Isaiah Rider
From Hoopedia
Isaiah Rider, Jr., sometimes known as J.R. Rider (born March 12, 1971 in Oakland, California) is an American former NBA basketball player, who played from 1993–2001.
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Playing Career
College
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. He was also arrested once during his stay ay UNLV, spending a night in jail after an incident in which he abused a worker at a campus Jack in the Box and threw a milkshake into the restaurant's drive-through window. UNLV's basketball team under coach Jerry Tarkanian had already acquired a reputation as a program with disciplinary issues well before Rider's run-in with the law, and after his arrest Rider was often held up as the poster child for the character issues that many felt were running rampant in Tarkanian's program.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Despite the questions surrounding his character, Rider was taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 5th pick in the 1993 NBA Draft. He began calling himself "Isaiah" after being known as "J.R." through college. As a harbinger of things to come, he was late for his first practice with the Timberwolves. However, he took the league by storm in his rookie year, 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, which he titled the "East Bay Funk Dunk" (veteran All-Star Charles Barkley called it the best dunk he had ever seen), and finishing the 1993-94 season as a member of the NBA's All-Rookie First Team.
In his second season, Rider continued to display the scoring flair that earned him praise the year prior, but also resumed the type of 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. Rider did win the 1995 ESPN ESPY Award for best NBA play, however: during a December game against the Kings, Rider jumped to save a ball from going out of bounds, flinging it blindly towards the general vicinity of the basket... and it somehow went in, completing what T-Wolves announcer Tom Hanneman would term the "Play of the Decade".
Portland Trail Blazers
In 1995-96, Rider's play slipped slightly, and he continued his insubordination toward Timberwolves management. He also got in trouble off the court; he kicked the female manager of a sports bar and was ultimately convicted of fifth-degree assault. Minnesota finally had enough, and dealt him to Portland after the season for practically nothing. In return for Rider, the T-Wolves received Bill Curley, James Robinson and a conditional first round draft pick in 1997 or 1998 (which apparently wasn't used, as the Timberwolves picked Paul Grant in 1997 and Radoslav Nesterovic in 1998, without getting a pick from Portland, who didn't have any). Just before the trade, he was arrested for marijuana possession. At the time of his arrest, he also had an illegal cell phone; it had been altered to charge calls to someone else's bill. He was later convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession, and pleaded no contest to possessing the illegal cell phone. Three weeks later, he was arrested for gambling in public back in Oakland.
On a deep Portland team, Rider's scoring dipped to new lows, but the team enjoyed a modicum of success. Rider (who inexplicably took to calling himself "J.R." 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. He was suspended for a total of 12 games in three years, including a three-game suspension for spitting at a heckler.
Atlanta Hawks
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. While Rider was passable on the floor, pacing the Hawks in scoring, his off-court incidents exploded: arrests, quarrels with management, parking in the reserved space at Philips Arena belonging to Atlanta Thrashers head coach Curt Fraser, missing practices, etc. After reports that he'd smoked marijuana in an Orlando hotel room, the league demanded that he attend drug counseling. He refused, and was fined a total of $200,000 until he agreed to attend. He showed up late for a March game in Detroit; rather than serve a three-game suspension, he demanded his outright release. The Rider trade is believed to have led to the firing of general manager Pete Babcock and the forced resignation of coach Lenny Wilkens after the season.
Los Angeles Lakers
The next stop on the Rider tour was the home of the defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. Phil Jackson inked Rider as an experiment, as much in his own ability to keep questionable characters (such as, previously, Dennis Rodman) in line. Aside from a five-game suspension for violating the league's anti-drug program, Rider behaved relatively well, and played in 67 of the Lakers' 82 games that year, leading their bench in scoring with a 7.6 average. However, they did reward him with his first championship ring, but left him off the playoff roster; the Lakers let two rarely playing reserves (Greg Foster and Devean George) stay on the roster instead. His play had deteriorated quite a bit in a short period of time, and it looked like Rider's career was finally over.
Denver Nuggets
Prior to the 2001-02 season, the Denver Nuggets decided that Rider might be worth the trouble if he could resuscitate their moribund offense, but Rider's stint in the Mile High City was limited to just 10 games before being waived on November 20, 2001; as it became painfully obvious that Rider no longer could play at an NBA level. Rider refused to term it "retirement" at the time, however, insisting that he could still play if given the chance. Six years later, though, Rider's number has yet to be called by an NBA team.
After The NBA
In January 2006, he was arrested in Marin City, California for taking a female friend in his car against her will. He was charged with domestic violence and ordered to stay out of Marin City. Despite this court order, he was spotted in the area a few weeks later. A Marin County sheriff's deputy confronted him, and while fleeing, Rider hit another car. He was arrested in Alameda County in late 2006, and transferred to the Marin County jail after three judges in that county issued bench warrants against him. In February 2007, Rider pleaded guilty to several charges, including felony cocaine possession and evading an officer. He was sentenced to seven months in jail, 120 hours community service and three years' probation. He will also have to complete a drug education program. At sentencing, Rider admitted to a longstanding problem with marijuana; he'd also begun lacing it with cocaine.
