Monday, June 1, 2009
Post-basketball career
Currently, he is one of the hosts of The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Network. Salley hosted The John Salley Block Party, a radio morning show on Los Angeles station 100.3 The Beat from May 2005 - 2006.
Salley will join the cast of the reality competition show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, which airs on June 1, 2009.
In 2007, Salley appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. In the first round of competition, Salley matched up against professional wrestler John Cena and tennis star Serena Williams.
For a short time, Salley provided analysis for NBC's NBA Showtime.
In 2006, Salley was named the Commissioner of the American Basketball Association.
In 2004 he was part of the panel of celebrity judges in the TBS Superstation show He's a Lady.
For a short time in the late 1990s, Salley had a late night TV talk show. It did not do well in the ratings. He is now the host of the new hit talk show that comes live from a club, Ballers.
In the fall of 1998, Salley also hosted the game show I Can't Believe You Said That, which aired on the Fox Family Channel. During that time, he also guest-starred as a panelist on Hollywood Squares.
John Salley also has a role in Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2, as a thick-glassed computer hacking nerd who gets out of jail because he helps crack files for the Miami Police Department.
Salley has also starred in the Disney Channel original movie, The Ultimate Christmas Present as a tall elf.
In 1996, Salley starred as a veteran basketball player alongside Whoopi Goldberg in the film Eddie, about a fan who takes over as coach of the New York Knicks.
In 2001, Salley made an appearance in the Luther Vandross music video, Take You Out.
He has appeared as a celebrity guest on episodes of Hollywood Squares.
In 2009 he appeared on the reality game show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!
Personal life
Salley is a devoted vegan and has appeared on PETA's testimonial videos.
Biography
Early life and career
Salley was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is a 1988 graduate of Georgia Tech's College of Management and a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Salley played high school ball at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn.
At 6'11" (2.11 m), Salley played both power forward and center for the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Panathinaikos BC 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.
Detroit Pistons
He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the 1986 NBA Draft out of Georgia Tech. He is among the Pistons' all-time leaders in blocked shots, holds Georgia Tech's blocked shot record, and has had his jersey number 22 retired—a very rare honor in college basketball.[2] After joining the Pistons, he became close friends with Adrian Dantley, who taught him proper nutrition, how to exercise, and how to conduct himself off the court. Salley, for his part, called Dantley "The Teacher." Salley would become good friends with comedian Eddie Murphy and made several appearances at comedy clubs in the off-season. In 1989 and 1990, he played on two Pistons championship teams.
Heat and Bulls
He was traded to the Miami Heat in 1992 and, a few years after that, was left unprotected by Miami in the 1995 expansion draft. Following a short stint with the inaugural Toronto Raptors team where he received little playing time, he negotiated a buyout of his contract in order to sign with the Chicago Bulls, where he helped Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and former Pistons teammate Dennis Rodman (as well as former teammate James Edwards) lead the Bulls to a record-breaking 72-win season, after which Salley retired. However, in 1996, he came out of retirement to join Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos BC for only a few games.
Lakers
In 1999, he joined a Lakers team led by Shaquille O'Neal. He saw little action for the Lakers en route to their first of three consecutive NBA championships from 2000–2002; he retired again following the first championship season after proudly proclaiming that he had won "four championship rings, with three different teams, in three different decades and two different millenniums."
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