Career
Dampier played competitively at Lawrence County High School in Monticello, Mississippi, where he led the rural county to two state championships. Dampier played college basketball at Mississippi State University. While there he became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. He was an early entry to the 1996 NBA draft after his junior season, in which he led MSU to the 1996 Southeastern Conference tournament championship, and the NCAA Final Four before being drafted as the tenth pick in the first round by the Indiana Pacers.
He played 72 games in his rookie year with the Pacers, starting 21 of them and finishing with averages of 5.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. On August 12, 1997 he and Duane Ferrell were traded to the Golden State Warriors for Chris Mullin.
He spent the next seven years, primarily as the starting center, for the Warriors, hitting his peak production in 2003–04 with averages of 12.3 points, 12 rebounds and 1.85 blocks per game. However, some critics claimed that he stepped up his production because he was in a contract year, and indeed he was considered a top free-agent commodity in the 2004 off-season.
On August 24, 2004, Dampier was signed and traded to the Dallas Mavericks along with Dan Dickau, Evan Eschmeyer and rights to Steve Logan in exchange for Christian Laettner, Eduardo Nájera, 2 future first round picks and rights to Luis Flores and Mladen Sekularac. In his first season in Dallas he played in 59 games (starting 56), averaging 9.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.85 blocks per game.
On July 13, 2010, Dampier was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats along with Matt Carroll and Eduardo Nájera in exchange for Tyson Chandler and Alexis Ajinça. He was waived on September 14, 2010.
On November 23, 2010, he signed a contract with the Miami Heat.
With Dampier and the Heat losing the 2011 NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, Dampier had the unfortunate distinction of being on the losing end of both the 2006 NBA Finals and the 2011 series, which was a rematch of the former that saw the Heat defeat a Maverick team which featured Dampier.
Dampier signed a ten-day contract with the Atlanta Hawks on February 9, 2012. On February 19, 2012, he signed his second ten-day contract with the Hawks. On March 1, 2012, Dampier signed with the Hawks for the rest of the season.
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