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John Thomas "Spider" Salley (born May 16, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA, actor and talk show host.
He is a 1988 graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Management.
At 6'11" (2.11 m), Salley played both power forward and center for the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers. He gained the nickname "Spider" for his in-your-face style of guarding his opponent. Salley is also the first player in NBA history to play on three different championship
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John Thomas "Spider" Salley (born May 16, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA, actor and talk show host.
He is a 1988 graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Management.
At 6'11" (2.11 m), Salley played both power forward and center for the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers. He gained the nickname "Spider" for his in-your-face style of guarding his opponent. Salley is also the first player in NBA history to play on three different championship-winning franchises; Robert Horry joined him in this exclusive club in 2005.
He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the 1986 NBA Draft out of Georgia Tech. He is among the Pistons' all-time leaders in blocked shots, holds Georgia Tech's blocked shot record, and has had his jersey number 22 retired—a very rare honor in college basketball. After joining the Pistons, he became close friends with Adrian Dantley, who taught him proper nutrition, how to exercise, and how to conduct himself off the court. Salley, for his part, called Dantley "The Teacher." Salley would become good friends with comedian Eddie Murphy and made several appearances at comedy clubs in the off-season. In 1989 and 1990, he played on two Pistons championship teams.
He was traded to the Miami Heat in 1992 and, a few years after that, was left unprotected by Miami in the 1995 expansion draft. Following a short stint with the inaugural Toronto Raptors team where he received little playing time, he negotiated a buyout of his contract in order to sign with the Chicago Bulls, where he helped Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and former Pistons teammates Dennis Rodman and James Edwards, lead the Bulls to a record-breaking 72-win season, after which Salley retired. However, in 1996, he came out of retirement to join Greek side Panathinaikos only for a few games.
In 1999, he joined a Lakers team led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. He provided a veteran post presence and locker room leadership to the Lakers en route to their first of three consecutive NBA championships from 2000–2002; he retired again following the first championship season after proudly proclaiming that he had won "four championship rings, with three different teams, in three different decades and two different milleniums."
Currently, he is one of the hosts of The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Network. Salley hosted The John Salley Block Party, a radio morning show on Los Angeles station 100.3 The Beat from May 2005 - 2006.
In 2007, Salley appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. In the first round of competition, Salley matched up against wrestler John Cena and actress Krista Allen.
For a short time, Salley provided analysis for NBC's NBA Showtime.
In 2006, Salley was named the Commissioner of the American Basketball Association.
For a short time in the late 1990s, Salley had a late night TV talk show. It did not do well in the ratings. He is now the host of the new hit talk show that comes live from a club, Ballers.
This article contains a trivia section.
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Tags: African American (2), Miami Heat (2), Toronto Raptors (2), Detroit Pistons (2), 1986 NBA Draft (1), Basketball (1), Georgia Tech (1), 1990 Nba Champion (1), 1989 Nba Champion (1), 1996 Nba Champion (1), 2000 Nba Champion (1), Mr. May (1), The Spider (1), Chicago Bulls (1), Los Angeles Lakers (1), Born 1964 (1), NBA (1), Spider (1), American (1)
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