Luc Longley

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Luc Longley bigraphy, stories - Australian basketball player

Luc Longley : biography

19 January 1969 –

Lucien James "Luc" Longley (born 19 January 1969) is a retired Australian professional basketball player, who was the first Australian to play in the NBA, where he played for 11 seasons. Known for his passing ability and free spirit, Longley drew comparisons to fellow redhead Bill Walton upon his entry into the NBA.

Longley, playing alongside Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc and Dennis Rodman, was the starting center during the Chicago Bulls’ second "three-peat" championship seasons from 1996-1998, including the Bulls’ 1995–96 season, in which they set an NBA record by going 72-10 during the regular season.

Biography

Luc Longley was born 19 January 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria. At age sixteen Luc was a member of the Australian Under-19 side and the following year, 1986, he joined the Perth Wildcats, with whom he played two games. Longley was recruited out of Scotch College, Perth by the University of New Mexico’s basketball coach, Gary Colson, who went to Perth to recruit Andrew Vlahov, who attended Stanford University. Vlahov and Longley both played their junior basketball for the Perth Redbacks District Basketball Club, in the same team. Longley attended college at the University of New Mexico, between 1987–1991, where he averaged 19.1 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists in his senior year. At nineteen he was a member of the national team for the Seoul Olympics, where they came fourth, the best result an Australian senior men’s basketball team has achieved in Olympic competition.

Longley was drafted 7th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1991. In 1992 he again represented Australia at the Barcelona Olympics. After two plus mediocre seasons with the struggling franchise, the 7’2" (218 cm) center was traded to the Chicago Bulls for Stacey King late in the 1993-94 season. He won three straight championships with the Bulls from 1996 to 1998 as a teammate of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoč and Dennis Rodman.

Following the breakup of the championship Bulls in 1998, Chicago did a sign-and-trade deal with Longley, sending him to the Phoenix Suns for Mark Bryant, Martin Müürsepp, Bubba Wells, and a conditional first-round draft pick. Longley spent two lackluster seasons with Phoenix, where he gained less attention for his play than for being stung twice by a scorpion while sitting on the floor of his home sorting through his CD collection. (Longley also had difficulties with bodysurfing – he managed to separate his shoulder and miss 18 games in 1997. ) He was traded to the New York Knicks prior to the 2000–01 NBA season in what was only the second four-team trade in NBA history. The Suns acquired Chris Dudley as part of the deal together with a first-round draft pick from New York and an undisclosed amount of cash, while New York received Longley, Glen Rice, Travis Knight, Vladimir Stepania, Lazaro Borrell, Vernon Maxwell, two first-round draft picks (from the Los Angeles Lakers and the Seattle SuperSonics) and two second-round draft picks from Seattle. Seattle received Patrick Ewing and the Lakers received Horace Grant, Greg Foster, Chuck Person and Emanual Davis. Longley spent one year with New York before retiring, due to a degenerative condition in his left ankle. Longley averaged 7.20 points and 4.90 rebounds per game in his 567 regular season game NBA career. Longley played more NBA games than any other Australian.

In 2001, he was inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport ‘Best of the Best’. Longley was part-owner of the Perth Wildcats basketball club in the Australian National Basketball League for several years and was the #1 ticket holder at the Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League between 2006 and 2007. In 2006 Longley was inducted into Basketball Australia’s Hall of Fame in Melbourne.

On 8 October 2009 Longley was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame at its 25th anniversary dinner in Melbourne.

Personal

His father, Richard, an architect, represented Australia at international level in basketball, including being a member of two Olympic squads. His mother, Sue Hansen-Smith, is an equestrian who has been divorced from Richard since 1984 and resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

Longley has two brothers, Sam, a journalist and actor, and Griff, also a and who also played briefly for the Perth Wildcats. Longley was married to an American, Kelly, whom he met in New Mexico while he was attending college and they had two daughters, Clare Hanna and Lily Samantha.

On 6 April 2007, Longley’s $2 million home in Fremantle, Western Australia, was destroyed by a fire. It is believed much of Longley’s memorabilia from his basketball career was lost, although his three championship rings may have been spared.

He married Anna Gare, a former musician and current television presenter, in 2008.

In December 2009 Longley, who had participated in marine conservation efforts before, named a newly discovered shrimp species Lebbeus clarehanna after his 15-year-old daughter.