Isaiah Rider
Isaiah "J.R." Rider (born March 12 1971 in Oakland, California) is a former NBA basketball player, who played from 1993-2002.
The 6'5" (1.96 m) Rider attended two junior colleges before finding a home at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he garnered 2nd-Team All-American honors as a senior. Rider was taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 5th pick in the 1993 NBA Draft. As a rookie, Rider (who began calling himself "J.R." that season) took the league by storm, tallying three 30-point games in December 1993, winning the All-Star Slam Dunk Contest in February 1994 with a spectacular between-the-legs jam, and finishing the 1993–94 season as a member of the NBA's All-Rookie Team.
In his second season, Rider continued to display the scoring flair that earned him praise the year prior, but began showing signs of the troubling off-court behavior that would ultimately de-rail his entire career. Though he was among the NBA's leaders in scoring at 20.4 ppg in 94–95, Rider feuded with Minnesota coach Bill Blair throughout the year, leading to a December suspension. In 1995–96, Rider's play slipped slightly, but he regardless continued his insubordination toward Timberwolves management, prompting Minnesota to deal him to Portland after the season in exchange for practically nothing.
On a deep Portland Trail Blazers team, Rider's scoring dipped to new lows, but the team enjoyed a modicum of success. Rider (who inexplicably took to calling himself "Isiah" again upon his arrival in Portland) also toned down his off-court act slightly in his three seasons in the Rose City, though he was not a model citizen, either. Still, the Atlanta Hawks felt Rider was the missing piece in their puzzle after the 1998–99 season, and so they sent Steve Smith to the Blazers for Rider and Jim Jackson, another talent who had not quite reached his potential. The trade proved to be the worst in Atlanta history. Rider was quite good on the floor, pacing the Hawks in scoring. However, his off-court incidents exploded: arrests, quarrels with management, parking in the reserved space belonging to the Atlanta Thrashers' Head Coach, missing practices, etc. By March 2000, the Hawks had had enough. They waived Rider, and he spent the rest of the year waiting for another team to sign him.
The next stop of the J.R. Rider experiment was the home of the defending champions, Los Angeles. Phil Jackson inked Rider as an experiment, as much in his own ability to keep questionable characters (such as, previously, Dennis Rodman) in line as in Rider's ability to contribute points. In the end, Rider behaved relatively well, and was rewarded with his first championship ring. His play, however, was terrible, and it looked like Rider's career was finally over. But prior to the 2002–03 season, the Denver Nuggets decided that Rider might be worth the trouble if he could resucitate their moribund offense. Rider's stay in the Mile High City was limited to 10 games, as it became painfully obvious that Rider no longer could play at an NBA level. Rider refused to term it "retirement", however, insisting that he could still play if given the chance. Nearly three years later, though, Rider's number has yet to be called by an NBA GM, and it seems as though J.R.'s checkered career is finally over.