Rik Smits

Rik Smits (born August 23, 1966), nicknamed "the Dunking Dutchman", is a Dutch retired professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) The 7-foot-4-inch (2.24 m) center was drafted by the Pacers out of Marist College with the second overall pick in the 1988 NBA draft. An NBA All-Star in 1998, Smits reached the NBA Finals in 2000.\n', ' Smits was born in Eindhoven. He started playing basketball at age fourteen at PSV/Almonte in Eindhoven. Smits left for the United States in 1984, where he played for Marist College for four years. He got drafted 2nd overall in the 1988 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers.\n', ' With the Pacers, Smits originally backed up Steve Stipanovich, but when Stipanovich suffered a career-ending injury, Smits ended up starting 71 games in his rookie year, averaging 11.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and earning All-Rookie First Team honors. Smits continued to average double-digit point totals in every year of his career, but it wasn\'t until the 1993–94 NBA season that Smits really came into his own as a team leader.\n', '