Stephen Dean Bardo (born April 5, 1968) is an American retired 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 who played 3 seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA). He is currently a college basketball analyst.

Basketball career

During his standout career at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, 6'5" Bardo scored 909 points and compiled 495 assists. He was part of the Flyin' Illini team that qualified for the 1989

NCAA men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

Final Four. That

Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

team gained the moniker "''Flyin' Illini''" by

Dick Vitale Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadcaster f ...

while broadcasting a game during the 1988–89 season. Bardo was named

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

defensive player of the year in 1989. Along with Bardo, the other starting members of that team included Nick Anderson,

Kendall Gill Kendall Cedric Gill (born May 25, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who now works as a television basketball analyst. Early life Gill was born in Chicago and attended Rich Central High School in Olympia Fields, Illinoi ...

, Lowell Hamilton, Kenny Battle, and key reserve Marcus Liberty. Bardo was selected in the 1990 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, but never played for the team, playing one game (one minute) with the San Antonio Spurs during the 1991–92 NBA season. He also appeared for the Dallas Mavericks and Detroit Pistons, amassing 32 more regular season games, and leaving the

with per-game averages of 2 points, 2 Rebound (basketball), rebounds and one assist. Bardo also played in France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Venezuela overseas as well as the CBA (Quad City, Wichita Falls, Chicago). He enjoyed a 10-year professional playing career.

College stats

Post-retirement

Since retiring in 2000, Bardo has worked in broadcasting. He has served as a color analyst for the Illini Sports Network, a sports reporter for WBBM-TV in Chicago, an analyst and reporter for CBS Sports, and a color analyst for college basketball on ESPNKeynote Speaker: Stephen Bardo
/ref> and Big Ten Network. He has also participated on ''ESPN First Take''. Additionally, he works as a motivational speaker,Great Black Speakers profile
and authored the book ''How To Make The League Without Picking Up The Rock''. In 2021, Bardo began filling in as an analyst on Bally Sports Wisconsin's Milwaukee Bucks broadcasts for regular color commentator Marques Johnson. In May 2015, Bardo, who is African American, publicly criticized the University of Illinois's athletic department over the lack of diversity among prominent head coaches at the university.

References

External links

Stats at BasketballReference
*
Official websiteSportsUnplugged on iTunes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bardo, Stephen 1968 births Living people African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Japan American expatriate basketball people in Spain American men's basketball players Atlanta Hawks draft picks Basketball players from Kentucky Chicago Rockers players College basketball announcers in the United States Women's National Basketball Association announcers Dallas Mavericks players Detroit Pistons players Fabriano Basket players Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players Joventut Badalona players Liga ACB players People from Henderson, Kentucky Quad City Thunder players San Antonio Spurs players Shooting guards Kawasaki Brave Thunders players Wichita Falls Texans players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople