Acie Boyd Earl (born June 23, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player, who appeared in four National Basketball Association (NBA) seasons, as a 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), 240 lb (110 kg) center. He also played many seasons in Europe.

Acie Earl
Personal information
Born (1970-06-23) June 23, 1970 (age 54)
Peoria, Illinois, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight240 lb (109 kg)
Career information
High schoolMoline (Moline, Illinois)
CollegeIowa (1989–1993)
NBA draft1993: 1st round, 19th overall pick
Selected by the Boston Celtics
Playing career1993–2004
PositionPower forward / center
Number55
Career history
As player:
19931995Boston Celtics
19951997Toronto Raptors
1997Milwaukee Bucks
1997–1998La Crosse Bobcats
1998Paris Basket Racing
1998–1999Sydney Kings
1999Qianwei Aoshen
1999Sydney Kings
1999–2000Tuborg Pilsener
2000–2001Türk Telekom
2001Avtodor Saratov
2001–2002UNICS Kazan
2002Darüşşafaka
2003Śląsk Wrocław
2003Arkadia Traiskirchen Lions
2004Budućnost Podgorica
2004KB Dukagjini
2004Waterloo Revolution
As coach:
2004–2005Tijuana Dragons
2006–2007Cleveland Majic
Career highlights and awards
  • All-NBL Third Team (1999)
  • First-team All-Big Ten (1992)
  • 2× Second-team All-Big Ten (1991, 1993)
  • Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year (1992)
Career NBA statistics
Points980 (5.1 ppg)
Rebounds517 (2.7 rpg)
Blocks126 (0.7 bpg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

High school/college

edit

Born in Peoria, Illinois, Earl was a star basketball player from Moline High School[1] playing varsity-level basketball for three seasons. He led the Maroons to a 23–4 record in 1988, along with future NFL All-Pro Brad Hopkins. Earl is currently the seventh leading all-time scorer in Moline basketball history.

Earl played college basketball at the University of Iowa, being a key recruit for Tom Davis' Hawkeyes. He appeared in 22 games in his first-year season, with an average of 6 points in 16 minutes, but still managed 50 blocked shots in limited playing time.

In his second season, Earl became a key force in the Big Ten Conference, averaging 16.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, with 106 total blocked shots. Iowa made it to the 1991 NCAA Tournament where they were defeated by eventual champions Duke Blue Devils in the second round.

In his junior year, Earl slightly improved his numbers (managing to block an average of four shots a game), while the college made it to the 1992 NCAA Tournament, only to lose, again in the second round and against Duke (also the eventual winners), 75–62, with Earl blocking 8 shot attempts, one shy of the all-time tournament record held by David Robinson.

With Earl still putting up strong numbers in 1992–93, Iowa again lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, now to Wake Forest.

Earl graduated as the 1992 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, and upon graduation held the Iowa career record with 358 blocked shots, and was second in total points scored with 1779 (after Roy Marble).[2] He received his undergraduate degree in the fall of 1992 with a degree in Leisure studies.

Earl now lives near his alma mater in Iowa City Iowa.

Professional career

edit

Earl was selected in the first round of the 1993 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics with the 19th pick, in a year which included Chris Webber, Jamal Mashburn and Penny Hardaway. He played 74 games in his rookie season, averaging 5.5 points and 3.3 rebounds per game.

His statistics dropped in his second year, as he played in only 30 games, and was subsequently selected by the Toronto Raptors in the 1995 NBA expansion draft after the Celtics left him unprotected. With the Raptors, he posted his best statistical season, scoring 7.5 points per game, adding 3.1 rebounds. On April 12, 1996, against the team that drafted him—the Celtics—Earl posted a double-double, with 40 points and 12 rebounds in a 136–108 loss.[3] Midway through 1996–97, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, appearing in nine games in his final NBA season.

Subsequently, Earl took his game overseas, first appearing for Paris Basket Racing (France), also playing 21 games in Australia for the National Basketball League's Sydney Kings in 1998–99.[4] In 1998, he also played with the Continental Basketball Association's La Crosse Bobcats.

He then represented Türk Telekom Ankara and Darussafaka Istanbul Spor Kulubu (Turkey), Unics Kazan and Saratov Autodor (Russia), Śląsk Wrocław (Poland), Traiskirchen Arkadia Lions (Austria) and KK Budućnost Podgorica (Montenegro), retiring in 2004. He also had a small stint for KB Peja, in Kosovo, helping the team become state champions.

Moving into coaching, Earl managed, during 2005, the Tijuana Dragons, an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in Tijuana, Mexico.

NBA career statistics

edit
Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

edit
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1993–94 Boston 74 8 15.5 .406 .000 .675 3.3 0.2 0.3 0.7 5.5
1994–95 Boston 30 3 6.9 .382 .000 .483 1.5 0.1 0.2 0.3 2.2
1995–96 Toronto 42 7 15.6 .424 .000 .719 3.1 0.6 0.4 0.9 7.5
1996–97 Toronto 38 0 12.0 .376 .000 .629 2.2 0.5 0.3 0.7 4.3
1996–97 Milwaukee 9 0 4.8 .348 .000 .714 1.2 0.2 0.3 0.1 2.9
Career 193 18 13.0 .403 .000 .667 2.7 0.3 0.3 0.7 5.1

Playoffs

edit
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1994–95 Boston 1 0 10.0 .333 .000 .000 2.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 2.0

References

edit
  1. ^ "Acie Earl". Basketball-Reference.Com. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  2. ^ Iowa Men's Basketball 1,000 point club Archived August 14, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Toronto (108) @ Boston (136) 04/12/96 Archived August 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, at Basketballreference.com
  4. ^ "Kings emerge from a pack of jokers". The Sydney Morning Herald. January 10, 2003. Archived from the original on December 3, 2017.
edit