Athletes - John Salley

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	Athletes - John Salley

John Thomas Salley (born May 16, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York) is a former professional basketball player in the NBA.

At 7'0" (2.13 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 in the first round of the 1986 NBA Draft out of Georgia Tech. He is among the Pistons' all-time leaders in blocked shots. He holds GT's blocked shot record and has had his jersey number 22 retired—a very rare honor in college basketball¹. After joining the Pistons, he became close friends with Adrian Dantley, who taught him how to eat a proper diet, exercise, take vitamins, etc. He called Dantley "Teacher". Salley, good friends with comedian Eddie Murphy, made several appearances at comedy clubs in the off-season. In 1989 and 1990, he was a part of the back-to-back Pistons championship teams.

He signed with the Miami Heat in 1992 and, following a short stint with the inaugural Toronto Raptors team, was traded to the Bulls, where he helped Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and former Pistons teammate Dennis Rodman lead the Bulls to a record-breaking 72-win season. Salley retired following that season. However, in 1996, he came out of retirement to join Greek side Panathinaikos only for a few games. In 2000 he joined the Lakers, 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. Currently, he is one of the hosts of The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Network. Salley is also the host of The John Salley Block Party, a radio morning show on Los Angeles station 100.3 The Beat.

Note

¹ The retiring of players' jerseys is not uncommon in college basketball, but retirement of numbers is incomparably rare. The main reason is that far fewer numbers are available for use by college teams than in the NBA. NCAA rules, unlike those of the NBA, prohibit the use of any digits greater than 5 in player numbers. Georgia Tech not only retired Salley's number 22, but also the number 25 worn by Salley's teammate Mark Price.

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