs. It was in 2003 with the Spurs that he finally won an NBA Championship ring. Willis is one of 15 players in NBA history with over 16,000 career points and 11,000 career rebounds. He was named to the NBA Eastern Conference All-Star Team in 1992.

It is widely accepted that Willis' disproportionately short arms, sometimes referred to as "T-Rex Arms", have had a detrimental effect to his career, and may have prevented him from becoming a perennial all-star.

Willis returned to the Hawks for one more season in 2004-05, and by doing so, positioned himself to be the oldest player in the league.

Willis holds career averages of 12.2 ppg, 8.4 rpg, and 0.4 apg while averaging 27 minutes per game in 20 NBA seasons.

[edit] External links

• http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kevin_willis/index.html
• http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willike02.html