Kendal Nathaniel "Tiny" Pinder (born 25 April 1956) is a Bahamian former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player.

Early life

Pinder was born in

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

College career

Pinder played four seasons of

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

in the United States, first for

Miami Dade College Miami Dade College (Miami Dade, MDC or Dade) is a public college in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1959, it has a total of eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest college in the Florida College S ...

between 1975 and 1977 and then for the North Carolina State Wolfpack between 1977 and 1979. Pinder was selected in the fifth round of the 1979 NBA draft by the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

Professional career

For the 1979–80 season, Pinder played in Israel for

Hapoel Jerusalem Hapoel Jerusalem is a sport organization in Jerusalem as a local branch of the Hapoel movement. The branch was established in the 1920s and represents the city in more sports than any other sport organization in Jerusalem. Today, the club's leadi ...

. He led the Israeli League in scoring with 586 points. Between 1980 and 1983, Pinder performed with the Harlem Globetrotters. For the 1984–85 season, Pinder played in Finland for Turun NMKY. His 32.8 points per game was second in the

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

, while his 14.8 rebounds per game led the league. Pinder moved to Australia in 1985 and played eight straight seasons in the NBL. In 1985 and 1986, he played for the Sydney Supersonics. In his first season, he was named All-NBL First Team and NBL scoring champion. In 1987, Pinder joined the

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Perth Arena, ...

. He was named the Wildcats' Club MVP in 1989 and helped the Wildcats win back-to-back NBL championships in 1990 and 1991. His final season with the Wildcats came in 1992. He was named in the Wildcats' 30th Anniversary All-Star Team. In 1995, Pinder had a five-game stint with the

Illawarra Hawks The Illawarra Hawks (formerly the Wollongong Hawks and The Hawks) is an Australian professional basketball team based in Wollongong, New South Wales. The Illawarra Hawks compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home game ...

, which marked his final NBL season.

Personal life

Pinder has 12 children. His son Keanu is also a professional basketball player.

Sexual assault offences

In 2006, Pinder faced charges of attempted sexual assault. He was convicted by the Western Australian Supreme Court and was sentenced to 18 months' jail. In 1996, he was sentenced to five years' jail for sexual offences involving a 15-year-old girl. In 2001, he was acquitted in the New South Wales District Court on a charge of raping a 19-year-old woman the previous year. In 2013, he was arrested on a charge relating to an alleged rape in 1987. He was cleared in August 2016. In 2021, Pinder was arrested and charged with stalking a woman in Sydney. He was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment.

References

External links

NBL profileandthefoul.net profileFinnish League profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinder, Kendal (Tiny) 1956 births Living people African-American basketball players Atlanta Hawks draft picks Bahamian men's basketball players Bahamian criminals Bahamian expatriate basketball people in the United States Bahamian people imprisoned abroad Centers (basketball) Hapoel Jerusalem B.C. players Harlem Globetrotters players Israeli Basketball Premier League players Miami Dade Sharks men's basketball players NC State Wolfpack men's basketball players Perth Wildcats players Power forwards (basketball) Prisoners and detainees of Western Australia Illawarra Hawks players People acquitted of rape People convicted of sexual assault