Otis Thorpe

Otis Thorpe
Personal information
Born August 5, 1962
Boynton Beach, Florida
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight 245 lb (111 kg)
Career information
High school Lake Worth Community
(Lake Worth, Florida)
College Providence (1980–1984)
NBA draft 1984 / Round: 1 / Pick: 9th overall
Selected by the Kansas City Kings
Pro career 1984–2001
Position Power forward / Center
Number 33, 24, 50, 10, 52
Career history
19841988 Kansas City / Sacramento Kings
19881995 Houston Rockets
1995 Portland Trail Blazers
19951997 Detroit Pistons
1997–1998 Vancouver Grizzlies
1998 Sacramento Kings
1999 Washington Wizards
1999–2000 Miami Heat
2000–2001 Charlotte Hornets
Career highlights and awards
Career statistics
Points 17,600 (14.0 ppg)
Rebounds 10,370 (8.2 rpg)
Assists 2,730 (2.2 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Otis Henry Thorpe (born August 5, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player who played for several teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an NBA All-Star in 1992 and won an NBA championship with the Houston Rockets in 1994.

Early years

Otis Thorpe graduated in 1980 from Lake Worth Community High School in Florida. He played his college ball at Providence College. The school remembers him for having the longest NBA career of any Friar player. He ranks seventh all-time at the school in rebounds and was the school's first First-Team Big East player. During his tenure at Providence College he was also a two-time Honorable Mention All-America selection.[1]

NBA career

Thorpe was drafted by the Kansas City Kings as the ninth overall pick in the first round of the 1984 NBA draft and played seventeen seasons in the NBA, seven and a half of which were played with the Houston Rockets. While with the Rockets, Thorpe made an All-Star appearance in 1992. Thorpe played in 542 consecutive games between 1986 and 1992 and, at one time, held the longest streak of consecutive games played in the NBA.[2]

In 1994, Thorpe was an integral part of the Houston Rockets' first NBA Championship. He also holds the Rockets' all-time record for the highest field goal accuracy (55.9%).

Halfway through the next season, the Rockets realized that they were struggling and needed a change. The team sent Thorpe to the Portland Trail Blazers in a deal for Clyde Drexler. He would only play 34 games for the Blazers before moving on to occupy the starting front court for the Detroit Pistons with Grant Hill for the next two years.

Before the start of the 1997-98 season, the Pistons dealt Thorpe to the Vancouver Grizzlies for a future first-round draft pick. This deal came back to haunt the franchise during the 2003 NBA Draft Lottery when they would have received the second pick and had their choice of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, or Dwyane Wade, but they were forced to hand the pick over to the Pistons because they had yet to honor the trade. (The Pistons used the pick to choose Darko Miličić.)

Thorpe would play 47 games with the Grizzlies before returning to the Kings. In the offseason, he was traded (along with Mitch Richmond) to the Washington Wizards for Chris Webber. He would finish his last two seasons with the Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets. When Thorpe finished his last game in 2001, he was the last remaining member of the Kansas City Kings to retire.

Thorpe holds career averages of 14.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. He retired from the Charlotte Hornets in 2001, finishing his career with over 17,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in the NBA.

Personal life

Thorpe is married to Donella Thorpe and lives in the Austin TX area. The couple have two children. One is Daniel Thorpe who averages 27 points a game and is 6' 5" in the 8th grade. His daughter plays volleyball at A&M.

NBA career statistics

NBA championship
Led the league

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
1984–85 Kansas City 82 23 23.4 .600 .000 .620 6.8 1.4 .4 .5 12.8
1985–86 Sacramento 75 18 22.3 .587 .661 5.6 1.1 .5 .5 9.9
1986–87 Sacramento 82 82 36.0 .540 .000 .761 10.0 2.5 .6 .7 18.9
1987–88 Sacramento 82 82 37.5 .507 .000 .755 10.2 3.2 .8 .7 20.8
1988–89 Houston 82 82 38.2 .542 .000 .729 9.6 2.5 1.0 .5 16.7
1989–90 Houston 82 82 35.9 .548 .000 .688 9.0 3.2 .8 .3 17.1
1990–91 Houston 82 82 37.1 .556 .429 .696 10.3 2.4 .9 .2 17.5
1991–92 Houston 82 82 37.3 .592 .000 .657 10.5 3.0 .6 .5 17.3
1992–93 Houston 72 69 32.7 .558 .000 .598 8.2 2.5 .6 .3 12.8
1993–94 Houston 82 82 35.5 .561 .000 .657 10.6 2.3 .8 .3 14.0
1994–95 Houston 36 35 33.0 .563 .000 .528 8.9 1.6 .6 .4 13.3
1994–95 Portland 34 0 26.7 .568 .000 .649 6.9 1.6 .6 .4 13.5
1995–96 Detroit 82 82 34.6 .530 .000 .710 8.4 1.9 .6 .5 14.2
1996–97 Detroit 79 79 33.7 .532 .000 .653 7.9 1.7 .7 .2 13.1
1997–98 Vancouver 47 46 33.5 .477 .000 .694 7.9 3.4 .6 .5 11.2
1997–98 Sacramento 27 20 23.1 .459 .000 .657 6.1 2.3 .7 .3 8.3
1998–99 Washington 49 38 31.4 .545 .000 .698 6.8 2.1 .9 .4 11.3
1999–2000 Miami 51 1 15.2 .514 .000 .604 3.3 .6 .5 .2 5.5
2000–01 Charlotte 49 4 13.2 .450 .833 3.0 .6 .2 .1 2.8
All-Star 1 0 4.0 1.000 2.0
Career 1,257 989 31.7 .546 .047 .687 8.2 2.2 .7 .4 14.0

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1986 Sacramento 3 0 11.7 .231 .462 4.0 .0 .0 .3 4.0
1989 Houston 4 4 38.0 .649 .762 5.0 3.0 1.3 .3 16.0
1990 Houston 4 4 41.0 .600 .684 8.3 1.8 1.3 .0 20.0
1991 Houston 3 3 38.7 .579 .500 8.3 2.7 .7 .0 15.7
1993 Houston 12 12 34.9 .635 .651 8.6 2.6 .5 .1 14.5
1994 Houston 23 23 37.1 .572 .500 .567 9.9 2.3 .6 .4 11.3
1995 Portland 3 0 22.0 .571 .700 4.3 .7 .0 .0 10.3
1996 Detroit 3 3 33.7 .542 .750 11.7 2.3 .0 .0 11.7
1997 Detroit 5 5 30.4 .512 .778 6.4 .8 .4 .0 9.8
2000 Miami 10 0 13.6 .481 .000 .500 2.9 .3 .0 .2 3.3
2001 Charlotte 8 0 7.1 .222 2.1 .0 .0 .0 .5
Career 78 54 28.9 .569 .333 .631 7.0 1.6 .4 .2 10.1

See also

References

External links