Chuck Person

High school and college

Born in Brantley, Alabama, Person was named after NBA player, MLB player, and actor Chuck Connors. He attended Brantley High School in Brantley, Alabama and played college basketball at Auburn University. He is known as the most prolific scorer in Auburn basketball history. Person was a four-year letter winner at Auburn from 1982–86, helping the team to the first three NCAA Tournament appearances in school history (1984, '85, '86), including a trip to the Elite Eight in 1986. He also helped Auburn win the 1985 SEC Tournament, for which he was named Tournament MVP as Auburn was the first league school to win four tournament games in four days.

Person, who played alongside fellow Auburn greats Charles Barkley and Chris Morris, is the all-time scoring leader in Auburn history, with 2,311 points in 126 games for an 18.3 ppg mark, which is sixth all-time in school history. He is also the school record-holder for field goals made (1,017) and field goals attempted (1,899) and is third in total rebounds (940).

Person was a two-time All-American (1985, 1986), a three-time First Team All-SEC selection and was selected to ESPN's SEC Silver Anniversary Team. Nicknamed "The Rifleman", he had his No. 45 jersey retired at Auburn on Feb. 18, 2006. Auburn upset No. 1 ranked St. John's University on its way to an Elite Eight appearance.

Indiana Pacers (1986–1992)

Person was selected fourth in the 1986 NBA draft by the Indiana Pacers; the small forward won the Rookie of the Year award in 1987 and played six seasons with Indiana. Person averaged a career high 21.6 points in 1988. During his NBA playing years he was known as "The Rifleman" due to his 3-point shooting ability and the fact that he was named after Chuck Connors, star of the TV series The Rifleman. Person was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1993.

Minnesota Timberwolves (1992–1994)

Person only played two seasons with the Timberwolves. He averaged a career low 11.6 points in 1993.

San Antonio Spurs (1994–1998)

Person played for the San Antonio Spurs from 1994 through 1998. His "Rifleman" nickname remained appropriate, as he not only recorded the NBA's highest season record for three-pointers made for a reserve player with 164 during the 1994–1995 season (a record broken over two decades later in the 2015–2016 season by Mirza Teletović of the Phoenix Suns), but he also held the Spurs season record for most threes in a season with 190 three-pointers made during the 1995–1996 season (a record that stood for almost two decades until Danny Green exceeded it during the 2014–2015 season). Person didn't play in the entire 1996–1997 season due to injury.

Other Teams

Person played with the Hornets (1999) and SuperSonics before retiring from the NBA in 2000.

Cleveland Cavaliers

After Person was traded by Seattle to the Lakers, who waived him (though he had already decided to retire) in 2000, he joined Cleveland Cavaliers head coach John Lucas's staff as an assistant for the 2000–01 NBA season.

Indiana Pacers

He was then a player-relations assistant and scout to president Donnie Walsh in the Pacers' front office from January 2003 until July 2005, when he moved to an assistant coaching position within the organization. In 2007, he interviewed unsuccessfully for both the Pacers' and the Sacramento Kings' vacant head-coaching positions.

Sacramento Kings

Person became an assistant coach for Sacramento in 2007, but he left the Kings after head coach Reggie Theus was fired in mid-December 2008.

After his first season with the Kings, Person was interviewed for the Chicago Bulls' head-coaching vacancy but ultimately was not hired.

Upon leaving Sacramento, Person returned to his home town of Brantley, Alabama in 2008 for an eight-month break after 23 years of playing, administrating and coaching.

Los Angeles Lakers

He was invited to be Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson's assistant in 2009. In March 2010, he interviewed for the head coaching job for the men's team at his alma mater, Auburn University, but was not successful, despite positive feedback. He returned to his job with the Lakers after the interview. Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni took over from Mike Brown in the middle of the 2012–13 season, and kept all of Brown's assistants, including Person. However, Person was fired after the season; he was the last remaining member from Jackson's Lakers staff.

Jeonju KCC Egis

In the summer of 2013, Person joined the coaching staff as an associate head coach in South Korea for the Jeonju KCC Egis in the Korean Basketball League.

Auburn associate head coach

On April 7, 2014, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl hired Person as an assistant coach. He was promoted to associate head coach in May 2015 and is one of the top assistant coaches and recruiters in the nation.

Personal life

He is the older brother of former NBA player Wesley Person. He has six children and eight grandchildren. He graduated cum laude from Auburn University/United States Sports Academy in 2016.