Dantley, who didn’t return phone messages to discuss his current occupation, always had a reputation as greedy on the court and frugal off it. His résumé is second to none among undersized big men. His teams at DeMatha, six miles from Eastern Middle School, went 57-2 with Dantley in the lineup in the early 1970s. He was All-America in high school and twice more at Notre Dame, which he left in 1976 after three seasons. He led the U.S. team in scoring during its gold-medal run at the 1976 Olympics.
His NBA career peaked, numbers-wise, during his stay in Utah that began in the early 1980s. For each season between 1981 and 1984, he averaged more than 30 points a game. He retired in 1991 after 15 seasons and 23,177 points, making him the ninth-leading scorer of all time to that point. He loved free throws, naturally. Dantley still shares records for foul shots made in a quarter (14, playing for Detroit against Sacramento in 1986) and a game (28, while with Utah in 1984 against Houston). He hated squandering possessions as a player, too: Dantley shot 54 percent on his career, the highest-ever mark registered by anybody 6-foot-5 or shorter
While Dantley always thrived in traffic, he wasn’t any good at playing well with others. For all his offensive production, Dantley could never last in one place very long. He played with seven different teams and always seemed to leave town in a cloud of bad feelings.