Micheal Ray Richardson

Micheal Ray Richardson
Player information
birthday	11th April 1955 (age 65)
place of birth	Lubbock , Texas , United States
size	196 cm
Weight	86 kg
position	Point guard
college	Montana
NBA draft	1978 , 4th Pick, New York Knicks
Clubs as active
1974–1978 Montana Grizzlies ( NCAA ) 1978–1982 New York Knicks 1982–1983 Golden State Warriors 1983–1986 New Jersey Nets 1986–1987 Long Island Knights ( AAU ) 1987–1988 Albany Patroons ( CBA ) 1988–1991 Knorr Bologna 1991– 1992 KK Split 1992–1994 Baker Livorno 1994–1997 Olympique d'Antibes 1997–1998 Cholet Basket 1998–1999 Carne Montana Forlì 1999–2000 Basket Livorno 2001 Olympique d'Antibes 2002 AC Golfe Juan Vallauris 00000 00000
Clubs as coaches
2004–2007 Albany Patroons 2007–2011 Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry ( CBA / PBL) 2011–2014 London Lightning (NBL)

Micheal "Sugar" Ray Richardson (born April 11, 1955 in Lubbock , Texas ) is a retired American basketball player and coach. At the beginning of his playing career, Richardson was considered one of the greatest basketball talents in the point guard position. However, his performance deteriorated due to drug problems and after a third positive drug test he was finally the first player to be banned from the NBA for life in 1986 . In 1988 he continued his career in Europe, where he played for various clubs in Italy, Croatia and France until 2002. In 2004 he became a player-coach in the CBA and continued to play as a player until 2011 in various “ minor leagues ” in his home country.

Career

Born in Texas, Richardson grew up in Denver . From the state of Colorado he moved to Montana in 1974 to study , where he studied in Missoula at the University of Montana - Missoula and played there for the Grizzlies team in the NCAA Division I Big Sky Conference . In 1978 you could win the championship final tournament of the Conference as first place in the Conference. In the subsequent NBA draft , Richardson was selected by the New York Knicks in fourth place, two positions ahead of the later NBA legend Larry Bird .

USA (1978 to 1988)

The Knicks had won the championship twice in the 1970s with their charismatic playmaker and later “ Hall-of-Famer ” Walt Frazier and were looking for a successor to his position. Richardson was able to meet these expectations at first and reached in his second season with 10.1 assists and 3.2 steals per game, the best values ​​of all players in the NBA in these categories. He was the first player to head these categories together. In 1981, former championship coach Red Holzman resigned and Hubie Brown took over his position. Born in the Mountain States and struggling with minor stuttering problems , Richardson had previously been known as a person who loved to party.

After two players were transferred in a player swap when the team was reorganized, who were considered to be Richardson's caregivers within the team, Richardson increasingly sought distraction off the field and slipped into the drug scene in the city of New York in the early 1980s. This was not without effect on his playing performance, so that coach Hubie Brown forced a change from Richardson. The Golden State Warriors from California were convinced of the capabilities of Richardson and transferred the New York native Bernard King in 1982 for Richardson. But after three months the Warriors had to realize that Richardson could not be helped in his current condition and that he could not help the team in particular, and they looked for a new "trade" ( German  player swap ).

Coach Larry Brown , who had worked as a player and coach in Richardson's native Denver in the 1970s, brought him back to the east coast to the New Jersey Nets. Richardson went through several rehabilitation programs , most of which he ended after a short time when he said he was "cured". However, the Nets did not believe in a real cure and sought the end of the contract, as they had almost given up on him. However, the NBA did not grant termination of the contract as it had signed an agreement with the players' union that provided for a permanent ban only after three positive drug tests. Richardson finally went through rehabilitation and returned with supposedly old performance.

In his brilliant comeback, he was actually able to build on performances from his second NBA season and the Nets defeated the reigning champions Philadelphia 76ers in the first play-off round for the championship in 1984 . The following season, Richardson was called up for the fourth time for the NBA All-Star Game in 1985 . In retrospect, this appointment was not without piquancy, as it ousted the "rookie" ( German professional newcomer ) Michael Jordan , who would later dominate the league, from the team of the NBA Eastern Conference . A season later, however, after a relapse following a Christmas party, Richardson tested positive for cocaine for the third time , and NBA Commissioner David Stern pronounced a life ban on Richardson in February 1986. With an average of 2.6 steals per game and an average of 7 assists per game, Richardson is among the top 25 players of all time in this category in the NBA.  

Subsequently, Richardson was active for two years in lower class minor leagues. In 1988 he won the CBA championship title with the Albany Patroons. The Patroons had won their first title in 1984 under coach Phil Jackson , who in 1978 moved from the New York Knicks to the New Jersey Nets when Richardson started his career as a player and in 1987, before Richardson joined the Patroons, he joined the NBA as a coach moved to the Chicago Bulls , where he won several championships with Michael Jordan.

Europe (1988 to 2002)

Although the NBA lifted Richardson's lifelong ban in 1988, Richardson initially moved to the Italian Lega Basket Serie A for the Virtus club from Bologna . With the multiple Italian champion, however, Richardson achieved only two Italian cup wins in his three-year period until 1991. In 1990 they also won the European Cup Winners' Cup . In 1991 he moved to KK Split in Croatia , which had won the European championship three years before . As a result of the Yugoslav Wars , however, this team had broken up and the club could no longer follow these successes in the 1991/92 season and it was only enough to win a national cup. Then Richardson returned to Italy and played for the Italian runners-up in 1989 Libertas from Livorno . However, they only just reached the play-offs for the championship in 1993 and were eliminated in the first round. A season later things got even worse when they missed a play-off position for a win and had to go into a relegation round with the best second division teams. There Mens Sana Basket Siena prevailed and returned to the top division of Italy, while Livorno seven wins from ten games were not enough to remain in the class due to the reduction of the top division. Then the club stopped its professional game operations.

In 1994, Richardson switched to LNB Pro A for French runner-up Olympique from Antibes . Together with his compatriot David Rivers , who is ten years his junior , the now 40-year-old Richardson won the French championship with Olympique under coach Jacques Monclar . Without Rivers, who moved to Greece and in 1997 with Olympiacos Piraeus won their first European championship , they were eliminated in the following season as defending champions in the play-off semi-finals against eventual champions EB Pau-Orthez . In the following season they even missed the play-offs for the championship completely. 1997 Richardson left the club and should play in Rieti at AMG Sebastiani Basket. The second division and former Korać Cup winner was excluded from the game before the start of the season for financial reasons. Richardson then returned to France and played for the French club from Cholet . This won his first title in 1998 with the national cup victory and surprisingly reached the semifinals in the Korać Cup.

For the season 1998/99 Richardson finally returned to Italy and played in the second Italian division A2 for Libertas from Forlì . The former first division, however, failed in the play-offs for promotion to the major division at the successor club of Richardson's ex-club from Livorno. At the end of the season, Libertas Forlì also ceased professional play and Richardson returned to Livorno, who had previously missed promotion in the final series. In the following season, however, Livorno found himself in the lower table ranks of the second division and the contract with the almost 45-year-old Richardson was terminated in February 2000. Subsequently, until 2002, Richardson had short-term engagements with his ex-club from Antibes and with a lower-class club from Golfe-Juan, also on the Côte d'Azur .

Player-coach in the USA

After Richardson returned to his home country, he took over the coaching position in December 2004 at his former club Albany Patroons, which returned to the CBA. In 2007 the Patroons reached the final series of the CBA against the Yakama Sun Kings . After losing the first final game, Richardson was banned for anti-Semitic statements and then replaced by former NBA professional Vincent Askew as coach. Richardson then coached the league returning Cavalry from Lawton (Oklahoma) and immediately won the 2008 CBA championship after defeating the reigning champions Sun Kings in the semifinals series. In 2009 they defended the championship against the Patroons when they won the third and decisive game in extra time.

However, the Continental Basketball Association then stopped playing as a league, so that the Cavalry started in the Premier Basketball League (PBL) in the following season. Despite the turmoil in the lost first game of the PBL final series, the series could still be won and the club celebrated the third championship in a row. In the following season there was another encounter with the Razorsharks from Rochester (New York) in the final series, which this time had the upper hand. Richardson accused the referees of having postponed the games in favor of the Razorsharks and left the league and the club.

For the season 2011/12 Richardson took over the coaching position with the Lightning from London (Ontario) in the National Basketball League of Canada. The newly formed franchise was instant league champions, and Richardson won a minor league championship for the fourth time in five years.

Personal awards

• 4 times NBA All-Star 1980 to 1982, 1985
• 2 times NBA All-Defensive First Team in 1980 and 1981

successes

As a player

• 1988 CBA Champion with Albany Patroons
• 1989 and 1990 Italian cup winner with Knorr Bologna
• 1990 European Cup Winners' Cup with Knorr Bologna
• 1992 Croatian cup winner with KK Split
• 1995 French champion with Olympique d'Antibes
• 1998 French cup winner with Cholet Basket

As a trainer

• 2007 CBA runner-up with Albany Patroons
• 2008 and 2009 CBA Masters with Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry
• 2010 PBL Champion with Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry
• 2011 PBL runner-up with Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry
• 2012 NBL Canada Champion with London Lightning

Controversy

Richardson's talent as a basketball player and his way of life paired with his personal statements have repeatedly attracted attention and headlines in the US. After his life imprisonment was lifted, Richardson was supposed to undergo another drug test in 1991, in which he again tested positive for cocaine. Richardson himself doubted the result and is said to have attacked the NBA, to measure with double standards, as Chris Mullin , member of the Dream Team , was said to have alcohol problems and Richardson saw himself disadvantaged because of his black skin color. However, he later attested to Commissioner David Stern that he had saved his life with the drug ban, while Stern himself described the ban as one of his most difficult decisions as a commissioner.

In 2000, Richardson's life story was processed into a film documentary "Whatever Happened to Micheal Ray?", Which was told by the well-known US entertainer Chris Rock , who grew up in Brooklyn . In the documentary, former opponents such as Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas , who were voted one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1996, acknowledge Richardson's skills on the basketball court.

In 2007, during the first final game of the CBA Championship, Richardson was attacked by a viewer who replied Richardson with homophobic remarks. Together with an interview published at the same time, in which Richardson's remarks that Jews were generally “crafty” ( German  clever ), which were considered anti-Semitic , this led to a ban on Richardson, whose team Albany Patroons subsequently also lost the championship series. David Stern, the NBA commissioner of Jewish descent, stood up for Richardson, whose second wife is also of Jewish descent, and defended him that he was not actually an anti-Semite, even if his statements about stereotypes were "poor judgment" ( German  poor judgment ).

Three years later, there were tumultuous scenes in the first final game of the PBL Championship in 2010, when coach Richardson was excluded from the game and former NBA professional Oliver Miller was disqualified for the Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry during the game, while the cavalry then made the final series but could still decide for themselves. A year later, the Razorsharks, whose owners had co-founded the PBL, and the Richardson-trained Cavalry met again in the final series. After the Cavalry had lost the final series, Richardson placed the referees under postponement and referred to the league as "Joke" ( German  joke ). As a consequence, the Cavalry broke up and Richardson joined the newly established franchise London Lightning in Canada with a large part of his players, in whose league the former PBL club Halifax Rainmen also moved.

Web links

• NBL: London Lightning - Head Coach - Trainer profile on the London Lightning website
• Micheal Ray Richardson - player profile on basketball-reference.com
• Whatever Happened to Micheal Ray? - Documentation homepage (English)
• Legabasket: Micheal Ray Richardson - Profile on the Serie A statistics pages (Italian)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Michael Weinreb: The Decline of Sugar Ray Richardson: An Exclusive Excerpt from Bigger Than The Game. GQ , August 12, 2010, accessed on November 17, 2012 (English, book excerpt "Bigger Than The Game").  
2. ↑ Cyrus Izadi: Not So Sweet as Sugar: Micheal Ray Richardson's Sad Fall from Grace. Bleacher Report , June 8, 2009, accessed November 17, 2012 . 
3. ^ NBA & ABA Career Leaders and Records for Steals Per Game. Basketball-Reference.com, accessed November 17, 2012 . 
4. ^ NBA & ABA Career Leaders and Records for Assists Per Game. Basketball-Reference.com, accessed November 17, 2012 . 
5. ↑ Michael Ray Richardson / Korac Cup 1998. FIBA Europe , accessed on November 17, 2012 (English, player statistics). 
6. ↑ ^{a b} CBA coach Richardson suspended for remarks. ESPN , March 30, 2007, accessed November 17, 2012 .  
7. ^ Zachariah Blott: Remembering Michael Ray Richardson: The Original Magic Johnson. BehindTheBasket.com, September 21, 2010; archived from the original on February 4, 2016 ; accessed on November 17, 2012 (English). 
8. ^ Marc J. Spears: Sugar Ray makes sweet return to NBA. ESPN , August 19, 2003, accessed November 17, 2012 . 
9. ^ Associated Press : Richardson Out After Gay, Jewish Remarks. MSNBC , April 4, 2007, accessed November 17, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Chris Tomasson: Banned Richardson on Stern: 'He saved my life'. Fox Sports Net , October 25, 2012, accessed November 17, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Sam Amico: Michael Ray Richardson, Cavs survive bottle-gate to claim PBL title. (No longer available online.) AllVoices.com, April 28, 2010, formerly original ; accessed on November 17, 2012 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
12. ↑ Ryan Aber: Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry ceases basketball operations as coach Micheal Ray Richardson calls league 'a joke'. The Oklahoman , April 22, 2011, accessed November 17, 2012 .