Ron Harper
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Categories: Point guards | Shooting guards | Miami University alumni | 1964 births | Living people | American basketball players | African American sportspeople | Chicago Bulls players | Cleveland Cavaliers players | Los Angeles Clippers players | Los Angeles Lakers players | People from Dayton, Ohio | Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
Ronald Harper (born January 20, 1964 in Dayton, Ohio) is a retired American professional basketball player whose career spanned from 1986 to 2001 with four teams in the NBA. At 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), his position was shooting guard/point guard. After attending Miami University in Ohio, he was selected 8th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 1986 NBA Draft. He averaged 22.9 points per game in his rookie season. After initially spending 3 seasons at the Cavaliers, he would later play for the Los Angeles Clippers, the Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers, where he finished his career. He won five championships in his career, three with the Bulls and two with the Lakers. While with the Clippers a knee injury robbed him of much of his speed and jumping ability though he averaged just under 2 steals per game which still remains a team record. In 1994, he signed a lucrative free agent deal with the Bulls, who were rebuilding following the initial retirement of Michael Jordan. After his first tumultuous season in Chicago, he reinvented himself as a defender and jump shooter. With the return of Jordan in late 1995, Harper remained a key component of the Bulls' perimeter defense and a third scoring option on offense. He became a fan favorite in Chicago. Although he suffered an injury late in the Bulls' record-setting 72-win season in 1996, he returned to the starting lineup for the final game of the 1996 NBA Finals. He was a mainstay of Phil Jackson's last five championship teams, following Jackson to Los Angeles to win two more championships. Ron Harper, Dennis Rodman and Robert Horry are the only three players to win multiple consecutive NBA Championships with two different teams.[1] Dennis Rodman (Chicago Bulls 1996 - 1998) and Robert Horry (Los Angeles Lakers 1999 - 2001) were former teammates of Ron Harper. In 2005, he signed as an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons. Aside basketball, he also made an appearance as himself on Nickelodeon TV show, Kenan and Kel. Notes
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