Dante Cunningham
| File:20140101 Dante Cunningham3.JPG
Cunningham (front) with the Timberwolves in January 2014
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| No. 44 – New Orleans Pelicans | |
|---|---|
| Position | Forward |
| League | NBA |
| Personal information | |
| Born | April 22, 1987 Clinton, Maryland |
| Nationality | American |
| Listed height | 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) |
| Listed weight | 230 lb (104 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | St. John's (Washington D.C.) Potomac (Oxon Hill, Maryland) |
| College | Villanova (2005–2009) |
| NBA draft | 2009 / Round: 2 / Pick: 33rd overall |
| Selected by the Portland Trail Blazers | |
| Playing career | 2009–present |
| Career history | |
| 2009–2011 | Portland Trail Blazers |
| 2011 | Charlotte Bobcats |
| 2011–2012 | Memphis Grizzlies |
| 2012–2014 | Minnesota Timberwolves |
| 2014–present | New Orleans Pelicans |
| Stats at NBA.com | |
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |
Dante Lamar Cunningham (born April 22, 1987) is an American professional basketball player for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Cunningham was drafted in the second round (33rd overall) of the 2009 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. Cunningham, a forward, played college basketball with the Villanova Wildcats.
Contents
Early life
Cunningham was born in Clinton, Maryland, to Searcy Blankenship and Ron Cunningham. His older sister Davalyn played in the WNBA.[1]
High school career
Cunningham began his prep career at St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C. While a junior, he averaged 10 points per game and 7.4 rebounds. One of his teammates, Dwayne Anderson, would later play at Villanova with Cunningham.[1]
As a senior, Cunningham transferred to Potomac High School, which he led to a 27–0 season under Head Coach Rico Reed. He averaged 13 rebounds, 20 points, and four blocked shots per game at Potomac. He was honored as the Washington Post Metropolitan Player of the Year.[1]
College career
At Villanova University, Cunningham played in all 33 games and was a starter in four during his freshman year.[1]
In his senior year, Cunningham would go on to lead the team in scoring and take home the Big East Most Improved Player award. He led the Wildcats to their first Final Four appearance since 1985.
NBA career
Cunningham was drafted 33rd overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2009 NBA draft. He played for Portland's Las Vegas Summer League team where he averaged over 18 points and 5 rebounds per game in four contests. On August 21, 2009, Cunningham signed his rookie scale contract with the Trail Blazers.[2]
On February 24, 2011, Cunningham was traded, along with Joel Przybilla, Sean Marks and two future first-round draft picks, to the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for Gerald Wallace.[3]
On December 20, 2011, Cunningham received a three-year, $7 million offer sheet from the Memphis Grizzlies.[4] The Bobcats declined to match the offer and subsequently signed the contract with the Grizzlies.[5]
On July 24, 2012, Cunningham was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Wayne Ellington.[6]
On December 4, 2014, Cunningham signed with the New Orleans Pelicans.[7] On July 9, 2015, he re-signed with the Pelicans.[8]
NBA career statistics
| 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
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009–10 | Portland | 63 | 2 | 11.2 | .495 | .000 | .646 | 2.5 | .2 | .4 | .4 | 3.9 |
| 2010–11 | Portland | 56 | 9 | 19.8 | .433 | .000 | .711 | 3.4 | .5 | .7 | .6 | 5.1 |
| 2010–11 | Charlotte | 22 | 9 | 24.0 | .508 | .111 | .765 | 4.0 | .6 | .7 | .5 | 9.0 |
| 2011–12 | Memphis | 64 | 5 | 17.6 | .516 | .000 | .652 | 3.8 | .6 | .7 | .5 | 5.2 |
| 2012–13 | Minnesota | 80 | 9 | 25.1 | .468 | .000 | .650 | 5.1 | .8 | 1.1 | .5 | 8.7 |
| 2013–14 | Minnesota | 81 | 7 | 20.2 | .464 | .000 | .567 | 4.1 | 1.0 | .8 | .7 | 6.3 |
| 2014–15 | New Orleans | 66 | 27 | 25.0 | .457 | .100 | .617 | 3.9 | .8 | .7 | .6 | 5.2 |
| Career | 432 | 68 | 20.3 | .472 | .053 | .644 | 3.9 | .7 | .7 | .5 | 5.6 |
Playoffs
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Portland | 5 | 0 | 8.4 | .600 | .000 | .833 | 2.6 | .0 | 1.0 | .0 | 4.6 |
| 2012 | Memphis | 7 | 0 | 7.0 | .364 | .000 | .000 | 1.6 | .0 | .1 | .3 | 1.1 |
| 2015 | New Orleans | 4 | 0 | 18.8 | .818 | .000 | 1.000 | 4.5 | .5 | .8 | 1.0 | 5.3 |
| Career | 16 | 0 | 10.4 | .595 | .000 | .889 | 2.6 | .1 | .4 | .6 | 3.3 |
Personal
On April 3, 2014, Cunningham was arrested for allegedly choking his girlfriend with whom he lived. Three days later, he was arrested on alleged domestic abuse charges.[9] By August 18, 2014, charges were dropped, due to evidence Cunningham's then girlfriend had fabricated her accusations.[10][11]
Cunningham was included on a preliminary list for Great Britain's Eurobasket 2009 qualifying matches in 2008.[12] However, he was later ruled ineligible to compete for Britain after an investigation by British Basketball officials into his ancestral ties failed to prove his case to receive UK citizenship.[13]
References
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- Career statistics and player information from NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com
- Career statistics and player information from WNBA.comLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). and Basketball-Reference.comLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Joe Freeman, Blazers sign draft pick Dante Cunningham, August 21, 2009
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Wolves Acquire Dante Cunningham From Memphis
- ↑ Pelicans Sign Dante Cunningham
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Timberwolves’ Dante Cunningham arrested for second time this week
- ↑ Felony assault charge against Cunningham dropped
- ↑ NBA free agent Dante Cunningham struggles to clear name after domestic violence charge dropped
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ MULLENS TO JOIN GB’S OLYMPIC TILT
- Pages with reference errors
- Pages with broken file links
- 1987 births
- Living people
- African-American basketball players
- Basketball players at the 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Final Four
- Basketball players from Maryland
- Charlotte Bobcats players
- Memphis Grizzlies players
- Minnesota Timberwolves players
- New Orleans Pelicans players
- People from Clinton, Maryland
- Portland Trail Blazers draft picks
- Portland Trail Blazers players
- Power forwards (basketball)
- Small forwards
- Villanova Wildcats men's basketball players
