Thurl Bailey

Thurl Bailey
Player information
Full name	Thurl Lee Bailey
birthday	7th April 1961 (age 59)
place of birth	Washington, DC , United States
size	211 cm
position	Power forward
college	North Carolina State
NBA draft	1983 , 7th Pick, Utah Jazz
Clubs as active
1979–1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack ( NCAA ) 1983–1991 Utah Jazz 1991–1994 Minnesota Timberwolves 1994–1995 Panionios 1995–1997 Pallacanestro Cantù 1997–1998 Olimpia Milano 1999 Utah Jazz 00000

Thurl Lee Bailey (born April 7, 1961 in Washington, DC ) is a retired American basketball player who played in both the NBA and Europe.

Career

During his studies, Bailey played for the college team at North Carolina State University called Wolfpack in NCAA Division I. In his senior year, Bailey led the team in points and rebounds per game, in which the team after wins at the last minute as a cardiac pack titled to the finals of the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship , where the highly-favored Cougars aka Phi Slamma Jamma of the University of Houston for the later NBA stars and members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler through a game- changing dunking in defeated by Lorenzo Charles in the last second and won the championship in 1983. In honor of Bailey, his jersey number # 41 was later withdrawn by the university team and is no longer awarded. In the 1983 NBA Draft , Bailey was selected as the seventh player by the Utah Jazz . At the Jazz, Bailey immediately took over a key role in Frank Layden's system and had a decent rookie season with 8.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game . As a reward, he was elected to the NBA All-Rookie Team . In the following year he improved his point yield to 15.2 points per game and was in 68 of 80 games on the grid.

After the Jazz had signed Karl Malone in the 1985 draft, Bailey came off the bench as the sixth man and scored an average of 14 points per game. Bailey had his best time between 1987 and 1989, when he hung up over 19 points per game and was the most important attack option for Jazz after Malone. In the following seasons his services fell from, so that he was transferred to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1991 in exchange for Tyrone Corbin . He spent two and a half years with the chronically unsuccessful Wolves before going to Europe as a free agent . In 1999 he returned to jazz and only performed sporadically short assignments. Following the 1998/1999 season, Bailey ended his professional career.

In 1989, Bailey was awarded the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for his social commitment .

After playing basketball for four years in the Greek and Italian leagues, Bailey returned to jazz in 1999. After the season he announced his retirement from professional sport. In his 16-year career, Bailey played twelve years in the NBA, during which time Bailey had 12.8 points, 5.1 rebound and 1.2 blocks per game.

After retiring from his career, Bailey settled in Salt Lake City with his family and worked as a television analyst for the Utah Jazz and University of Utah games . He also works as a musician; he has already released three albums.

Web links

• Thurl Bailey Info Page - Player Profile on NBA.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1983 National Championship. (PDF (555 KB)) (No longer available online.) North Carolina State University , formerly in the original ; accessed on August 26, 2011 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ↑ Rick Weinberg: 100 most memorable moments of 25 years of ESPN - 15: NC State dunks Houston in NCAA final. ESPN , accessed April 19, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Honored Jerseys. (PDF (1.31 MB)) (No longer available online.) North Carolina State University , archived from the original on January 4, 2012 ; accessed on August 26, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.