Dantley, Adrian D.
Basketball
b. Feb. 28, 1955, Washington, DC
A consensus All-American forward in his sophomore and junior years at Notre Dame, Dantley scored 2,223 points, second in school history only to Austin Carr. He was named player of the year by the U. S. Basketball Writers Association in 1976.
Dantley led the gold medal U. S. Olympic team in scoring with 19.3 points per game. Passing up his senior year at Notre Dame, he then joined the Buffalo Braves of the NBA. He was named rookie of the year for the 1976-77 season, when he averaged 20.3 points a game.
Buffalo traded Dantley to the Indiana Pacers, who sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers in mid-season. After a season and a half with Los Angeles, he was traded again, this time to the Utah Jazz. With Utah, Dantley twice led the NBA in scoring, averaging 30.7 points per game in 1980-81 and 30.6 in 1983-84. He also averaged more than 30 points a game in 1981-82 and 1982-83 but lost the scoring title to George Gervin and Alex English, respectively.
A good friend of Detroit Piston star Isiah Thomas, Dantley joined the Pistons in 1986. He became Detroit's sixth man, coming off the bench to add scoring punch. As a result, his per-game averages declined, but he still led the team with 20.0 points a game in 1987-88.
Dantley was traded to the Dallas Mavericks during the 1989-90 season and he played just 10 games with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1990-91. He played professional basketball in Italy in 1991-92.