Mike Rice (basketball)

Last updated
Mike Rice
Rice-Mike-150105-stern.jpg
Personal information
NationalityAmerican
Career information
College Duquesne (1960–1962)
NBA draft 1962 / Round: 8 / Pick: 64th overall
Selected by the Detroit Pistons
Career history
As coach:
1978–1982 Duquesne
1982–1987 Youngstown State
1988 Youngstown Pride

Michael Thomas Rice Sr. is a former National Basketball Association color commentator, one half of the Portland Trail Blazers' television broadcasting team. [1] A former player and coach, he is the only broadcaster ejected from an NBA game.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a men's professional basketball league in North America; composed of 30 teams. It is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. The NBA is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.

Color commentator Sports commentator who assists the play-by-play announcer

A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main commentator, often by filling in any time when play is not in progress. The phrase "color commentator" is primarily used in American English; the concept may also be referred to as a summariser or analyst. The color analyst and main commentator will often exchange comments freely throughout the broadcast, when the main commentator is not describing the action. The color commentator provides expert analysis and background information, such as statistics, strategy, and injury reports on the teams and athletes, and occasionally anecdotes or light humor. Color commentators are often former athletes or coaches of the sport being broadcast.

Portland Trail Blazers professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon

The Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team played its home games in the Memorial Coliseum before moving to Moda Center in 1995. The franchise entered the league as an expansion team in 1970, and has enjoyed a strong following: from 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in American major professional sports at the time, and only since surpassed by the Boston Red Sox. The Trail Blazers are the only NBA team based in the bi-national Pacific Northwest, after the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to Memphis and became the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 and the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.

Contents

Biography

Playing career

A basketball player at Duquesne University, Rice earned an All-American honorable mention selection his senior year, leading his Dukes to the 1962 NIT tournament. [2] During the semifinals in which Duquesne was defeated by the St. John's Red Storm Rice became involved in a fight with Donnie Burks that lasted at least a minute. As spectators at Madison Square Garden became involved it was broken up by the New York City Police Department. No one was injured and the referees did not call fouls on either Rice or Burks. The Associated Press described the event as a "lively brawl". [3]

Duquesne University Catholic university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit is a private Catholic university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened its doors as the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in October 1878 with an enrollment of 40 students and a faculty of six. In 1911, the college became the first Catholic university-level institution in Pennsylvania. It is the only Spiritan institution of higher education in the world. It is named for an 18th-century governor of New France, Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville.

St. Johns Red Storm mens basketball mens basketball that team represents the St. Johns University

The St. John's Red Storm men's basketball team represents the St. John's University in Queens, New York. The team participates in the Big East Conference. As of the end of the 2018-19 season, St. John's has 1,900 total wins, which put them at #6 on the List of teams with the most victories in NCAA Division I men's college basketball. Starting in the 2019-20 season, St. John's will be coached by Mike Anderson.

Madison Square Garden Multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City

Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or in initials as MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. Located in Midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenues from 31st to 33rd Streets, it is situated atop Pennsylvania Station. It is the fourth venue to bear the name "Madison Square Garden"; the first two were located on Madison Square, on East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, with the third Madison Square Garden (1925) further uptown at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street.

Although the NBA was calling and the Detroit Pistons selected him in the eighth round of the 1962 NBA draft, [4] Rice decided that his skills could be better utilized from an educational standpoint and opted for a career in coaching. [2]

Detroit Pistons professional basketball team in the National Basketball Association

The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit, Michigan. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and plays its home games at Little Caesars Arena. The team was founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne (Zollner) Pistons in 1941, a member of the National Basketball League (NBL) where it won two NBL championships: in 1944 and 1945. The Pistons later joined the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1948. The NBL and BAA merged to become the NBA in 1949, and the Pistons became part of the merged league. Since moving to Detroit in 1957, the Pistons have won three NBA championships: in 1989, 1990 and 2004.

The 1962 NBA draft was the 16th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on March 26, 1962, before the 1962–63 season. In this draft, nine NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. A player who had finished his four-year college eligibility was eligible for selection. If a player left college early, he would not be eligible for selection until his college class graduated. In each round, the teams selected in reverse order of their won–loss record in the previous season. Before the draft, a team could forfeit its first-round draft pick, then select any player from within a 50-mile radius of its home arena as their territorial pick. The Chicago Packers, who finished last in the previous season, were renamed the Chicago Zephyrs. The Philadelphia Warriors relocated to San Francisco and became the San Francisco Warriors prior to the start of the season. The draft consisted of 16 rounds, comprising 102 players selected.

Coaching career

Rice coached for 13 years at the high school level, posting a career record of 245–71, before moving to college coaching in 1977 when he accepted a position as an assistant coach at Duquesne. He was named the head coach of Duquesne for the 1978–79 season and over his four-year tenure he amassed a record of 62–49, garnering two berths in the National Invitation Tournament and twice being named Eastern Eight Coach of the Year. [2]

National Invitation Tournament second tier postseason college basketball tournament

The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and at Madison Square Garden in New York City each March and April, it was founded in 1938 and was originally the most prestigious post-season showcase for college basketball.

Atlantic 10 Conference Collegiate athletic conference

The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern Seaboard, as well as some in the Midwest – Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri as well as in the District of Columbia. Although some of its members are state-funded, half of its membership is made up of private, Catholic institutions. Despite the name, there are 14 full-time members, and two affiliate members that participate in women's field hockey only.

Rice then moved to Youngstown State University, where he coached for five years, from 1982–83 through 1986–87. During this period the Penguins twice finished second in the Ohio Valley Conference, peaking with a high of 19 victories in the 1984–85 season. The team amassed 75 wins against 67 losses during the Mike Rice years. [5]

Youngstown State University American research university in Ohio

Youngstown State University (YSU) is a public research university in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1908, YSU currently serves over 12,000 students in studies up to the doctoral level. It is affiliated with the University System of Ohio. Currently, it offers more than 170 undergraduate degree programs and over 50 graduate degree programs within its 7 schools and colleges in social science, education, STEM, communication, health, and business. Beyond its current student body, YSU claims more than 94,000 alumni.

Ohio Valley Conference US college athletic conference

The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, the lower of two levels of Division I football competition. The OVC has 12 members, 9 of which compete in football in the conference.

During his final season at Youngstown State, Rice was instrumental in reviving the Greater YSU Holiday Classic basketball tournament, an event which continued annually through the 1991–92 season. [6]

Broadcasting career

Mike Rice (R) with his longtime television broadcast partner with the Portland Trail Blazers, Mike Barrett. BarrettAndRice-150105.jpg
Mike Rice (R) with his longtime television broadcast partner with the Portland Trail Blazers, Mike Barrett.

Rice moved from coaching to broadcasting for the 1987–88 season when he took a job working for ESPN as a college basketball analyst. [7] Rice worked games as primary analyst for the Western Athletic Conference. [2] From 1989 he also worked with SportsChannel America as its primary analyst for World Basketball League broadcasts.

Rice moved to the team-owned broadcasting operations of the Portland Trail Blazers in 1991. [2] Rice was chosen by longtime voice of the Blazers Bill Schonely following a four-person tryout at the Blazers' 1991 Slam 'n' Jam held at Civic Stadium, organized by Blazer team president Marshall Glickman. [7] Rice bested former Oregon State University guard Mark Radford, ex-Blazers assistant coach Jack McKinney, and retired NBA referee Earl Strom in the tryout, which gave each a quarter of the game to work alongside Schonely. [7]

While Rice started as part of the radio team, since the 2006–07 season he has worked with play-by-play announcer Mike Barrett providing color commentary for the television broadcast.

Known affectionately as "The Wild One", Rice has been referred to by journalist Kerry Eggers as "part basketball expert, part entertainer, 100 percent character." [8] Echoing these sentiments, Blazer television producer Scott Zachary has likened him to a "favorite uncle" and publicly pronounced him "a goofy dude." [8]

Rice himself acknowledges a propensity for blurting out sentiments that more circumspect announcers would tend to internally filter. "I don’t give a damn about a lot of things. Later on, I think back, 'Now why’d I do that?'" he has said. [8] This tendency to be what former broadcast partner Eddie Doucette has characterized as a "loose cannon," [8] combined with his unabashed "homerism", has made Rice a figure of some controversy. [9]

Rice's outspoken demeanor resulted in one of the events for which he is best known, his 1994 ejection from an NBA game while working a radio broadcast. [8] As Rice tells the story:

"At the time, Steve Javie, the official, was a young official. That previous week he had kicked out a mascot, a fan, and kicked somebody else out, a trainer or something like that. He was on a roll that week, he had made a call, and I looked on the monitor and saw it was a bad call on Cliff Robinson. I kind of put my hands like that [two hands waved at the official] and he ran over. Cliff thought he was going to call a technical on him, because Cliff was standing there doing the same thing. He ran by Cliff and that's when he kicked me out of the game — the rest is history." [10]

Rice added that he subsequently wrote an article for Rip City magazine charging Javie with an abuse of power. "I think he...read that and we have not talked since", he noted in a 2009 interview. [10]

Family and hobbies

Rice's wife Kathy is a former Duquesne basketball player. [7] The couple have two daughters, Susan and Stephanie, both graduates of Syracuse University, and a son, Mike Rice, Jr., who was the head basketball coach at Robert Morris University [2] before moving to the same position at Rutgers University in May 2010. [11] Mike Rice, Jr. was fired by Rutgers on April 3, 2013. [12]

Despite nine surgeries on his right knee, [7] Mike Rice, Sr. remains an avid golfer, sporting a 6 handicap. [10] He frequently brought his golf clubs when he traveled with the team and plays whenever possible. [8] He also plays tennis several times a week. [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "Trail Blazers Announce Changes to Television and Radio Broadcast Talent | Portland Trail Blazers". www.nba.com. Portland Trail Blazers. June 15, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016. Rice, a successful collegiate and high school basketball coach, concludes 26 years with the Trail Blazers organization, including 11 years on-air as television color commentator.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Portland Trail Blazers 2009–10 Media Guide" (PDF). p. 260.
  3. ↑ "Duquesne, Ramblers Ousted". The Oregonian. Associated Press. March 23, 1962. p. 35.
  4. ↑ 1962 NBA Draft on Basketballreference.com
  5. ↑ "History and Records," Youngstown State University, page 2.
  6. ↑ "History of the YSU Holiday Basketball Classic", YSUSports.com. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Mike Barrett, "20 Years of Rice," Mike Barrett's Blog, October 10, 2010. iamatrailblazersfan.com/ Retrieved October 14, 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kerry Eggers, "Wild Rice: Mike Rice Has Kept Blazer Broadcasts Lively for 15 Years" The Portland Tribune , March 15, 2005. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
  9. ↑ See, for example: Steven Resnick, "Portland Trail Blazers: Home to the Worst Television Commentator", BleacherReport.com, November 21, 2008. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
  10. 1 2 3 Sheed, "Mike Rice Exclusive Interview", Bustabucket.com, January 11, 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
  11. ↑ Adam Zagoria, "Mike Rice Rutgers Press Conference Transcript," Zag's Blog, May 6, 2010. zagsblog.com, Retrieved October 14, 2010.
  12. ↑ Ben Golliver, "Rutgers Fires Mike Rice Jr., Son Of Blazers Broadcaster, After Practice Abuse Revealed On Tape", Blazers Edge, April 3, 2013.

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