Adrian Dantley

Nickname: "A.D."

His Game:
Adrian Dantley was a great scorer who, thanks to his strenght and an explosive first step, couldn't be stopped near the basket but had a nice outside shot as well. Frank Layden, his coach in Utah once said Dantley was capable of scoring "in a raging storm at sea".

His Career:
Selected at the 6th spot of the 1976 NBA Draft by the Buffalo Braves. Got traded to Indiana after his rookie season. Played only 23 games for the Pacers before getting traded to the LA Lakers. After the 1979 season though, the Lakers, who already had a star small forward in Jamaal Wilkes, traded him to the Utah Jazz.

In Utah, Dantley immediately became a superstar and the league's deadliest scorer. His consistency at scoring was remarkable and his shooting percentage unreal, for a non-center. He didn't manage to lead the team to the playoffs though until 1984. The Jazz repeated this during the next two seasons but by 1986 his bad relationship with his coach resulted in him getting traded again, this time to the Detroit Pistons.

He was part of the team that advanced to the 1988 NBA Finals where they lost to the LA Lakers in seven games. During the 1989 midseason he was traded to Dallas and, ironically, Detroit won the Championship 3 months later.

He averaged a career-low 14.7 points in 1990, partly because of injuries. The following year he played just 10 games for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Honors:
Dantley led the NBA in scoring in 1981 and 1984. He was the 1977 Rookie of the Year and a 6-time All-Star (1980-'82, 1984-'86). Selected at the All-NBA Second Team in 1981 and 1984. Led the League in free-throws Made five times. In 1984 he tied the record for most free-throws made in a game, hitting 28. Was the All-Time 9th scorer when he retired. Was named Comeback Player of the Year in 1984. He is Utah's No. 3 all-time scorer and he owns three of the six highest-scoring games in franchise history, including a career-best 57 against Chicago in 1982-'83. His jersey number (#4) has been retired by the Utah Jazz.

Highlights:
In his first ever appearance in the NBA Finals, in 1988, Dantley scored 34 points on 14-of-16 shooting from the field.

YEAR	Team	Games	Pts	FT %	FG %	3PM	3-pt %	Reb.	Trn	Ast	St	Blk	Min.	Star?
1977	Buffalo	77	20.3	.818	.520	0	.000	7.6	--	1.9	1.2	0.2	36.6	YES
1978	Indiana / LA Lakers	79	21.5	.796	.512	0	.000	7.8	2.9	3.2	1.5	0.3	37.1	YES
1979	LA Lakers	60	17.3	.854	.510	0	.000	5.7	2.6	2.3	1.1	0.2	29.6	YES
1980	Utah	68	28.0	.842	.576	0	.000	7.6	3.4	2.8	1.4	0.2	39.3	YES
1981	Utah	80	30.7	.806	.559	2	.286	6.4	3.5	4.0	1.4	0.2	42.7	YES
1982	Utah	81	30.3	.792	.570	1	.333	6.3	3.7	4.0	1.2	0.2	39.8	YES
1983	Utah	22	30.7	.847	.580	0	.000	6.4	3.7	4.8	0.9	0.0	40.3	YES
1984	Utah	79	30.6	.859	.558	1	.250	5.7	3.3	3.9	0.8	0.1	37.8	YES
1985	Utah	55	26.6	.804	.531	0	.000	5.9	3.1	3.4	1.0	0.1	35.8	YES
1986	Utah	76	29.8	.791	.563	1	.091	5.2	3.0	3.5	0.8	0.1	36.1	YES
1987	Detroit	81	21.5	.812	.534	1	.167	4.1	2.2	2.0	0.8	0.1	33.8	YES
1988	Detroit	69	20.0	.860	.514	0	.000	3.3	2.0	2.5	0.6	0.1	31.1	YES
1989	Detroit / Dallas	73	19.2	.810	.493	0	.000	4.3	2.2	2.3	0.6	0.2	33.2	YES
1990	Dallas	45	14.7	.787	.477	0	.000	3.8	1.7	1.8	0.4	0.2	28.9	No
1991	Milwaukee	10	5.7	.692	.380	1	.333	1.3	0.6	0.9	0.5	0.0	12.6	No
Career	Career	955	24.3	.818	.540	7	.171	5.7	2.9	3.0	1.0	0.2	35.8	YES

Adrian Delano Dantley

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