Who is John Thomas Salley?

Who is John Thomas Salley?  The entertainment and professional basketball world knows him as "Spider". John Salley is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA, actor and talk show host. He was the first player in NBA history to play on three different championship-winning franchises.

Early life and career

Salley was born in May 16, 1964, Brooklyn, New York. Salley played high school ball at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn.^[1] He is a 1988 graduate of Georgia Tech's College of Management.^[2]
At 6'11" (2.11 m), Salley played both power forward and center for the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Panathinaikos BC and Los Angeles Lakers. The nickname "Spider" is a reference to Salley's fear of the arachnid, which he claims to have conquered during his time on the 2009 reality television show I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!.

Detroit Pistons

He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the 1986 NBA Draft out of Georgia Tech. He is among the Pistons' all-time leaders in blocked shots, holds Georgia Tech's blocked shot record, and has had his jersey number 22 retired—a very rare honor in college basketball.^[3] After joining the Pistons, he became close friends with Adrian Dantley, who taught him proper nutrition, how to exercise, and how to conduct himself off the court. Salley, for his part, called Dantley "The Teacher." Salley would become good friends with comedian Eddie Murphy and made several appearances at comedy clubs in the off-season. In 1989 and 1990, he played on two Pistons championship teams.

Heat and Bulls

He was traded to the Miami Heat in 1992 and, a few years after that, was left unprotected by Miami in the 1995 expansion draft. Following a short stint with the inaugural Toronto Raptors team where he received little playing time, he negotiated a buyout of his contract in order to sign with the Chicago Bulls, where he helped Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and former Pistons teammate Dennis Rodman (as well as former teammate James Edwards) lead the Bulls to a record-breaking 72-win season, after which Salley retired. However, in 1996, he came out of retirement to join the Greek team Panathinaikos BC for a few games.

Lakers

In 1999, he joined a Lakers team led by Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. He saw little action for the Lakers en route to their first of three consecutive NBA championships from 2000–2002. In 2000 he retired again following the first Lakers championship season after proudly proclaiming that he had won "four championship rings, with three different teams, in three different decades and two different millenniums."

Post-basketball career

Salley in Bad Boys

John Salley had a role in Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2, as a thick-glassed computer hacking nerd who gets out of jail because he helps crack files for the Miami Police Department. In 1996, Salley appeared as a veteran basketball player alongside Whoopi Goldberg in the film Eddie, about a fan who takes over as coach of the New York Knicks.
In the fall of 1998, Salley hosted the game show I Can't Believe You Said That, which aired on the Fox Family Channel. During that time, he also guest-starred as a panelist on Hollywood Squares.
In 2001, Salley made an appearance in the Luther Vandross music video, "Take You Out".
In 2004 he was part of the panel of celebrity judges in the TBS Superstation show He's a Lady.
In 2006, Salley was named the Commissioner of the American Basketball Association.
In 2007, Salley appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. In the first round of competition, Salley matched up against professional wrestler John Cena and tennis star Serena Williams. Salley also became the host of the new BET show Ballers.
Salley joined the cast of the reality competition show I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!, which premiered on June 1, 2009.^[4] He came in third place with Lou Diamond Phillips winner and Torrie Wilson runner-up. On the show he became friends with Patti Blagojevich who is the wife of Rod Blagojevich.
He also appeared in the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic in 2009 as a member of the shopaholic help group, and had a bit role as a pimp named Kotex in the blaxploitation spoof Black Dynamite.^[5]

Cast of The Best Damn Sports Show Period

He was one of the hosts of The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Network. Salley hosted The John Salley Block Party, a radio morning show on Los Angeles station 100.3 The Beat from May 2005 - 2006.
For a short time, Salley provided analysis for NBC's NBA Showtime.
Salley appeared in the Disney Channel original movie, The Ultimate Christmas Present as a tall elf.
Salley hosted a podcast on Adam Carolla's "ACE" broadcasting network with sportswriter Kevin Hench entitled Spider and the Henchman.^[6] The show was canceled on 18 March 2011.
Salley also hosted VH1's "Basketball Wives"
He is also ambassador for Operation Smile.

Personal life

Salley is a vegan and has appeared on PETA's testimonial videos,^[7] as well as in promoting alternatives to practices of massive factory farming.^[8]
On May 4, 2010, it was announced that Salley had joined the Simply Raw team. The group of indivuduals who produced the documentary Raw for 30 had approached Salley with their video about reversing diabetes, and "it instantly got his attention" since his father had the disease.
Salley teamed up with Farm Sanctuary in 2010 to host their New York City Walk for Farm Animals on Sunday, October 24, 2010.^[9]
Salley has been married to Natasha Duffy since 1993 and they have 2 children together

 

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