Christen Guilford Dudley (born February 22, 1965) is a retired American basketball player and politician. He played for 16 years and 886 games in the NBA for five different teams. A journeyman center, he was known primarily for his defensive skill as a rebounder and shot blocker. In 2010, he was the Republican nominee for Governor of Oregon.
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Early life and education
Dudley was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Elizabeth Josephine (née Kovacs, c.1941- ), a teacher, and Guilford Dudley III (c. 1932- ), a minister. His maternal grandfather, also a minister, immigrated from Hungary, and his maternal grandmother's parents were also Hungarian. His paternal grandfather was Guilford Dudley, who was U.S. ambassador to Denmark under the Nixon and Ford presidential administrations.
Dudley played high school basketball at Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 16. Like his parents, grandfather, and uncle, Dudley attended Yale University. At Yale he played NCAA basketball for the Bulldogs from 1983 to 1987 and earned a degree in political science and economics.
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NBA career
Dudley began playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 1987-88 NBA season. During his rookie season, he played in 55 of 82 games, averaging three points per game. During the 1989-1990 season, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets. He played three years with the Nets, including the 1990-91 season, in which he enjoyed his best scoring average: 7.1 points per game in 61 contests. In the 1991-1992 season, he was available for all 82 games, one of only two such years in his career. In the 1992-1993 season, he was a bench contributor as the Nets went to their second playoff spot in two years. The summer after that season, teammate Dra?en Petrovi? died in a car accident in Germany, and Dudley signed a contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.
An injury kept Dudley out of all but six games during his first season in Portland. Though teammate Clyde Drexler was shipped to the Houston Rockets in the middle of the next season, Dudley and the Blazers made it to the playoffs. After playing 161 games for the Blazers between 1995 and 1997, Dudley went to the New York Knicks, where he backed up Patrick Ewing for three seasons.
In 1999, he reached the NBA Finals for the only time in his career, but the Knicks were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs, four games to one. Later that year, he grabbed his 5,000th NBA rebound during a game between the Knicks and the Detroit Pistons.
After his stint with the Knicks, Dudley was traded Phoenix Suns for Luc Longley, participating in 53 games in the 2000-01 season. He returned to the Trail Blazers in 2002, and retired after playing three games during the 2002-03 season.
In a career total of 886 NBA games, Dudley scored 3473 points (3.9 points per game), had 375 assists (0.4 assists per game), blocked 1027 shots (1.2 blocks per game) and had 5457 rebounds (6.2 rebounds per game). He was the recipient of the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 1996, and USA Today's Most Caring Athlete Award in 1997.
In 1990, Dudley missed 13 consecutive free throws, setting an NBA record. In 1989, he set the record for most free throws missed in a single trip to the foul line, missing five consecutive free throws after the opposing team committed three lane violations.
Post NBA
In 1994, he created the Chris Dudley Foundation, an Oregon-based group intended to improve the lives of diabetic children and in the summer of 1996 the Foundation started a basketball camp for children with diabetes. He received an NBA award as well as other community awards for founding the organization. From 2005 to 2007, he was a volunteer assistant coach for the Lake Oswego High School boys' basketball team, where he mentored UCLA-bound star Kevin Love.
In early 2006, Dudley became vice president of M Financial Wealth Management. Since October 2008, he has been a wealth management partner with Filigree Advisors.
2010 Oregon gubernatorial campaign
In the summer of 2009, Dudley, a Lake Oswego resident, was encouraged by the Republican Party to consider a run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Dudley declined to run for Congress, preferring to spend more time in the state. On October 11, 2009, The Oregonian reported that Dudley was considering entering the Republican primary for Oregon governor in 2010. In November 2009 he formed a campaign committee and raised roughly $340,000 by early December of the same year. Dudley formally announced his entry into the race on December 16. On March 6, 2010, The Oregonian reported Dudley had raised over $1 million, aided by a $50,000 donation from Nike co-founder Phil Knight.
In May 2010, Dudley won 39% of the vote in a crowded Republican primary to win the GOP nomination, and prepared to face former governor John Kitzhaber in the November general election. On September 29, 2010, The Register-Guard reported that Chris Dudley's campaign had received $5.6 million, more than twice what was raised by the Kitzhaber campaign. His primary sponsors included in-state timber companies, industry trade groups, and Portland area business executives, including Nike chairman and co-founder Phil Knight. The election was extremely close as polls had indicated, but Kitzhaber prevailed 49%-48%.
Personal life
Dudley and his wife, also named Chris, have three children. In April 2012, Dudley announced that his family was moving from Lake Oswego, Oregon, to San Diego, California so that his wife could pursue a business opportunity. He also indicated that his political career is likely over.
Charitable work
During his playing career, Dudley donated $300,000 to a non-profit organization to help pay the cost of college tuition for a class of fourth-graders at Vernon Elementary School in Portland. The Chris Dudley Basketball Camp (CDBC) for type one diabetics in Vernonia, Oregon, is put on one week per year every summer.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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