Lakers Players

Ron Harper

Ron Harper

Ronald Harper (born January 20, 1964 in Dayton, Ohio) is a former professional basketball player whose career spanned from 1986 to 2001 with four teams in the National Basketball Association. At 6' 6" (1.98 m), his position was shooting guard/point guard swingman.

After attending Miami University, he was selected 8th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 1986 NBA Draft, averaging 22.9 points per game in his rookie season. After initially spending 3 seasons at the Cavaliers, he would later play for the Los Angeles Clippers, the Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers where he finished his career. He would win five championships in his career, three with the Bulls and two with the Lakers.

A talented scorer with great leaping ability, Harper was considered "poor man's Michael Jordan". While a Clipper, a knee injury robbed him of much of his speed and jumping ability. In 1994, he signed a lucrative free agent deal with the Bulls, who were rebuilding following the initial retirement of Michael Jordan. After his first tumultuous season in Chicago, he reinvented himself as a lockdown defender and standstill jump shooter. He was a mainstay of Phil Jackson's last five championship teams.

In 2005, he signed as an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons, under head coach Flip Saunders.

Ron Harper has been immortalized on the Oxford, Ohio campus of Miami University. A local restaurant, Lottie Moon's, serves the Ron Harper All-Star Burger, a cheeseburger topped with a fried egg, as a tribute to Harper.

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