- Kendall Gill
Kendall Cedric Gill (born
May 25 1968 inChicago ,Illinois ) is a retired American professionalbasketball player, now professional boxer and sports analyst.Early life
Gill attended
Rich Central High School inOlympia Fields, Illinois . Graduating in 1986, as a senior Gill led Rich Central to a 2nd place finish in the IHSA class AA state boys basketball tournament. Gill led Rich Central in scoring with 54 points in the 4 games of the tournament finals, and was named to the six-player All-Tournament team.After high school, Gill attended the University of Illinois. Playing four years for the Fighting Illini, Gill was a starter for his last three seasons. As a junior, Gill led the Fighting Illini to the 1989 Final Four before losing to Michigan on a last second shot. Also among that fabled "Flying Illini" squadron were future NBA players
Nick Anderson ,Marcus Liberty ,Kenny Battle and Illini TV/radio broadcasterStephen Bardo . As a senior, Gill led the Big Ten in scoring and was named a first-team All-American (UPI). Gill left Illinois as the 7th all-time leading scorer in school history. Gill's Illini earned NCAA bids each year he played. Gill also won the NCAA Slam Dunk championship at the Final Four his senior season.NBA career
Gill was chosen in the
1990 NBA Draft with the fifth overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets, and was named First Team All-Rookie for the 1990-91 season. Kendall also participated in an NBA Slam-Dunk Competition. Gill played in 15 seasons in the NBA for the Hornets (including two separate stints),Seattle SuperSonics ,New Jersey Nets ,Miami Heat ,Minnesota Timberwolves ,Chicago Bulls , andMilwaukee Bucks . In two different seasons Gill averaged over 20 points per game, first as a second-year player for the Hornets in 1991-92 (20.5 ppg), and again for the Nets in 1996-97 (21.8 ppg). In the1997-98 NBA season , Gill led the league in steals as a member of the Nets. OnApril 3 ,1999 , he recorded 11 steals in a game against Miami, tyingLarry Kenon 's single-game record. Gill's career totals include 12,914 points in 966 regular season games.After retiring as a player
As a means to maintain his conditioning, Gill took up
boxing , eventually entering the professional ranks. Gill had his first bout onJune 25 ,2005 at the age of 37, and has won all three professional bouts and is ranked #449 in the world (out of 745) as acruiserweight . Gill has expressed an interest in eventually becoming a fight promoter, and has not ruled out an NBA return, if a championship contender is interested.Gill was added to
Comcast SportsNet 's studio coverage of the Chicago Bulls as analyst prior to the 2006-2007 NBA season. He joins former Bulls guardNorm Van Lier andMark Schanowski .He made an appearance as himself in a Nickelodeon TV Show, "
My Brother and Me ".He appeared on the January 23, 2008 edition of
Spike TV 's "Pros vs. Joes ". He also appeared on the "TNA Impact! " that preceded it to promote the show.External links
* [http://www.marchmadness.org/records/yearly/1986baa.htm IHSA 1986 Class AA Boys Summary]
* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gillke01.html Career NBA Statistics]
* [http://aol.nba.com/playerfile/kendall_gill/index.html NBA.com player profile]
*
* [http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/cs-061023bullsgill,1,1468535.story?coll=cs-bulls-headlines Gill joins Bulls Pre-Game Live]
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