Purvis Short (born July 2, 1957) is a retired American professional basketball player who played with the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

and New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1978 to 1990. A 6'7" small forward, Short averaged 17.3 points per game over his twelve-season career in the NBA. He is currently the Warriors seventh all-time leading scorer. After a brilliant career at

Jackson State Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a public historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is one of the largest HBCUs in the United States and the fourth largest university in Mississippi in terms of studen ...

, Short was selected fifth overall in the 1978 NBA draft. Short was affectionately nicknamed "Rainbowman" because of the distinctive rainbow-like high arc of his jump shots, something he stated he obtained in high school. He was a role player and sixth man his first few years in the league. Short was a starter by the 1984–85 season, and scored a career high 59 points in a game against the New Jersey Nets in 1984. After leaving the NBA, he played one year of basketball in Israel, and is currently the director of the NBA Players Association's Department of Player Programs.

College career

Born in

Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and largest city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The city popu ...

, Purvis is the younger brother of

Gene Short Eugene Short Jr. (August 7, 1953 – March 16, 2016) was an American professional basketball player. He was a 6'6" 200 lb small forward and attended Jackson State University. Short was selected 9th overall by the NBA's New York Knicks in ...

, who played one season in the league with the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

. Purvis attended

Blair Center Hattiesburg High School Blair is an English-language name of Scottish Gaelic origin. The surname is derived from any of the numerous places in Scotland called ''Blair'', derived from the Scottish Gaelic ''blàr'', meaning "plain", "meadow" or "field", frequently a “ ...

, where he led his team to the state championship title in 1974. He was allegedly recruited by 150 colleges upon graduation. He followed in his brother's footsteps at Jackson State University, where he became the school's all-time leading scorer. He was the NCAA's second leading scorer in 1978, averaged 8.9 rebounds per game, and was named SWAC Player of the Year in 1977 and 1978.

Professional career

Short was drafted with the fifth overall pick of the 1978 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors who passed up drafting Larry Bird, who was drafted sixth. In his rookie season, Short scored 795 points for a 10.6

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...

average. The next year, Short had a 17.0 point per game average, with a career high .500 field goal percentage in 62 games. The Warriors traded for Bernard King prior to the 1980–81 season, moving Short to a reserve role. That year he played in 79 games, where he had 391 rebounds, a career high 249 assists, and a 16.1 points per game average. The next few seasons he was the Warriors sixth man, playing behind Joe Barry Carroll, until gaining the starting job prior to the 1984–85 season. Short started working out with Pete Newell during the off-seasons, which Short later claimed help improve his shooting skills significantly. During a November 17, 1984 game against the New Jersey Nets, Short scored a career high 59 points during a 131-114 loss. He hit 20 of 28 field goal attempts and 15 free throws. At the time, only nine other players had scored more points in one game, and it was the most points scored in the NBA since David Thompson and George Gervin scored 73 and 63 points respectively on April 9, 1978. Excluding Wilt Chamberlain's many games of 60 or over points as a Warrior, it was also the third highest total in franchise history, behind Joe Fulks' 63 points in 1949 and Rick Barry's 64 points in 1974. He also scored 57 points against the San Antonio Spurs and 46 against the Washington Bullets that season. Short finished the 1984–85 season with an average of 28.0 points per game, and was the NBA's fourth leading scorer. During the off-season, Short got involved in a contract dispute and held out for four weeks, but the Warriors managed to come to a contract agreement with him. He ended up with a 25.5 points per game average in 64 games in 1985–86, finishing fifth in the league in scoring. Short missed two months early in the 1986–87 season due to knee surgery. He missed further time with a pulled thigh muscle in March. Golden State reached the playoffs, an achievement Short later recalled as "the best time" in his Warriors career. He ended up appearing in 34 games that year, with an 18.3 points per game average. He was traded to the

for

Dave Feitl Dave Scott Feitl (born June 8, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the Houston Rockets in the second round (43rd pick overall) of the 1986 NBA draft. A 6'11" center from the University of Texas at El Pa ...

and a future first round pick prior to the 1987–88 campaign. At the time of the trade, Short averaged 19.4 points per game in nine seasons with the Warriors and was sixth on the all-time scoring list while second in steals. He averaged 14.3 points per games in 81 games played that year, with 222 rebounds and 162 assists. The next season, Short had a career low 7.4 points per game in 65 games, 16 of them starts. Prior to the start of the 1989–90 season, Short signed as a free agent with the New Jersey Nets, where he played in all 82 games, starting 28 of them. He scored 29 points in a 109-101 win against the

Charlotte Hornets The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division, and pla ...

on January 11. He could not come to an agreement with the Nets over the term of his contract and retired at season's end. After leaving the NBA in 1990, Short took a year off basketball. In early 1991 he returned to play, this time in Israel for

Hapoel Tel Aviv Hapoel Tel Aviv ( he, הפועל תל אביב) is a sports club in Israel, founded in the 1920s, and part of the Hapoel association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, suc ...

. Short led the team to a successful season that ended in a 3-2 loss to archrivals Maccabi Tel Aviv during the playoffs. He retired at the end of the season, in 1992.

After basketball

Short took a job with the NBA Players Association's Department of Player Programs, where he was later named director of the program in 1999. He was previously the NBA' Player's Union vice president from 1987–1990. He was inducted to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. He currently lives in Houston.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

, - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 75 , , – , , 22.7 , , .479 , , – , , .671 , , 4.6 , , 1.3 , , 0.7 , , 0.2 , , 10.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 62 , , – , , 26.4 , , .503 , , .000 , , .812 , , 5.1 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.1 , , 17.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 79 , , – , , 29.2 , , .475 , , .176 , , .820 , , 4.9 , , 3.2 , , 1.0 , , 0.2 , , 16.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 76 , , 8 , , 23.4 , , .488 , , .214 , , .801 , , 3.5 , , 2.8 , , 0.9 , , 0.1 , , 14.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 67 , , 57 , , 35.8 , , .487 , , .267 , , .828 , , 5.3 , , 3.4 , , 1.4 , , 0.2 , , 21.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 79 , , 76 , , 37.3 , , .473 , , .306 , , .793 , , 5.5 , , 3.1 , , 1.3 , , 0.1 , , 22.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 78 , , 77 , , 39.5 , , .460 , , .313 , , .817 , , 5.1 , , 3.0 , , 1.5 , , 0.3 , , 28.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 64 , , 63 , , 37.9 , , .482 , , .306 , , .865 , , 5.1 , , 3.7 , , 1.4 , , 0.3 , , 25.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 34 , , 15 , , 27.9 , , .479 , , .235 , , .856 , , 4.0 , , 2.5 , , 1.3 , , 0.2 , , 18.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Houston , 81 , , 11 , , 24.1 , , .481 , , .238 , , .858 , , 2.7 , , 2.0 , , 0.7 , , 0.2 , , 14.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Houston , 65 , , 16 , , 17.8 , , .413 , , .273 , , .865 , , 2.8 , , 1.6 , , 0.7 , , 0.2 , , 7.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", New Jersey , 82 , , 24 , , 27.0 , , .455 , , .286 , , .835 , , 3.0 , , 1.8 , , 0.8 , , 0.2 , , 13.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 842 , , 347 , , 29.2 , , .474 , , .282 , , .824 , , 4.3 , , 2.5 , , 1.0 , , 0.2 , , 17.3

Playoffs

, - , style="text-align:left;",

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, style="text-align:left;", Golden State , 10, , 2, , 25.3, , .463, , .000, , .889, , 3.3, , 2.7, , 1.2, , 0.2, , 14.6 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, style="text-align:left;", Houston , 4, , 0, , 17.8, , .269, , .000, , 1.000, , 2.3, , 0.3, , 0.3, , 0.0, , 5.5 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, style="text-align:left;", Houston , 4, , 0, , 9.3, , .381, , .000, , .600, , 2.3, , 0.3, , 0.0, , 0.0, , 4.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 18 , , 2 , , 20.1 , , .424 , , .000 , , .878 , , 2.8 , , 1.6 , , 0.7 , , 0.1 , , 10.4

European leagues

References

External links

Career statistics
@ basketball-reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Purvis 1957 births Living people African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Israel Basketball players from Mississippi Golden State Warriors draft picks Golden State Warriors players Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C. players Houston Rockets players Israeli Basketball Premier League players Jackson State Tigers basketball players New Jersey Nets players Sportspeople from Hattiesburg, Mississippi Shooting guards Small forwards American men's basketball players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople