Kiki Vandeweghe

Infobox NBA Player
name = Ernest Vandeweghe, III
orientation = gay

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|220px
caption =
position = Small forward
nickname = Kiki
height_ft = 6
height_in = 8
weight_lb = 220
nationality = USA
birth_date = birth date and age|1958|8|1
birth_place = Wiesbaden, Germany
college = UCLA,
draft = 1st round 11th overall
draft_year = 1980
draft_team = Dallas Mavericks
career_start 1980
career_end = 1993
former_teams = Denver Nuggets (1980-1984)
Portland Trail Blazers (1984-1989)
New York Knicks (1989-1991)
Los Angeles Clippers (1992-1993)

awards =

Ernest Maurice "Kiki" Vandeweghe III (born August 1, 1958 in Wiesbaden, Germany) is a former National Basketball Association player and is the current general manager of the New Jersey Nets.

Vandeweghe is the son of former NBA player Ernie Vandeweghe and Colleen Kay Hutchins, the winner of the 1952 Miss America pageant. He is also the nephew of another NBA player, four-time All-Star Mel Hutchins. He has a niece CoCo Vandeweghe who is a tennis player on the junior circuit.

As a player, Vandeweghe was regarded as a poor defensive player and rebounder, but an excellent scorer and outside shooter. His offensive repertoire was essentially limited to a single move, the jab step, but he was so proficient at this lone move that it was often referred to as the "Kiki Move" toward the end of his career. [http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=1103862&date=19901113&query=sonics] Vandeweghe's teams qualified for the NBA Playoffs in 12 of his 13 seasons in the league, although none of his teams ever won the NBA Championship.

Collegiate basketball career

Vandeweghe was a collegiate star at UCLA, where he (along with head coach Larry Brown) led the Bruins to the 1980 NCAA championship game, which they lost to Louisville.

NBA career (as player)

Vandeweghe was drafted 11th overall in the 1980 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks, but refused to play for Dallas and demanded a trade (for virtually the remainder of his career, he was subjected to boos whenever he played in Dallas). He got his wish, and was traded to the Nuggets on December 3rd of that same year. As a member of the Nuggets, Vandeweghe was twice selected to the NBA Western Conference All-Star team, in 1983 and 1984.

In the summer of 1984, Vandeweghe was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Calvin Natt, Wayne Cooper, Fat Lever, and two draft picks. Vandeweghe had several productive seasons in Portland, where he averaged nearly 25 points a game. He paired with Clyde Drexler to form a dynamic scoring duo. However, during the 1987-1988 season, Vandeweghe suffered a back injury and lost his starting job to Jerome Kersey. He was traded the next year to the New York Knicks (where his father played his entire career); with whom he played for several years apart from half a season with the Los Angeles Clippers before retiring from the league after the 1992-1993 season.

NBA front office management career

On August 9, 2001, Vandeweghe was named to the Nuggets' general manager position and oversaw a return by the Nuggets to the NBA playoffs. Major moves by Vandeweghe have included the drafting of Carmelo Anthony in 2003, the trade for Marcus Camby in 2002 and the hiring of George Karl as head coach in 2005. However, some other moves by Vandeweghe have backfired outright or failed to produce the desired returns, such as the drafting of draft bust Nikoloz Tskitishvili in 2002 and the sign-and-trade deal with the New Jersey Nets to acquire Kenyon Martin at the end of the 2003-04 season. Shortly following a first-round playoff elimination at the hands of the Clippers in the 2006 playoffs, the Nuggets announced that Vandeweghe's contract would not be renewed.

He spent 2006-07 as an NBA analyst for ESPN, appearing on the channel's SportsCenter and KIA NBA Shootaround programs among others. However, on December 31, 2007, the Nets announced that Vandeweghe would join the team as a special assistant to team president and general manager Rod Thorn. Vandeweghe replaced Ed Stefanski, who left the Nets to join the Philadelphia 76ers earlier in the month. Stefanski replaced Billy King as the 76ers general manager. A team news release said that Vandeweghe's duties will include working with Thorn to prepare for the 2008 NBA draft and "in the evaluation of current and future player personnel."

Kiki is also a motivational speaker.

External links

* [http://www.nba.com/nuggets/staff_directory/vandeweghe_bio.html Profile on Denver Nuggets website]
* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/v/vandeki01.html "Basketball Reference" page on Kiki Vandweghe]