Otis Thorpe

Otis Thorpe
Otis Thorpe (1986)
Player information
Full name	Otis Henry Thorpe
birthday	5th August 1962 (age 58)
place of birth	Boynton Beach , Florida , USA
size	208 cm
Weight	112 kg
position	Power Forward / Center
college	Providence
NBA draft	1984 , 9th pick, Kansas City Kings
Clubs as active
1984–1985 Kansas City Kings 1985–1988 Sacramento Kings 1988–1995 Houston Rockets 1995 Portland Trail Blazers 1995–1997 Detroit Pistons 1997–1998 Vancouver Grizzlies 1998 Sacramento Kings 1999 Washington Wizards 1999–2000 Miami Heat 2000–2001 Charlotte Hornets 000 0 000 0 000 0

Otis Henry Thorpe (born August 5, 1962 in Boynton Beach , Florida ) is a retired American basketball player . He played 14 seasons for various teams in the NBA , most successfully from 1988 to 1995 for the Houston Rockets ; there he was elected champion in 1994 and in 1992 to the All-Star-Team of the West .

career

Youth and college

Thorpe was born the third of eleven siblings; although he had only played basketball for a year and a half in high school, he was a very successful rebounder for the entire four years of his college years at Providence College . He was the Big East Conference's best rebounder in his last two college years, 1982–84; In his senior year, the Big East was elected to the All-Conference-Team and narrowly missed the All-American- Team as honorable mention.

NBA

After college, Thorpe was selected in the 1984 NBA Draft as the 9th player by the Sacramento Kings , then based in Kansas City . In his debut season he played in every single game, 23 of them as a starter, and attracted attention in particular because of his throwing reliability; With a hit rate of exactly 60%, he was the third safest shooter in the league, and as sixth in the vote, he just missed admission to the NBA All-Rookie Team . Seven games due to a knee injury in December 1985 should be the last to miss by 1992, from 1986 to the 1992 championship he was also the starting player in every single game.

After the 1988 season he moved to Houston, where he continued to be a regular player and had to do the "dirty work" for Hakeem Olajuwon in defense with his still excellent throwing rate . Nevertheless, he was traded in the middle of the season after the first championship of the Rockets for Clyde Drexler to the Portland Trail Blazers .

After this change, Thorpe's performance became changeable; in the last seven years of his career from 1995 to 2001, he played for as many NBA teams. 1995 for Portland, 1996/97 for the Detroit Pistons , 1997/98 for the Vancouver Grizzlies and in 1998 he even changed teams twice within three months. First in February from Vancouver to his old team, the Sacramento Kings and then in May to the Washington Wizards . In 1999/2000 he was part of the Miami Heat squad to end his career with the Charlotte Hornets after the 2000/01 season .

NBA statistics

Overall, Thorpe is one of the best in NBA history in these categories with 1257 games (22nd), a field throw rate of 54.6% (17th) and a total of 3446 offensive rebounds (14th). His total of 4146 committed fouls have so far only been exceeded by nine players. Also in the lists for defensive rebounds (6924 - 26th), total rebounds (10370 - 33rd), successful field throws (6872 - 68th), successful free throws (3853 - 78th), total points (17,600 - 70th), as well as the The rebound rate per game (8.2 - 94th) is one of the top 100.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} " Short biography Otis Thorpes ", nba.com ( status 2002; visited October 7, 2009 ).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} " Otis Thorpes " in Basketball-Reference.com , Sports Reference LLC ( accessed October 7, 2009 ).
3. ↑ Between 1988 and 1995 he was always one of the eight safest shooters in the field. (See Basketball-Reference.com).

Web links

• Otis Thorpe - player profile on basketball-reference.com