NBA Career
Dudley began playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 1987–88 NBA season. During his rookie season, he played in 55 of 82 games, averaging three points per game. During the 1989-1990 season, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets. He played three years with the Nets, including the 1990–91 season, in which he enjoyed his best scoring average: 7.1 points per game in 61 contests. In the 1991-1992 season, he was available for all 82 games, one of only two such years in his career. In the 1992-1993 season, he was a bench contributor as the Nets went to their second playoff spot in two years. The summer after that season, teammate Dražen Petrović died in a car accident in Germany, and Dudley signed a contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.
An injury kept Dudley out of all but six games during his first season in Portland. Though teammate Clyde Drexler was shipped to the Houston Rockets in the middle of the next season, Dudley and the Blazers made it to the playoffs. After playing 161 games for the Blazers between 1995 and 1997, Dudley went to the New York Knicks, where he backed up Patrick Ewing for three seasons.
In 1999, he reached the NBA Finals for the only time in his career, but the Knicks were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs, four games to one. Later that year, he grabbed his 5,000th NBA rebound during a game between the Knicks and the Detroit Pistons.
After his stint with the Knicks, Dudley went on to play with the Phoenix Suns, participating in 53 games in the 2000–01 season. He returned to the Trail Blazers in 2002, and retired after playing three games during the 2002–03 season.
In a career total of 886 NBA games, Dudley scored 3473 points (3.9 points per game), had 375 assists (0.4 assists per game), blocked 1027 shots (1.2 blocks per game) and had 5457 rebounds (6.2 rebounds per game). He was the recipient of the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 1996, and USA Today's Most Caring Athlete Award in 1997.
In 1990, Dudley missed 13 consecutive free throws, setting an NBA record. In 1989, he set the record for most free throws missed in a single trip to the foul line, missing five consecutive free throws after the opposing team committed three lane violations.
Read more about this topic: Chris Dudley
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