Category: All-Time Player Bios

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Al Horford (2004-07)

Al Horford was a crucial contributor on the greatest Gators men’s basketball team which won back-to-back national titles from 2005-07.

Al Horford (2004-07) – Power Forward/Center

Al Horford was a crucial contributor on the greatest Gators men’s basketball team — and arguably one of the greatest NCAA teams, period — which won back-to-back national titles under head coach Billy Donovan from 2005-07.

Born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Horford was the son of professional basketball player Tito Horford, who played three years in the NBA and several more overseas. His family moved to Lansing, Michigan, in 2000 where he played basketball for Grand Ledge High School, setting seven school records — including most career points (1,239) — while averaging 21 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks per game his senior year en route to a Class A Player of the Year honor.

Horford, who was considered a four-star recruit and was listed as the No. 7 power forward and the No. 36 player in the nation coming out of high school, came to Florida and joined a program that was already on a meteoric ascent. His freshman season, he teamed up with David Lee to form a formidable front-court that won the 2005 Southeastern Conference Tournament championship; that team, however, lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The next two seasons represented the pinnacle of the program’s history, as Horford and company won both the SEC and national championships in 2005-06, only to return as a full team — despite high prospects for several players in the NBA Draft — to win a second-consecutive championship trophy. Horford averaged double-digit points per game during that stretch, including almost posting a double-double average his junior season with 13.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.

Three days after winning the second title, Horford and the rest of the Gators’ starting five declared for the NBA Draft. The talented power forward was selected the highest of his peers, taken at No. 3 — the second-highest draft position in program history, tied with Bradley Beal —by the Atlanta Hawks.

He began his professional career in Atlanta strong, receiving a unanimous selection to the NBA All-Rookie First Team — the only player with that distinction for the 2007-08 season — while finishing runner-up for the Rookie of the Year honor. His superlative play earned him back-to-back All-Star Team selections the next two seasons, and in turn was rewarded with a five-year, $60 million contract extension sandwiched in between his two All-Star appearances.

After an injury-shortened season the following year, Horford put up his best numbers in 2012-13 averaging a career-high 17.4 points, a career-high 10.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.1 blocks and 1.1 steals in 37.2 minutes across 74 games. He also recorded 43 double-doubles, including 20 20-point/10-rebound games, and even added one in points and assists to mix things up. The promising power forward earned his first Eastern Conference Player of the Week honor in November of 2012.

Horford oscillated between injury and all-star form the following seasons — playing a career-high 82 regular-season games in 2015-16 — before signing a max contract with the Boston Celtics as an unrestricted free agent in 2016. He had a moderately successful run in Boston over a three year period, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals twice but failing to advance any further.

After declining a player option in his contract with the Celtics, Horford moved on to the Philadelphia 76ers — where he currently plays — signing a four-year $97 million contract along with $12 million in bonuses as an unrestricted free agent. The abbreviated 2019-20 season was a disappointing one for the former Gators big man, putting up near career-lows across the stat sheet.

However, after this past season was canceled due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the philanthropic power forward donated $500,000 towards relief efforts both back home and at all of his stops in the States.

So far over the course of his professional career, Horford has averaged 14 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.2 blocks per game in 13 seasons with three different teams along with five All-Star Game appearances. While Horford is not quite on an NBA Hall of Fame trajectory, he has still been a formidable force during his years in the league.

At this point, Horford is entering the twilight of his career and by the time all is said and done, the big man from the Dominican Republic will have a legitimate claim to a spot in the Pantheon of Gators greats.

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All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Brett Nelson (1999-03)

Brett Nelson was a key member of the turn-of-the-millennium squad that reached the 2000 NCAA Tournament Finals while collecting 100 wins.

Brett Nelson (1999-03) – Guard

Brett Nelson was a key member of Billy Donovan’s turn-of-the-millennium squad that reached the 2000 NCAA Tournament Finals while collecting 100 wins during his four years in school.

Hailing from St. Albans, West Virginia, Nelson was a 1999 McDonald’s All-American standout and the state’s player of the year his senior season. His efforts earned him a spot on Donovan’s team, which had reached the Sweet 16 the season before he arrived and almost won it all his freshman year.

Nelson’s most productive years at Florida came during his sophomore and junior seasons when he averaged 15.3 and 14.6 points per game while dishing out 4.3 and 3.3 assists per game, respectively. He also sported three-point percentages of 43.4, 45.3 and 39.5 in his first three seasons, respectively, with a career-high eight attempts per game his junior year, proving Nelson a significant threat from beyond the arc. Despite entering his senior season a Preseason Naismith Award Semifinalist, his final year saw a dramatic drop-off in games started and minutes played along with overall production.

Going undrafted in 2003, Nelson briefly played professional ball in Sweden but quickly decided that sports management and coaching was his career path. He took a job as director of basketball operations at Colorado State and then at VCU for a season each from 2005 to 2007 before embarking on his coaching career. Nelson is currently the head coach at Holy Cross — his first head coach gig — where in his first season on the bench his Crusaders went 3-29.

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Richard Glasper (1976-78)

Richard Glasper was a great guard on a very mediocre Florida squad in the mid-to-late 70s known for his elite vertical leap and quick hands.

Richard Glasper (1976-78) – Guard

Richard Glasper was a great guard on a very mediocre Florida squad in the mid-to-late 70s known for his elite vertical leap and quick hands.

Perhaps one of the greatest JUCO transfers in program history, he played in Gainesville for two seasons averaging double digits in points both years while setting a still-standing school career record for steals per game (1.83). He earned All-SEC honors in 1978 when he led the team in both steals and assists and his career average of 4.26 assists a game still stands as second-best in school history.

During the 1976-77 season, Glasper averaged 11.9 points per game making 53.5 percent of his shots, along with 2.1 rebounds; the following year, he averaged 13 points on 48.5 percent shooting from the field, along with 3.1 rebounds.

Despite Glasper’s innate athletic ability, his 6-foot frame limited his prospects in the professional ranks and he went undrafted after leaving school, never playing in the NBA.

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Chandler Parsons (2007-2011)

A four-star recruit, Parsons committed to back-to-back defending national champion Florida, giving his all in his 4 years in Gainesville.

Chandler Parsons (2007-2011) – Small Forward

Chandler Parsons was one of the best players from the late Billy Donovan era, leading the Gators to an Elite Eight his senior year for the first time since the back-to-back national championship seasons. He leveraged that college success into an NBA career that lasted nine years before being jeopardized earlier this year by injuries he sustained in a car accident.

Parsons was born in Casselberry, Florida, before moving to Winter Park, where he attended Lake Howell High School with future Gators teammate Nick Calathes. The pair led Lake Howell to three-straight Florida 5A final fours, winning the championship their senior year in 2007. That season, Parsons was a first team all-state selection and was the MVP of the state championship game with a 30-point, 10-rebound double-double.

A four-star recruit, Parsons committed to back-to-back defending national champion Florida and coach Billy Donovan. His first season in 2007-08, he wasn’t a starter but averaged 20.7 minutes in 36 games with 8.1 points and four rebounds as UF missed the NCAA Tournament.

The Gators missed the tournament again his sophomore year, though he was more productive, starting 28 of 36 games with 9.2 points and 5.7 rebounds a game. Though he only started 18 games his junior season, he still managed a career-best in points with 12.4 a game as well as 6.9 rebounds. That season, he hit a 75-foot buzzer-beater shot on the road to stun North Carolina State on its home floor, and Florida made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed, losing in the first round to BYU.

But Parsons saved his all-around best season for his senior year. He started 35 of 36 games that season, averaging 11.3 points and career-highs in assists and rebounds with 3.8 and 7.8, respectively. He hit another buzzer-beater shot, this time a three to beat South Carolina, and he was named the 2011 SEC Player of the Year, the first UF player ever to receive that honor.

Florida made the NCAA Tournament again that year, winning games in the first three rounds against UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and BYU before stumbling against Butler in the Elite Eight.

Despite his collegiate success, Parsons fell to the second round of the 2011 NBA Draft and was selected by the Rockets with the 38th pick. During the 2011 NBA lockout, he played for French team Cholet Basket before debuting with Houston, with which he started 57 of 63 games as a rookie and was named to the All-Rookie Second Team.

He started every game he played in for the next two seasons with the Rockets, averaging double-figure scoring in both (15.5 in 2012-13 and 16.6 in 2013-14).

He became a restricted free agent in the summer of 2014, and when he received a three-year, $46 million offer from Dallas, the Rockets didn’t match. Parsons made his debut with the Mavericks that fall, starting every game he played in again. But injuries limited him to just 66 appearances, and despite averaging 15.7 points, he was sidelined again in the first round of the playoffs against his former team, this time causing him to miss the remainder of the season.

He averaged just 13.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in 2015-16, both the lowest since his rookie season, and once again struggled with injuries, as a torn meniscus in late March cost him the rest of the year.

Still one of the top free agents in the 2016 cycle, Memphis eventually signed him to a four-year, $94 million deal that offseason.

He didn’t live up to the Grizzlies’ expectations, however. He averaged career lows in points (6.2) and rebounds (2.5). He started all 34 games he played in, but once again he saw his season cut short due to injuries.

Injury became a recurring theme for Parsons in Memphis. He only played in 51 games over the next two seasons and started just 11. He was kept under a double-figure scoring average both seasons.

With his relationship with the Grizzlies stagnating and a pricey deal not working out, Parsons was traded to Atlanta on July 6, 2019. He appeared in five games with the Hawks, averaging 2.8 points, before he was hit by a drunk driver in his car on Jan. 15, 2020. According to his attorney, he suffered a traumatic brain injury, disc herniation and a torn labrum, and his injuries could be career-ending. While rehabilitating, he was waived by the Hawks on Feb. 5.

Parsons was one of the greatest players of the post-national title era of Gators basketball. A four-year contributor who hit multiple legendary game-winning shots, Parsons overachieved in the NBA based upon his draft position. Though the final few seasons of his NBA career saw stagnation and his career is currently in danger of ending under tragic circumstances, Parsons’ legacy as a Gator leaves him as one of the best to wear the orange and blue in recent memory.

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All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Vernon Maxwell (1984-88)

While he was most certainly a flawed human being who found trouble in almost every stop, “Mad Max” was unquestionably a baller on the court.

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Vernon Maxwell (1984-88) – Point/Shooting Guard

Vernon Maxwell was a very controversial person in Florida lore. While he left Gainesville as the Gators’ all-time leading scorer, his role in uncovering the program’s cash payoff scheme for athletes which resulted in harsh NCAA sanctions tarnished his legacy at UF.

Maxwell was a hometown boy, born in Gainesville and attending Buchholz High School where he was named Mr. Basketball of the state of Florida his senior year and was also an all-state defensive back in football. With an athletic scholarship in hand, he joined head coach Norm Sloan’s team in 1984.

The star guard excelled in his four years at UF, averaging 20 points a game his junior and senior season — just missing the mark his sophomore year with a 19.6 average — and still holds 15 Gators team records. During his senior season he upped his secondary game, averaging career highs in rebounds (4.2) and assists (4.3) per game while barely missing his best mark with just under two steals per game.

However, due to the aforementioned scandal in which Maxwell testified to a grand jury that he received money from Sloan, an assistant and University of Florida boosters which he used to buy cocaine, all of the points he amassed his junior and senior seasons were erased from the records. His 2,450 career points would still be the best in Gators men’s basketball history had they not been revoked.

Rescinded statistics notwithstanding, Maxwell finished his collegiate career the No. 2 scorer in Southeastern Conference history behind LSU’s Pete Maravich. However, despite his achievements on the court, he fell down into the second round of the 1988 NBA Draft, where he was selected 47th overall by the Denver Nuggets but quickly traded on draft day to the San Antonio Spurs for a second-round pick the following year.

Maxwell only played a season-and-a-half in San Antonio before he was sold to the Houston Rockets, where his game flourished alongside Hakeem Olajuwon and company. After a slow start to his NBA career his first two years, the young guard found his footing and from 1990 to 1992 he reached career highs in points per game with 17.0 and 17.2, respectively. Known for his deadly shooting from outside of the arc, he owned the NBA record for most 3-pointers made in a season from 1991 until 1993; he was also renown for his clutch shooting, sinking numerous game-winning shots throughout his career.

The former Gator earned an NBA championship ring with the Rockets for the first of their repeat titles in 1993-94; he missed out on the second ring when he quit the team after its opening first-round game loss to Utah in the 1995 playoffs in frustration due to recently acquired Clyde Drexler taking his starting spot and playing time. He would produce his third-highest career offensive output the following season with the Philadelphia 76ers before his career began to decline.

Overall, Maxwell played 13 total seasons in the NBA with eight different teams, accumulating almost 11,000 points for a career average of 12.8 per game and averaging double-digit scoring in 11 seasons while sinking 1,256 three-point shots at a 32 percent clip. “Hawk” also averaged 3.4 assists per game for his career, reaching his high-water mark of 5.1 per game in 1993-1994.

While Maxwell was most certainly a flawed human being who found trouble in almost every stop of his adult life, “Mad Max” was unquestionably a baller on the court. When considering how much he achieved when his sneakers were laced up — both with the Gators and in the pros — it is easy to place him among the greatest basketball players in UF’s program history.

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All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Bradley Beal (2011-2012)

Beal is still only 26 years old and is just now entering his prime, giving him a bit more headroom to maximize his potential.

Bradley Beal (2011-2012) – Shooting Guard

Bradley Beal came to Gainesville out of St. Louis, Mo. as a highly-heralded five-star high school player, having accumulated numerous accolades — including 2011 Gatorade National Player of the Year — averaging 32.5 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game and 2.8 assists per game during his senior campaign.

The talented shooting guard only played one season with Florida, but it was quite a year as he averaged 14.8 points along with 6.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.4 steals and nearly a block a game. Beal won six SEC Freshman of the Week awards, was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team and was a First Team All-SEC selection.

He declared for the 2012 NBA Draft after the 2011-12 season in which he was selected third overall — second-highest of all-time, tied with Al Horford — by the Washington Wizards, foregoing his final three years of college eligibility.

Beal has had a superb professional career over eight years in D.C. and has continually improved his scoring production in each of the past five seasons. The 2019-2020 season was his best so far before being canceled due to COVID-19, putting together a pair of consecutive 50-point performances en route to a stratospherical 30.5 points average in 57 games, along with 4.2 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.2 steals per match.

Beal is still only 26 years old and is just now entering his prime, giving him a bit more headroom to maximize his potential. If his trajectory continues on its current path, he may have a legitimate argument for best Gators men’s basketball player ever.

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Tony Miller (1970-73)

Tony Miller’s tenure at UF came just after Neal Walk had left in 1969 and the center from Indiana filled those massive shoes admirably.

Tony Miller (1970-73) – Guard

Tony Miller is a mostly unknown name among the greats of Florida men’s basketball. Hailing from a much different era along with the fact that he never played pro ball has rendered him a distant memory in the psyche of the Gator Nation. That said, he was not exactly chopped liver, either.

Miller’s tenure at Florida came just after legendary Neal Walk had left Gainesville in 1969 and the guard from Indiana filled those massive shoes admirably, leading the Gators in scoring all three years he played.

The 6-foot-one Miller also led the SEC with an average of 26.7 points per game during the 1971–72 season, a year that included his program-record 54 points in a single game that came against Chicago State at Florida Gym. Miller also holds the current best mark for points in a road match, scoring 39 against Auburn that same season — mind you, all coming in an era before the shot clock and the three-point line.

Miller achieved many accolades as a Gator, including a first-team All-SEC selection, serving as senior team captain, earning Academic All-American honors and receiving an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. He is also a member of the Florida Athletic Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Legends of SEC Basketball in 1999.

Despite some promising prospects at the professional level, Miller decided to forgo the NBA Draft in 1973 to attend medical school at the University of Illinois-Chicago, taking a keen interest in orthopedic medicine due to a broken hand he suffered just before he set his scoring record the year prior. He returned to Indiana to practice as a foot surgeon outside of Indianapolis, where he still works full-time to this day.

All-Time Gators Men’s Basketball Bio: Neal Walk (1966-69)

Neal Walk is probably the greatest Gators athlete that most Florida fans have never heard of who set numerous records in his time at UF.

Neal Walk (1966-69) – Center

Neal Walk is probably the greatest Gators athlete that most Florida fans have never heard of.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Miami Beach, Fla., Walk did not start a high school game until his senior year when his team made it to the state semifinals. He attended the University of Florida on an academic scholarship, where he played center for three seasons under coach Tommy Bartlett.

During his time in Gainesville from 1966-69, Walk set multitudes of team records that still stand, including career rebounds (1,181), points per game (20.8), and rebounds in a single game (31), while also leaving school as the all-time leading scorer — a distinction he no longer holds. His No. 41 jersey remains the only number retired by UF’s basketball program.

Walk was taken at No. 2 in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Phoneix Suns — the highest of any Florida basketball player ever — just behind legendary Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Adul Jabbar) after the Suns lost a coin toss with the Milwaukee Bucks for the top pick.

The best years of Walk’s professional career came early on in Phoenix, where he hit his high-water mark during the 1972–73 season, averaging a career-best 20.2 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. The double-double machine was traded to the New Orleans Jazz in 1974 where his career completely came apart, falling from a front line starter to a benchwarmer with the Jazz and also shortly after with the New York Knicks until 1977.

Walk finished his career professional career in Italy, retiring in 1978. Complications from spinal cord surgery to remove a benign growth in 1987 left him without the use of his legs, rendering him wheelchair-bound for the remainder of his life. The Gator great passed away in 2015 after a long bout with poor health.