Kyle Paul Macy (born April 9, 1957) is an American basketball commentator. He played college basketball at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

and the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

, and spent seven years in the NBA with the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

, Chicago Bulls and

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first estab ...

; he then spent three seasons in the Italian

Lega Serie A The Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A (Italian for ''National Professionals League Serie A''), commonly known as LNPA or Lega Serie A (Serie A League), is the governing body that runs the major professional football competitions in Italy, m ...

. After his playing career, he has held various basketball-related positions, including coach, general manager, and broadcaster.

College career

Purdue

The 1975 Indiana "Mr. Basketball" Award winner from Peru High School, where he played for his father, Bob; chose to attend

, coached by head coach, Fred Schaus. Macy averaged 13.8 points a game as a freshman, while leading the Boilermakers in free throws, shooting .859 percent from the line on the season. He started in 25 of 27 games, helping them to a 16–11 season record.

Kentucky

After playing his freshman year at Purdue, Macy transferred to the University of Kentucky in 1976. After sitting out the 1976–77 season as mandated by

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

rules, he started playing at Kentucky in 1977. Macy had a very successful college career, as a three-time All-America and three-time All-SEC player. The 1978 team on which Macy was a starter won the

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 ...

NCAA National Championship. In his senior year of 1979–80, he became the first Kentucky player ever to be named consensus

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

Player of the Year.

Professional career

Macy was selected with the 22nd pick of the 1979 NBA Draft by the

, even though he had a year of college eligibility remaining. Macy played out his last year of college, and started playing for the Suns in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – In ...

. Macy spent five years with the Suns, averaging 10.6 points and 4.0 assists per game. Macy spent one year each with the Chicago Bulls ( 1985–86) and the

( 1986–87) before retiring from the NBA. Then he played professionally in Italy for Dietor Bologna (1987–88) and Benetton Treviso (1988–90). Macy was also one of the original participants of the NBA All-Star

Three Point Contest The Three-Point Contest is a National Basketball Association (NBA) contest held on the Saturday before the annual All-Star Game as part of All-Star Weekend. The 2019 iteration of the contest involved ten participants. From its introduction in 1 ...

when it debuted in 1986. Macy was an excellent free throw shooter throughout his career. During the 1981-82 NBA season he led the NBA in free throw percentage. He still holds the career

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

shooting percentage record at the University of Kentucky, and his .884 career percentage is second only to Steve Nash (.907) on the Phoenix Suns' career leaders list.

Later career

Macy was head coach of the Morehead State University Eagles of the Ohio Valley Conference for nine years. In 2003, Macy coached the Eagles to 20 wins, its most in 19 years, and a share of the OVC regular season championship. However, the 2004–05 season was less successful, as Morehead failed to qualify for the OVC tournament. Following that season, Macy coached a group of Sports Reach collegiate all-stars that toured China and finished with a perfect 7–0 record against several Chinese professional teams

After a disastrous 4–23 season in 2005–06, Macy resigned as head coach on February 28, 2006. Macy emphasized free throw shooting in his coaching, and the emphasis paid off, as his Morehead State teams were perennially among the Division I (NCAA), Division I leaders in free throw shooting percentage.

Head coaching record

Later in 2006, Macy accepted the head coaching position on the Lexington Christian Academy Eagles Men's tennis team. In his first season they had their first winning season since 2003. In November 2007, Macy was named general manager of the

East Kentucky Miners The East Kentucky Miners were a professional basketball team in the American Basketball Association that began play as a member of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) in the 2007–2008 season. The Miners, announced in the local paper, an ...

, an expansion team of the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball mi ...

, based in

Pikeville, Kentucky Pikeville () is a city in and the county seat of Pike County, Kentucky, United States. During the 2020 U.S. Census, the population within Pikeville's city limits was 7,754. In Kentucky's current city classification system, Pikeville is a home ...

. Later, he served as the

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

for

telecasts. In October 2016, Macy joined the staff of head coach Brian Lane at Transylvania University.

References

External links

Hall of Fame

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macy, Kyle 1957 births Living people All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Italy American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Indiana Basketball players at the 1979 Pan American Games Basketball players from Fort Wayne, Indiana Chicago Bulls players College basketball announcers in the United States Indiana Pacers players Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball players Morehead State Eagles men's basketball coaches Pallacanestro Treviso players Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in basketball Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) People from Peru, Indiana Phoenix Suns draft picks Phoenix Suns players Point guards Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball players Sportspeople from Fort Wayne, Indiana Transylvania Pioneers men's basketball coaches Virtus Bologna players Medalists at the 1979 Pan American Games