Robert John Pack Jr.
Born: February 3, 1969
Position: Point Guard
Height: 6-2 (1.88 m)
Jerseys worn: #??
In the NBA:
Nickname: Pac-Man
His Game:
Robert Pack was an explosive point guard who spent the biggest part of his 13 NBA seasons as a bench player due to frequent injuries.
His Career:
Pack was never drafted by an NBA team. He was first signed as a free agent by Portland and played 72 games on a team that reached the NBA finals. His playing time was limited though as he was Terry Porter's reserve and averaged 4.6 points and 1.9 assists in 12.4 minutes.
The next year he got traded to the Denver Nuggets. He spent 3 productive seasons in Denver as a key reserve. He was a member of the team (#8 in the regular season) that beat the Seattle Supersonics (#1) in the first round of the 1994 Playoffs (if you ever watched the famous highlight of Mutombo crying on the floor in a Nuggets uniform, it's from the end of this series). In fact, he scored 23 points in the decisive game 5. In 1994 he averaged 9.6 points and 5.4 assists off the bench and in 1995 he had 12.1 and 6.9, starting 32 of the 42 games he played before getting injured.
The Nuggets would then trade Pack to the Washington Bullets. In Washington Pack enjoyed his best season (1995-'96), averaging career-highs in points (18.1), rebounds (4.3), steals (2.0) and free-throw accuracy (84,6%), while also dishing 7.8 assists per game. Unfortunately, a serious injury forced him to miss 51 of the season's 82 games.
He started the 1996-'97 season with the New Jersey Nets but soon got traded to the Dallas Maverics. Overall he had 14.3 points and a career-high 8.4 assists in 54 games. He stayed in Dallas for the next 3 years, but missed the biggest part of each season, after 7 different injuries that led to 4 surgeries!
He returned to Denver for an almost-healthy 2001 season (he played in 74 games), averaging 6.5 points and 4 assists off the bench. The next 3 seasons he played for Minnesota, New Orleans and New Jersey.
Highlights:
I know that this isn't considered as a Career Highlight, but I still remember an amazing dunk he made over Shawn Bradley, around the mid-90's. He also finished 2nd in the 1994 Slam Dunk Contest.
Statistics:
| YEAR |
Team |
Games |
Pts |
FT % |
FG % |
3PM |
3-pt % |
Reb. |
Trn |
Ast |
St |
Blk |
Min. |
Star? |
| 1992 |
Portland |
72 |
4.6 |
.803 |
.423 |
0 |
.000 |
1.3 |
1.3 |
1.9 |
0.6 |
0.1 |
12.4 |
No |
| 1993 |
Denver |
77 |
10.5 |
.768 |
.470 |
1 |
.125 |
2.1 |
2.4 |
4.4 |
1.1 |
0.1 |
20.5 |
No |
| 1994 |
Denver |
66 |
9.6 |
.758 |
.443 |
6 |
.207 |
1.9 |
3.1 |
5.4 |
1.2 |
0.1 |
20.9 |
No |
| 1995 |
Denver |
42 |
12.1 |
.783 |
.430 |
30 |
.417 |
2.7 |
3.2 |
6.9 |
1.5 |
0.1 |
27.2 |
YES |
| 1996 |
Washington |
31 |
18.1 |
.846 |
.428 |
26 |
.265 |
4.3 |
3.7 |
7.8 |
2.0 |
0.0 |
35.0 |
YES |
| 1997 |
New Jersey / Dallas |
54 |
14.3 |
.807 |
.392 |
31 |
.277 |
2.7 |
4.0 |
8.4 |
1.7 |
0.1 |
33.0 |
YES |
| 1998 |
Dallas |
12 |
7.8 |
.694 |
.337 |
3 |
.500 |
2.8 |
3.2 |
3.5 |
1.7 |
0.1 |
24.3 |
No |
| 1999 |
Dallas |
25 |
8.9 |
.818 |
.431 |
0 |
.000 |
1.4 |
2.0 |
3.2 |
0.8 |
0.0 |
18.7 |
No |
| 2000 |
Dallas |
29 |
8.9 |
.808 |
.417 |
4 |
.364 |
1.4 |
2.6 |
5.8 |
1.1 |
0.1 |
22.9 |
No |
| 2001 |
Denver |
74 |
6.5 |
.766 |
.425 |
12 |
.387 |
1.9 |
1.8 |
4.0 |
0.9 |
0.0 |
17.0 |
No |
| 2002 |
Minnesota |
16 |
3.9 |
.733 |
.368 |
1 |
.250 |
1.4 |
1.3 |
3.1 |
0.8 |
0.0 |
15.8 |
No |
| 2003 |
New Orleans |
28 |
5.2 |
.745 |
.403 |
0 |
.000 |
1.8 |
1.4 |
2.9 |
0.9 |
0.0 |
15.7 |
No |
| 2004 |
New Jersey |
26 |
1.9 |
.833 |
.423 |
0 |
.000 |
0.7 |
0.6 |
1.0 |
0.5 |
0.0 |
8.5 |
No |
| Career |
Career |
552 |
8.9 |
.787 |
.425 |
114 |
.292 |
2.0 |
2.4 |
4.6 |
1.1 |
0.1 |
20.8 |
No |
In Europe:
In Spain:
Pack was signed by Spanish team Valencia on February 2004. He played 13 games for them in the Spanish League and 5 in the Euroleague. His combined averages were: 11 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.1 steals while making 37% of his field goal attempts and 79% of his free throw attempts.
In Lithuania:
He played for Zalgiris Kaunas during the 2004-'05 season. The team got to the Euroleague Playoffs (Top 16) but couldn't advance to the next round.
However, they won both the Lithuanian Championship and the Baltic League Championship. Pack had a fine season with 17.3 points and 3.4 assists per game (though he also averaged 3.6 turnovers), while shooting 49% from the field and 80% in FT's.