Kelly Tripucka

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Basketball player
Kelly Tripucka
Player information
Full name Peter Kelly Tripucka
birthday February 16, 1959
place of birth Glen Ridge , United States
size 198 cm
position Small Forward
Shooting Guard
college Notre Dame
NBA draft 1981 , 12th pick, Detroit Pistons
Clubs as active
1981–1986 Detroit Pistons 1986–1988 Utah Jazz 1988–1991 Charlotte Hornets 1991–1992 Limoges CSPUnited StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
FranceFrance

Peter Kelly Tripucka (born February 16, 1959 in Glen Ridge , New Jersey ) is a former American basketball player , of Polish origin who played in both the NBA and Europe.

Career

Tripucka grew up in New Jersey , the son of former NFL professional Frank Tripucka . After four years at the University of Notre Dame , he was selected 12th in the 1981 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons . Together with Isiah Thomas , who was also drafted before , he formed a powerful duo and scored a respectable 21.6 points per game in his first year. He was also called up as a rookie in the 1982 NBA All-Star Game . A year later he increased his points average again to 26.5 points per game, but missed another All-Star nomination. In 1984 he reached the playoffs for the first time with Detroit. That year he also received his second All-Star nomination. The next two years Tripucka was a profitable scorer, but the Pistons failed each time prematurely in the playoffs. In his senior year for the Pistons, he averaged 20 points.

In the summer of 1986 he was transferred to the Utah Jazz for Adrian Dantley . There Tripucka was no longer the first or second attack option and his point yield was halved to 10.1 points on average. The following season was even more disappointing, with an average of just 7.5 points. Tripucka often fell out with coach Frank Layden , who wanted to build the team around the young players Karl Malone and John Stockton instead of him.

Tripucka was released from Jazz for the Expansion Draft in 1988 and signed by the newly founded Charlotte Hornets . With the weak Hornets, Tripucks found his way back to his all-star form and led the team with an average of 22.6 points. But already the next two years his performance weakened, so that he scored 7 points on average in his last NBA season with the Hornets. He then announced his retirement from the NBA and moved to France to Limoges CSP , where he finally ended his career after one season.

After his career, Tripucka worked as a co-commentator for the players of the Detroit Pistons (1993-2001) and New Jersey Nets (2003-2005). In 2008 he was part of the team of commentators who commented on the games of the New York Knicks . In 2012 his activity as a commentator ended.

Others

His father Frank Tripucka was a quarterback in the NFL . His son Travis Tripucka also plays American football and was part of the New York Jets squad in 2013 . In 2008 Tripucka was named one of the "50 Greatest Pistons" by the Detroit Pistons.

successes

2 × NBA All-Star Game : 1982, 1984
NBA All-Rookie First Team 1982

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Kelly Tripucka - National Polish-American. Retrieved November 11, 2017 (American English).