James Donaldson (basketball)

James Lee Donaldson III (born August 16, 1957 in Heacham, England) is a former professional English-American basketball player who grew up in California and played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association.

Donaldson, a 7'2" center, starred at Luther Burbank High School and Washington State University in the late 1970s before being drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979. However, he spent his first professional season abroad, with Serie A's Montanini Siena.

Donaldson played three seasons with Seattle before moving on to the San Diego (later Los Angeles) Clippers. During the 1984-85 NBA season, he led the league in field goal percentage at 0.637 — still one of the ten highest percentages in NBA history.

Donaldson joined the Dallas Mavericks in 1985. He had his finest years while playing for the Mavericks, providing rebounding and shot-blocking to complement Dallas' star-studded line-up, which included Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Roy Tarpley, Derek Harper, and Brad Davis. Donaldson himself earned a spot on the 1988 All-Star Team during a season in which the Mavericks reached the Western Conference Finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers.

After brief stints with the New York Knicks (traded midway through 1991-92 for Brian Quinnett) and Utah Jazz (49 games in two seasons combined) in the early 1990s, injuries forced Donaldson into retirement, and he left the NBA in 1995 with 8,203 career points, 7,492 career rebounds and 1,267 career blocks.

Overseas, he played in Greece for Iraklis B.C. (1993-94, in between his Utah spells), Caja San Fernando (Spain, in 1996-97), Snai Montecatini (Italy, 1997-98, for only six matches), Breogán Lugo (Spain, two stints, in 1998 and 1999) and AEL (Greek Second Division, 1998-99), calling it a day at almost 42.

Upon retiring, Donaldson settled in the Seattle area, where he runs a physical therapy business. He is also a motivational speaker.

External links

* [http://www.nba.com/historical/playerfile/index.html?player=james_donaldson NBA.com historical playerfile]
* [http://basketball-reference.com/players/d/donalja01.html Stats at BasketballReference.com]
* [http://www.basketpedya.com/Acc002InfJug.php?idjug=605&idioma=3 Basketpedya career data]