Chuck Person
Chuck Connors Person is an American former basketball player and coach. Person played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association and was the 1987 NBA Rookie of the Year. Person played college basketball at Auburn University and was selected fourth overall in the 1986 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers, for whom he played six seasons. He also played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, Charlotte Hornets and Seattle SuperSonics. His 17-year coaching career ended when Person was ensnared in a college recruitment scandal and pleaded guilty to a bribery charge.
High school and college
Born in Brantley, Alabama, Person was named after NBA player, MLB player, and actor Chuck Connors. He attended Brantley High School in Brantley, Alabama and played college basketball at Auburn University. He was the most prolific scorer in Auburn basketball history. Person was a four-year letter winner at Auburn from 1982 to 1986, helping the team to Auburn's first three NCAA Tournament appearances, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 1986. He also helped Auburn win the 1985 SEC Tournament, for which he was named Tournament MVP as Auburn was the first league school to win four tournament games in four days.Person, who played alongside fellow Auburn greats Charles Barkley and Chris Morris, is the all-time scoring leader in Auburn history, with 2,311 points in 126 games for an 18.3 ppg mark, which is sixth all time in school history. He is also the school record-holder for field goals made and field goals attempted and is third in total rebounds.
Person was a two-time All-American, a three-time First Team All-SEC selection and was selected to ESPN's SEC Silver Anniversary Team. Nicknamed "The Rifleman", he had his No. 45 jersey retired at Auburn on February 18, 2006.
Auburn upset No. 1 ranked St. John's University on its way to an Elite Eight appearance.
Pro career
Indiana Pacers (1986–1992)
Person was selected fourth in the 1986 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers; the small forward won the Rookie of the Year award in 1987 and played six seasons with Indiana. Person averaged a career high 21.6 points in 1988. During his NBA playing years he was known as "The Rifleman" due to his 3-point shooting ability and the fact that he was named after Chuck Connors, star of the TV series The Rifleman. Person was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, along with Micheal Williams, in a deal that sent Sam Mitchell and Pooh Richardson to Indiana in 1993.Minnesota Timberwolves (1992–1994)
Person played only two seasons with the Timberwolves. He averaged a career low 11.6 points in 1993.San Antonio Spurs (1994–1998)
Person played for the San Antonio Spurs from 1994 through 1998. His "Rifleman" nickname remained apt, as he not only set the NBA season record for three-pointers by a reserve player, with 164 during the 1994–95 season, but he also set the Spurs' season record for three-pointers at 190 made during the 1995–96 season. Person missed the entire 1996–97 season due to injury.Other teams
Person played with the Charlotte Hornets and Seattle SuperSonics before retiring from the NBA in 2000.Post-playing career
Cleveland Cavaliers
After Person was traded by Seattle to the Lakers, who waived him in 2000, he joined Cleveland Cavaliers head coach John Lucas's staff as an assistant for the 2000–01 NBA season.Indiana Pacers
He was then a player-relations assistant and scout to president Donnie Walsh in the Pacers' front office from January 2003 until July 2005, when he moved to an assistant-coaching position within the organization. In 2007, he interviewed unsuccessfully for both the Pacers' and the Sacramento Kings' vacant head-coaching positions.Sacramento Kings
Person became an assistant coach for Sacramento in 2007, but he left the Kings after head coach Reggie Theus was fired in mid-December 2008.After his first season with the Kings, Person was interviewed for the Chicago Bulls' head-coaching vacancy but ultimately was not hired.
Upon leaving Sacramento, Person returned to his home town of Brantley, Alabama in 2008 for an eight-month break after 23 years of playing, administrating, and coaching.
Los Angeles Lakers
He was invited to be Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson's assistant in 2009. In March 2010, he interviewed for the head coaching job for the men's team at his alma mater, Auburn University, but was not successful, despite positive feedback. He returned to his job with the Lakers after the interview. Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni took over from Mike Brown in the middle of the 2012–13 season, and kept all of Brown's assistants, including Person. However, Person was fired after the season; he was the last remaining member from Jackson's Lakers staff.Jeonju KCC Egis
In the summer of 2013, Person joined the coaching staff as an associate head coach in South Korea for the Jeonju KCC Egis in the Korean Basketball League.Auburn associate head coach
On April 7, 2014, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl hired Person as an assistant coach. He was promoted to associate head coach in May 2015 and was one of the top assistant coaches and recruiters in the nation before his arrest and subsequent release in September 2017 as part of the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball corruption scandal.Personal life
He is the older brother of former NBA player Wesley Person.He was married to Carmen Person. He is the father of two daughters, Millicent and Tiffany and one son, Chuck Jr.
Arrest & indictment
Person was arrested by federal law enforcement on the night of September 25, 2017 in Alabama. He was arrested on six felony counts: bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes and gratuities, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and travel act conspiracy after allegedly accepting kickbacks for steering student-athletes to financial managers. Person was suspended without pay by Auburn University the day after his arrest.In Manhattan on September 26, 2017, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Joon H. Kim announced the arrest of Emanuel Richardson for federal bribery, fraud, and other corruption charges. Kim stated that, had been investigating "the criminal influence of money on coaches and student-athletes who participate in intercollegiate basketball governed by the N.C.A.A." Besides Arizona, the Division I universities of Auburn, Oklahoma State, and U.S.C., as well as a senior executive at sportswear manufacturer Adidas, were also implicated. In addition to the alleged bribes taken by assistant coaches, some unnamed student-athletes' families also accepted money. The indictments describe wire fraud and money laundering where collegiate students were enticed to commit during college to work with specific agents and companies after they turned professional, or to convince coveted high-schoolers to attend specific universities.
Three separate indictments were filed.
Chuck Person was arrested.
Case number 17-MAG-7119 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a sealed criminal complaint against Richardson, Lamont Evans, Anthony Bland, Christian Dawkins, and Munish Sood.
Adidas employee James Gatto and others were named as defendants in a separate complaint released the same day.
Person was indicted by a federal grand jury and subsequently fired by Auburn University on November 7, 2017. Person pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery on March 19, 2019, with sentencing pending. Person agreed to forfeit $91,500 as a condition of the plea.