Fat Lever

Lafayette "Fat" Lever (born August 18, 1960) is a retired American professional basketball player born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas who played in the NBA. He is currently the director of player development for the Sacramento Kings.^[1] Lever also serves as the color analyst for the Kings radio broadcasts.^[2]

Professional Career

Lever was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers as the 11th pick in the 1982 NBA Draft out of Arizona State. While at ASU, his guard-tandem teammate was Byron Scott who left school early (1983) to sign with the San Diego Clippers. He was considered one of the NBA's best point guards in the late 1980s while playing for the Denver Nuggets.^[3] Despite his size (6 feet 3 inches) he regularly led the Nuggets in rebounding.

Lever was traded by the Nuggets to the Dallas Mavericks in 1990 for the Mavs' #9 pick in the 1990 NBA Draft plus Dallas' first-round pick in the following one. The Nuggets subsequently traded the #9 pick and their own #15 pick to the Miami Heat for the Heat's #3 pick in the 1990 Draft, with Denver sending the Mavs' 1991 first rounder (which was originally the Detroit Pistons' pick they acquired in the Mark Aguirre/Adrian Dantley trade) to the Washington Bullets along with Michael Adams, for the Bullets' first round pick in the 1991 Draft.

Lever sat out the entire 1992-93 season due to knee injury. He finished his career with the Mavericks in 1994 with career averages of 13.9 points, six rebounds, 6.2 assists and 2.22 steals per game. He is the Nuggets' all-time franchise leader in steals and was 2nd in career assists. He is one of only three players in NBA history to record 15 plus points, rebounds and assists in a single playoff game (the others being Jason Kidd and Wilt Chamberlain). Among Lever's career achievements were making two NBA All-Star teams, an All-NBA Second Team in 1987, an All-Defensive Second Team in 1988, and, as of 2014, ranking 6th on the all-time list of Most Triple-Doubles in the Regular Season with 43 over 11 seasons, ahead of players like Michael Jordan (28) and Clyde Drexler (25).

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
1982–83	Portland	81	45	24.9	.431	.333	.730	2.8	5.3	1.9	.2	7.8
1983–84	Portland	81	22	24.8	.447	.200	.743	2.7	4.6	1.7	.4	9.7
1984–85	Denver	82	82	31.2	.430	.250	.770	5.0	7.5	2.5	.4	12.8
1985–86	Denver	78	77	33.5	.441	.316	.725	5.4	7.5	2.3	.2	13.8
1986–87	Denver	82	82	37.2	.469	.239	.782	8.9	8.0	2.5	.4	18.9
1987–88	Denver	82	82	37.3	.473	.211	.785	8.1	7.8	2.7	.3	18.9
1988–89	Denver	71	71	38.7	.457	.348	.785	9.3	7.9	2.7	.3	19.8
1989–90	Denver	79	79	35.8	.443	.414	.804	9.3	6.5	2.1	.2	18.3
1990–91	Dallas	4	0	21.5	.391	.000	.786	3.8	3.0	1.5	.8	7.3
1991–92	Dallas	31	5	28.5	.387	.327	.750	5.2	3.5	1.5	.4	11.2
1993–94	Dallas	81	54	24.0	.408	.351	.765	3.5	2.6	2.0	.2	6.9
Career		752	599	31.7	.447	.310	.771	6.0	6.2	2.2	.3	13.9
All-Star		2	1	26.5	.519	.000	.875	3.5	2.5	1.0	.0	16.5

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1983	Portland	7	0	19.1	.452	.000	.800	2.0	4.4	1.0	.0	6.0
1984	Portland	5	0	15.0	.267	.667	.800	3.0	1.8	.8	.0	5.2
1985	Denver	11	8	31.1	.402	.000	.762	6.5	8.5	2.4	.2	13.3
1986	Denver	10	10	34.7	.450	.571	.708	4.8	5.3	2.0	.2	14.3
1987	Denver	3	3	33.0	.380	.250	.667	6.0	7.3	2.3	.0	15.3
1988	Denver	7	7	39.0	.459	.429	.788	9.3	7.0	1.9	.6	17.0
1989	Denver	2	2	29.0	.375	.667	1.000	6.5	9.5	2.0	.0	11.0
1990	Denver	3	3	37.7	.373	.143	.929	10.7	7.0	2.7	.3	17.3
Career		48	33	30.0	.414	.409	.775	5.8	6.2	1.9	.2	12.4

References

External links

College & NBA stats @ Basketball-Reference.com

Sacramento Kings

Formerly the Rochester Royals, the Cincinnati Royals, the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, and the Kansas City Kings Founded in 1945 Based in Sacramento, California

The Franchise	Franchise All-Time roster Head coaches Seasons Current season

Arenas	Edgerton Park Arena Rochester War Memorial Cincinnati Gardens Kansas City Municipal Auditorium Omaha Civic Auditorium Kemper Arena ARCO Arena I Sleep Train Arena New Sacramento arena

D-League Affiliate	Reno Bighorns

Administration	Vivek Ranadivé (Chairman) Pete D'Alessandro (President of Basketball Operations) Mike Bratz (VP of Basketball Ops.) George Karl (Head Coach)

Retired Numbers	1 2 4 6 (Sixth Man) 11 12 14 16 21 27 44

NBA Championships (1)	1951

Culture and Lore	Failed relocation attempts 2002 Western Conference Finals Game 6 Slamson the Lion

Media	TV Comcast SportsNet California Radio KHTK-AM Announcers Gary Gerould Grant Napear Jerry Reynolds Fat Lever

1982 NBA Draft

First round	James Worthy Terry Cummings Dominique Wilkins Bill Garnett LaSalle Thompson Trent Tucker Quintin Dailey Clark Kellogg Cliff Levingston Keith Edmonson Fat Lever John Bagley Sleepy Floyd Lester Conner David Thirdkill Terry Teagle Brook Steppe Ricky Pierce Rob Williams Paul Pressey Eddie Phillips Mark McNamara Darren Tillis

Second round	Oliver Robinson Bryan Warrick Ricky Frazier Fred Roberts Dave Magley Scott Hastings Wallace Bryant Rod Higgins Richard Anderson Linton Townes Vince Taylor Derek Smith Mitchell Anderson Audie Norris Wayne Sappleton Kevin Magee Guy Morgan Dwight Anderson Jeff Taylor Jose Slaughter Mike Gibson Russ Schoene Tony Guy