Never was a nickname better suited to a player than Worthy’s moniker of “Big Game James.”. His field-goal percentage of .579 topped all other rookies and remains a Lakers club record for rookies. But it wasn't enough against a hot Chicago Bulls squad led by the pair's old Carolina teammate, Michael Jordan. Script error: The function "getCommonsLink" does not exist. Lived in Lakeland and Polk City, FL. The UNC squad reached the 1982 NCAA championship game as the slight favorite over Georgetown and Patrick Ewing. Gender Male. Named both a Parade Magazine and McDonald's All-American, he was selected to play in the 1979 McDonald's All-American Game that featured future NBA Hall of Famers Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins and Ralph Sampson. Named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, he was #1 pick of the 1982 NBA draft of the reigning NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers. A former basketball commentator, television host, and analyst,[1] he now works as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The top state of residence is Georgia, followed by Texas. It would be Worthy's last chance at a fourth ring. Guys are telling me how they were in junior high, watching us beat the Celtics in ’85. It really made me wake up and expose myself to all kinds of people — not confine myself to just basketball.”. Related . And James Worthy had arrived, becoming the third-leading scorer (17.6) and second-leading rebounder (6.4) on the club. Dating Rumors Spark After Stephen A. Smith Was Spotted Eating With ESPN’s Rosalyn Gold-Onwude. James Ager Worthy (born February 27, 1961) is a retired Hall of Fame American professional basketball player. In spite of stepped up performances by both Johnson (25.2 ppg) and Worthy (24.2 ppg) in the play-offs, LA fell in the Conference semifinals to the Phoenix Suns. He is an actor and producer, known for, Sun, Nov 15 James Worthy, 52 AKA: james r worthy, james r worthy, james r worthy, james roland worthy, worthy james roland, james roland worthy, james r worthy 400 Gwynnwest Rd, His 21.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game during his senior season at Ashbrook High led the team to the state championship game. A tip dunk in front of Patrick Ewing captioned "James Worthy slams the door on Georgetown" made the cover of Sports Illustrated. The first, of course, was Magic in ’79. Fully recovered, Worthy became an All-Atlantic Coast Conference forward as a sophomore. And in the playoffs he was, as always, Big Game James. In 1981-82, Worthy was part of one of the greatest collections of talent in collegiate basketball history, a squad that included Sam Perkins and a freshman named Michael Jordan. Worthy was enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. “James Worthy was one of the top 10 — top five — players in playoff history,” Johnson stated at Worthy’s retirement news conference. After graduating high school, Worthy attended the University of North Carolina (UNC). He was a member of three NBA championship teams with the Los Angeles Lakers (1985, ’87, ’88). It was his junior year at UNC, however, that became legendary. The average James Worthy is around 52 years of age with around 45% falling in to the age group of 51-60. on James Worthy was born on February 27, 1961 in Gastonia, North Carolina, USA as James Ager Worthy. He upped his scoring average to 20.0, the first of four times Worthy would average 20 or more in the regular season. Prior to the 1983-84 season, the Lakers traded Nixon to the San Diego Clippers for Swen Nater and the draft rights to rookie Byron Scott. During the regular season Worthy averaged 19.7 points and scored a career-high 38 points against the Atlanta Hawks. Johnson, after all, had made the passes on the fast break that set up hundreds of Worthy’s trademark one-handed swooping dunks. He is an actor and producer, known for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Building Minds with Chess … Worthy led the Lakers in minutes played in 1988-89 (36.5) and averaged 20.5 points. The next two seasons proved to be the peak of not only Worthy’s career but of the Lakers’ dominance in the 1980s. Worthy is the founder of the James Worthy Foundation,[15] and dedicates a substantial amount of his time and resources to support non-profit community organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers of America, YMCA, and others. The Los Angeles Lakers had received the Cleveland Cavaliers' 1982 first-round draft pick in a 1979 exchange for Don Ford. In 1984-85, L.A. was the dominant team in the league. on That contest would set the pattern for the rest of Worthy’s storied career. Los Angeles was swept by the Detroit Pistons in the 1989 Finals, lost to the Phoenix Suns in the 1990 Western Conference semifinals, and fell to the Chicago Bulls in five games in the 1991 NBA Finals. This page was last modified on 13 January 2016, at 19:51. James Worthy, Actor: Star Trek: The Next Generation. Worthy was superb, adding his own take to the position defined by Elgin Baylor and Julius Erving. Wilkes averaged 21.1 points in 1981-82 (16th in the league) and played more minutes for the Lakers than everyone except Johnson and Norm Nixon. Worthy was a studio analyst for Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Time Warner Cable Deportes and co-host of Access SportsNet, the networks' pregame and postgame show for Lakers game telecasts on in Los Angeles; he also served as an NBA analyst for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. The Lakers struggled through the 1988 postseason, surviving seven-game series against both the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks before facing the Pistons in the NBA Finals. fadeawayworld.net | 28d. As always, he shot well, finishing the regular season with a .572 field-goal percentage. Worthy recorded his first triple-double in arguably the biggest game of his career: Game 7 of the ’88 Finals against Detroit, in which Worthy collected 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. He ranks sixth all-time in Lakers team scoring (16,320), third all-time in team steals (1,041) and seventh all-time in team field goal percentage (.521). “It’s not just because it was my first NBA championship, but that we did it in the [Boston] Garden,” he told Sport magazine in 1991. With hard driving coach Pat Riley demanding nothing but a championship ring, the Lakers were on a mission of redemption in 1985. [5] The Cavaliers finished with the NBA's worst record in the 1981–82 season, leaving a coin toss to decide whether they or the worst record runner-up San Diego Clippers would get the number one pick in the upcoming draft. Worthy played three more seasons before retiring prior to the start of the 1994-95 campaign. to post a message. Voted one of the top 50 NBA players of all time in 1996, Worthy was not a first-ballot inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000, his first year of eligibility. Looking for something to watch? Worthy would have one more noteworthy performance left in him in Game 2 of the first round of the 1993 NBA Playoffs against the Phoenix Suns, hitting a clutch three point shot during the final stretch, giving the Lakers a 2-0 series lead against the Suns, who had the best record in the regular season. The NBA championship swung back to the Celtics in 1985-86, although Worthy had the best season of his career and made the first of seven consecutive appearances in the NBA All-Star Game. In the 1984 NBA Finals, Los Angeles lost to Boston in a thrilling seven-game series that included two overtime games. With Worthy, Scott and Michael Cooper filling the lanes and Magic running the show, the Lakers developed one of the most feared fast breaks in the history of the game. “Even though he was the No. “I can remember coming into the league and being under the likes of Kareem, Jamaal Wilkes, Magic, Norm Nixon and Bob McAdoo,” he told the Los Angeles Times. Worthy nevertheless put together a respectable rookie campaign. Age 88 years old . 1 draft choice the Lakers have had since moving to California in 1960. “Now I find myself in that situation. By the time he retired, Worthy owned a Most Outstanding Player Award from the 1982 NCAA Final Four and a Most Valuable Player Award from the ’88 NBA Finals. As he would throughout his career, Worthy increased his production during the playoffs: He averaged 17.7 points and 2.7 assists in 21 postseason games, compared to 14.5 points and 1.7 assists in the regular season.