1. Samuel Paul Bowie was born on March 17,1961 and is an American former professional basketball player.
34 Facts About Sam Bowie
1. 2.
Sam Bowie was a sophomore in college when his father died suddenly, aged 45, when a cyst on his lung burst.
3.
Sam Bowie played on its basketball team under Coach Chick Hess.
4.
Sam Bowie grew up with blue-collar people who knew what it was like to work for a living.
5.
Sam Bowie got what he could out of playing pro sports.
6.
Sam Bowie averaged over 28 points and 18 rebounds per game, and was a McDonald's and Parade All-American.
7.
Sam Bowie was named national player of the year in 1979.
8.
Sam Bowie received the honor over Harrisonburg, Virginia's Ralph Sampson, another highly recruited center.
9.
Sampson and Bowie played in the annual Capital Classic all-star game, which was dubbed the "Battle of the Giants" Played at the Capital Centre, the game featured the best players in the Washington, DC area playing against an all-star squad composed of players from across the United States.
10.
Sam Bowie was named a third-team NCAA Basketball All-American by the Associated Press.
11.
However, Sam Bowie began sustaining injuries that would plague the remainder of his basketball career.
12.
Sam Bowie landed with most of his weight on his left leg, saying that he felt pain but initially tried to play through it.
13.
Doctors at first thought the pain in the left leg was due to shin splints, but just before the season in 1981, new X-rays revealed Sam Bowie had a stress fracture he had been playing on.
14.
Sam Bowie had to have it surgically repaired, with a bone graft.
15.
Sam Bowie was named to the Associated Press second-team All-American team.
16.
Sam Bowie had 16 points and 6 rebounds against BYU, 8 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks against Louisville and 11 points and 14 rebounds against Illinois.
17.
Sam Bowie had 10 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in the loss.
18.
Alongside Sam Bowie were team members Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Michael Brooks, Bill Hanzlik, Alton Lister, Rodney McCray, Isiah Thomas, Darnell Valentine, Danny Vranes, Buck Williams and Al Wood.
19.
At the time, picking Sam Bowie made sense from the Blazers' perspective.
20.
Sam Bowie was carried off the floor on a stretcher.
21.
Sam Bowie suffered a season-ending fracture of his right tibia.
22.
Sam Bowie compared the feeling having his leg chopped by an ax.
23.
On October 17,1987, during pregame warmups for a preseason game with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sam Bowie began feeling intense pain in his right leg just walking.
24.
Not wanting a stretcher, Sam Bowie was carried off the court by his teammates and was diagnosed with a hairline fracture of his right tibia.
25.
On March 29,1988, Sam Bowie had surgery where he received a graft from his hip bone and had a metal plate with 10 screws permanently attached to his right shin.
26.
All told, Sam Bowie played 63 games out of a possible 328 during his last four seasons in Portland.
27.
On June 24,1989, Sam Bowie, who had averaged 10.5 points per game with the Trail Blazers, was traded, along with a draft pick, to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Buck Williams.
28.
Sam Bowie averaged 12.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and never missed more than 20 games in a season.
29.
Sam Bowie played in 92 games in the two seasons combined, starting in 17 of them.
30.
Sam Bowie desired to follow his passion and become involved in harness racing.
31.
Over his NBA career, Sam Bowie averaged 10.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.78 blocks per game.
32.
Sam Bowie is involved in harness racing, both owning and training horses that run at The Red Mile in Lexington.
33.
Sam Bowie married Stephanie Sam Bowie in April 2018 in La Fortuna, Costa Rica.
34.
In 2012, Sam Bowie was featured in an ESPN SEC Storied documentary, Going Big.