James Donaldson Basketball player

James Lee Donaldson III (born August 16, 1957) is a retired professional English-American basketball player who grew up in California and played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association.Donaldson, a 7'2" center, starred at Luther Burbank High School and Washington State University in the late 1970s before being drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979. However, he spent his first professional season abroad, with the Italian Serie A's 3A Antonini Siena.Donaldson played three seasons with Seattle before moving on to the San Diego (later Los Angeles) Clippers. During the 1984–85 NBA season, he led the league in field goal percentage at 0.637 — still one of the ten highest percentages in NBA history.Donaldson joined the Dallas Mavericks in 1985. He had his finest years while playing for the Mavericks, providing rebounding and shot-blocking to complement Dallas' star-studded line-up, which included Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Roy Tarpley, Derek Harper, and Brad Davis. Donaldson himself earned a spot on the 1988 All-Star Team during a season in which the Mavericks reached the Western Conference Finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers.After brief stints with the New York Knicks (traded midway through 1991-92 for Brian Quinnett) and Utah Jazz (49 games in two seasons combined) in the early 1990s, injuries forced Donaldson into retirement from the NBA. He left the league in 1995, with 8,203 career points, 7,492 career rebounds and 1,267 career blocks. He played in 957 NBA games without ever attempting a 3-point shot, a record among players from the 3-point era.Overseas, he played in Greece for Iraklis B.C. (1993–94, in between his Utah spells), Caja San Fernando (Spain, in 1996-97), Snai Montecatini (Italy, 1997–98, for only six games), Breogán Lugo (Spain, two stints, in 1998 and 1999) and Gymnastikos S. Larissas (Greek Second Division, 1998–99), retiring for good at the age of 41.Upon retiring, Donaldson settled in the Seattle, Washington area, where he runs the Donaldson Clinic, a physical therapy business in Mill Creek, Wash. He is also a motivational speaker.In 2009, Donaldson ran for the non-partisan office of Seattle mayor and came in fourth among the candidates.In 2010, Donaldson joined the College Success Foundation as the Director of the Tacoma College Success Foundation.

Personal facts

James Donaldson
Birth dateAugust 16, 1957
Birth place
England , Heacham
Height (meters)2.1844
Weight (Kilograms)124.74

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Basketball player

Career start1979
career end1999
college
Washington State Cougars men's basketball
draft team
Seattle SuperSonics
draft year1979
position
Center (basketball)

James Donaldson on Wikipedia