Rodney McCray (basketball)

{{short description|American former basketball player (born 1961)}}

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Rodney McCray

| image = Rodney McCray 88-89.jpg

| image_size =

| caption =

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 7

| weight_lb = 220

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1961|08|29}}

| birth_place = Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.

| high_school = Mount Vernon
(Mount Vernon, New York)

| college = Louisville (1979–1983)

| draft_year = 1983

| draft_round = 1

| draft_pick = 3

| draft_team = Houston Rockets

| career_start = 1983

| career_end = 1993

| career_position = Small forward

| career_number = 22, 1

| years1 = {{nbay|1983|start}}–{{nbay|1987|end}}

| team1 = Houston Rockets

| years2 = {{nbay|1988|start}}–{{nbay|1989|end}}

| team2 = Sacramento Kings

| years3 = {{nbay|1990|start}}–{{nbay|1991|end}}

| team3 = Dallas Mavericks

| years4 = {{nbay|1992|full=y}}

| team4 = Chicago Bulls

| highlights =

NBA champion (1993)
NBA All-Defensive First Team (1988)
NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1987)
NCAA champion (1980)
Metro Conference Player of the Year (1983)
First-team All-Metro Conference (1983)
Fourth-team Parade All-American (1979)

| stat1label = Points

| stat1value = 9,014 (11.7 ppg)

| stat2label = Rebounds

| stat2value = 5,087 (6.6 rpg)

| stat3label = Assists

| stat3value = 2,750 (3.6 apg)

| profile = rodney_mccray

| bbr = mccraro01

}}

Rodney Earl McCray (born August 29, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'7" small forward, he spent 10 seasons (1983–93) in the National Basketball Association (NBA), tallying 9,014 career points and 5,087 career rebounds.

College career

McCray attended the University of Louisville and was a key member of the Cardinals team that won the 1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. His college teammates included his brother, Scooter McCray, as well as Darrell Griffith and Derek Smith. McCray qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. In 2007, he did receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.{{cite book|last1=Caroccioli|first1=Tom|last2=Caroccioli|first2=Jerry|title=Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games|publisher=New Chapter Press|location=Highland Park, IL|isbn=978-0942257403|pages=243–253|date=May 2008}}

Professional career

He was drafted by the NBA's Houston Rockets with the third pick of the 1983 NBA draft and played four seasons with them, averaging 10.8 points per game with the Rockets,{{cite book |last=Roselius |first=J. Chris |title=Houston Rockets EBook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4fDBU1pbp4kC&pg=PA22 |access-date=April 12, 2013 |date=September 1, 2011 |publisher=ABDO |isbn=978-1-61787-779-7 |page=22}} and further averaging double-digit scoring in eight of his first nine seasons.[https://www.si.com/nba/bulls/old-school/how-michael-jordans-trash-talk-forced-rodney-mccray-into-early-retirement How Michael Jordan's trash talk forced Rodney McCray into early retirement] A renowned defender, he also earned NBA All-Defensive Team honors in 1987 and 1988, as well as a trip to the NBA Finals in 1986 in a losing cause against Larry Bird's Boston Celtics.{{cite book |last=Mallozzi |first=Vincent M. |title=Basketball: the legends and the game |url=https://archive.org/details/basketballlegend0000mall |url-access=registration |access-date=April 12, 2013 |date=October 1, 1998 |publisher=Firefly Books |isbn=978-1-55209-247-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/basketballlegend0000mall/page/219 219]}} In 1988, he was traded to the Sacramento Kings with Jim Petersen in a package for Otis Thorpe. In 1990, he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks for Bill Wennington. He spent his final season with the Chicago Bulls after being dealt to them in a three-team trade.{{cite book |last=Ramsay |first=Dr. Jack |title=Dr. Jack's Leadership Lessons Learned From a Lifetime in Basketball |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDQYw_Dr-hEC&pg=PA179 |access-date=April 12, 2013 |date=January 5, 2004 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-471-46929-2 |page=179}} He finished his career by winning an NBA championship ring with the Bulls in 1993.