Terry Cummings

Terry Cummings
Terry Cummings
Born	March 15, 1961 (age 65); Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Professional basketball player (retired)
Years active	1982–2000
Known for	NBA Rookie of the Year, two-time NBA All-Star, All-NBA team selections

Robert Terrell “Terry” Cummings (born March 15, 1961) is a retired American professional basketball athlete who competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 18 seasons. He was honored as the Rookie of the Year, earned two All-Star selections, was named twice to the All-NBA teams, and played a significant role on playoff squads in both Milwaukee and San Antonio.

College Years

Hailing from Chicago and an alumnus of Carver High School, Cummings attended DePaul University between 1979 and 1982. Over 85 games, he averaged 16.4 points per game before declaring for the 1982 NBA draft.

San Diego Clippers

Chosen as the second overall pick in the first round by the San Diego Clippers, Cummings agreed to a four-year deal following initial disagreements with owner Donald Sterling. During his rookie campaign in 1982–83, he secured the NBA Rookie of the Year Award by posting career-best averages of 23.7 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. On March 9, 1983, he achieved a personal best at that time by scoring 39 points along with grabbing 18 rebounds against the Los Angeles Lakers. Near season’s end, he missed two weeks due to heart rhythm irregularities, during which the Clippers lost every contest.

Milwaukee Bucks

After the conclusion of the 1983–84 season, Cummings was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, where he consistently delivered strong performances, averaging over 20 points and eight rebounds in four out of five seasons. In the 1985 NBA playoffs, he outperformed rookie Michael Jordan by averaging 29.5 points per game during their first-round series victory—the only postseason series in which Jordan was not the leading scorer. The Bucks were subsequently swept by the Philadelphia 76ers in the following round.

During the 1985–86 season, paired with Hall of Famer Sidney Moncrief, Cummings helped guide Milwaukee to a 57–25 record and an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals. Highlights included a January 6, 1986 performance featuring 16 points and 17 rebounds, as well as a playoff career-high three blocks on April 22 during a first-round sweep against the New Jersey Nets. Despite playing through a dislocated finger, he led Milwaukee past Philadelphia in a seven-game series before falling to the Boston Celtics in the conference finals.

On January 9, 1987, Cummings posted a career-high with 24 rebounds alongside 28 points. Just one week later, he recorded a triple-double comprising 39 points, 15 rebounds, and ten assists plus six steals during a narrow defeat to the Dallas Mavericks, despite injuries sidelining key teammates. In that postseason, he averaged 21.4 points and 6.2 rebounds as Milwaukee once again overcame Philadelphia before losing a seven-game series to Boston.

On March 1, 1989, Cummings tallied 38 points and collected ten rebounds in a victory over the New York Knicks. His strong play earned him selections to NBA All-Star Games during both the 1984–85 and 1988–89 seasons while representing the Bucks.

San Antonio Spurs

On May 28, 1989, Cummings was traded to the San Antonio Spurs along with a second-round pick in the 1990 draft (used to select Tony Massenburg) in exchange for Cadillac Anderson, Alvin Robertson, and a second-round selection in the 1989 draft (Frank Kornet).

In his debut season with San Antonio, teaming up with stars like David Robinson and Maurice Cheeks, Cummings contributed to a remarkable turnaround as Spurs improved from just 21 wins in 1989 to an impressive 56 victories in 1990. That year also saw him achieve a personal scoring peak by putting up 52 points against the Charlotte Hornets.

Across six seasons from 1989–90 through 1991–92, he maintained averages close to 20 points and eight rebounds per game while helping San Antonio secure back-to-back playoff appearances with consecutive seasons of at least fifty wins. By this point, he was recognized as a dependable power forward.

A severe knee injury during summer of 1992 caused him to miss most of the following campaign. Upon recovery, his role diminished to that of a reserve player since he could no longer perform at near All-Star levels. He continued with San Antonio until partway through the 1994–95 season.

Return to Bucks

In November 1995, Cummings made a return to the Milwaukee Bucks, participating in 81 games and posting an average of 8.0 points while playing approximately 21 minutes per contest.

Seattle SuperSonics

As a free agent in January 1997, he signed with the Seattle SuperSonics, serving as a supporting player during their journey to the Western Conference Semi-finals, where they were narrowly defeated in a seven-game series by the Houston Rockets.

Philadelphia 76ers

Cummings became part of the Philadelphia 76ers roster in September 1997, appearing in 44 games and averaging 5.3 points per outing.

New York Knicks

Shortly before the February 1998 trade deadline, he was exchanged to the New York Knicks in return for Herb Williams and Ron Grandison. That season, he appeared in a total of 74 games split between Philadelphia and New York, including 30 contests with the Knicks.

Golden State Warriors

Prior to the conclusion of the 1999 lockout, Cummings was involved in a trade from the Knicks alongside John Starks and Chris Mills to the Golden State Warriors, with Latrell Sprewell heading to New York. He spent two seasons with Golden State before retiring following the 1999–2000 campaign.

Despite being 38 years old and managing injuries, he maintained an average of 8.4 points and 4.9 rebounds in just 18 minutes per game during his final year on the court.

Career summary

Over an 18-season NBA career, Cummings accumulated 19,460 points, placing him 57th on the all-time regular-season scoring list as of December 2022. His career averages include 16.4 points and 7.3 rebounds over 1,183 games, shooting .484 from the field and .706 from the free-throw line. Additionally, he recorded totals of 8,630 rebounds (including 3,183 offensive boards), 1,255 steals, and logged 33,898 minutes played.

Personal life

Originally aiming to pursue professional hockey, Cummings shifted focus to basketball following a significant growth spurt during high school. Among his notable off-court moments are performing the national anthem at a Milwaukee Bucks home game in 1985 and collaborating on a Christmas track with Spurs teammates in 1989.

An ordained Pentecostal minister since 1977, Cummings has officiated weddings such as that of former teammate Sean Elliott. He is father to three sons: Antonio, T. J., and Shawn.

In 2007, he released an album titled T.C. Finally, featuring R&B and soul-inspired tracks that he both wrote and performed, drawing inspiration from artists like Marvin Gaye and Al Green.

Regular season

|- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| San Diego | 70 || 69 || 36.2 || .523 || .000 || .709 || 10.6 || 2.5 || 1.8 || .9 || 23.7 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| San Diego | 81 || 80 || 35.9 || .494 || .000 || .720 || 9.6 || 1.7 || 1.1 || .7 || 22.9 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 79 || 78 || 34.5 || .495 || .000 || .741 || 9.1 || 2.9 || 1.5 || .8 || 23.6 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 82 || 82 || 32.5 || .474 || .000 || .656 || 8.5 || 2.4 || 1.5 || .6 || 19.8 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 82 || 77 || 33.8 || .511 || .000 || .662 || 8.5 || 2.8 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 20.8 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 76 || 76 || 34.6 || .485 || .333 || .665 || 7.3 || 2.4 || 1.0 || .6 || 21.3 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 80 || 78 || 35.3 || .467 || .467 || .787 || 8.1 || 2.5||1.3|| .9||22.9 |- | style="text-align:left;" | San Antonio |81||78||34.8|| .475|| .322|| .780||8.4||2.7||1.4|| .6||22.4 |- ... [statistics truncated for brevity] ... |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career |1,183||815||28.7|| .484|| .295|| .706||7.3||1.9||1.1|| .5||16.4 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star |2||0||17.5|| .423|| –|| .833||6.0||0.5||1..5||1..0||13..5

Playoffs

|- | style="text-align:left;"| 1985 | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 8 || 8 || 38.9 || .577 || .000 || .828 || 8.8 || 2.5 || 1.5 || .9 || 27.5 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1986 | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 14 || 14 || 36.4 || .514 || – || .694 || 9.9 || 3.0 || 1.4 || 1.1 || 21.6 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1987 | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 12 || 10 || 36.9 || .488 || – || .687 || 7.9 || 2.3 || 1.0 || 1.1 || 22.3 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1988 | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 5 || 5 || 38.6 || .562 || – || .659 || 7.8 || 2.6 || 1.8 || .6 || 25.8 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1989 | style="text-align:left;"| Milwaukee | 5 || 4 || 24.8 || .362 || .000 || .875 || 6.6 || 1.4 || .6 || .0 || 12.8 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1990 | style="text-align:left;"| San Antonio | 10 || 10 || 37.5 || .528 || .200 || .808 || 9.4 || 2.2 || .7 || .4 || 24.9 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1991 | style="text-align:left;"| San Antonio | 4 || 4 || 31.0 || .510 || .000 || .500 || 9.3 || 1.0 || .8 || .5 || 14.8 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1992 | style="text-align:left;"| San Antonio | 3 || 3 || 40.7|| .515|| .000|| .500|| 11.3||2.3||1.3||1.3||26.0 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1993 | style="text-align:left;"| San Antonio |10||0||13.8||.443||.000||.625||3.9||0.5||0.3||0.1||6.7 |-

| style="text-align:left;" | 1994 
| style="text-align:left;" | San Antonio 
|4||1||18.0||.500||–||.833||6.3||0.5||1.3||0.8||8.0

|-

| style="text-align:left;" | 1995 
| style="text-align:left;" | San Antonio 
|15||2||9.0||.375||.000||.733||2.1||0.3||0.3||0.1||3.9

|-

| style="text-align:left;" | 1997 
| style="text-align:left;" | Seattle 
|12||6||24.3||.489||–||.667||6.0||1.2||0.9||0.5||8.8

|-

| style="text-align:left;" | 1998 
| style="text-align:left;" | New York 
|8||1||15.0||.441||–||.250||4.4||0.6||0.5|||0,3|||4,0

|- class="sortbottom"

|style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 |Career
|110|||68|||26,9|||,502|||,091|||,706|||6,7|||1,6|||,9|||,6|||15,1

External links