Wanting to look like Michael Jordan, what was more common in the early 90s? A decade earlier, things were a little less so. However, the young Kendall Gill (pronounced “Guile”) already dreams of imitating “MJ”. He was a high school student at Rich Central Highschool in Olympia Fields, Illinois, when Jordan appeared in the NBA.
Comparisons began to flourish when Kendall attended the University of Illinois at Chicago. They seem easy: 1.98 m and 88 kg for the number 3 of the 1984 draft, 1.96 m and 88 kg for the disciple… And above all, the same ability to play in several positions, the same defensive predispositions, the same mastery of the air and the same hunger. “I want to be an All-Star and win an NBA title. These are my goals »confides Gill, who distances himself from his model once in the League, in the Hornets jersey. “I have always admired Michael but now that I am a professional, I can no longer idolize him like before. I believe in myself. I want to become the best player in this League and I will achieve it. It's not pretentious and I don't care what some people think. This isn’t the first time people won’t believe me…”
As a teenager, he designed luxurious houses and sports cars
Early 1970s. Rudolph and Linda Gill love their life on the South Side, Chicago's largest district. Kendall, Keith and Kevin, the couple's three children, had a quiet childhood. The neighborhood is peaceful but a few blocks away, the city begins to change. To get to school, the kids cross places that are not necessarily very desirable. After a few incidents – stolen bikes, stolen baseball equipment, fights – the Gills moved further south, to the middle-class suburbs. This is the second black family to settle there. New neighborhood, new problems. One day, Kendall goes to the pool with a white friend. When “KG” dives into the pool, all the little blond heads come out… Ordinary scene of racism.
A few months later, he scored the winning run for his baseball team in the district championship final. He's the only black person on the team. The only one not to receive a medal… In 6th grade, his teachers discovered that he suffered from a memory deficiency. A handicap which isolates him even more. Fortunately, his academic results are excellent. Gill keeps her head high thanks to her family. His dream, at the time, was not even to play in the NBA or even to become a lawyer or doctor, simply to become… rich. He spends his time designing luxurious houses and sports cars, reading architecture magazines. A dream that does not please everyone. In 5th grade, his mother was summoned by the school principal. “Your son worries us. He swears to anyone who will listen that he will be a billionaire. You have to change his mind because you know that it will be impossible. »
However, in the early 90s, Hornet Kendall actually led the high life. He never cooks in his beautiful Fourth Ward home since he has his own chef. Add to that a butler and a masseuse. So much for the staff. In terms of gadgets, things are going well too: a TV in each room (a 2 m screen in the living room), a collection of African art objects, paintings, sculptures as beautiful as they are expensive, clothes – his guilty pleasure – lots of cupboards, a red Mercedes 300 SL convertible, a black Ferrari Testarossa and a 4×4 to make it more sober. “Sometimes I find it hard to believe it. I'm 26 years old, I drive a Ferrari, I work two to three hours a day and I'm paid a fortune for it… But it didn't come from heaven. I worked and I suffered. »
His brother Keith is the first to testify: “Whether it was 40° in the shade or snowing, Kendall had her daily shoot. We were in front of the TV and we watched him leave and said to ourselves that he was a little crazy. Now we understand. »
Marcus Liberty, Gill's teammate at Illinois, remembers Gill staying after every practice to work overtime. Perseverance coupled with unfailing valor. “In 1989, we played against Syracuse for a place in the Final Four”says Lou Henson, former coach of the Fighting Illini. “In the first half, Derrick Coleman busted Kendall's lip with his elbow. It was horrible, there was blood everywhere… KG had to have surgery after the match. All this did not prevent him from coming back after the break and putting in a magnificent second half. »
Victorious, the Fighting Illini would fall in the semi-finals – by one point – against the future champion, Michigan. Gill makes a lasting impression. Magic Johnson remembers: “He went up for the dunk with the ball in his right hand. Three defenders followed him up there. In the air, he changed hands while the others came down, before crushing a terrible smash. It was the first time I saw him. I told the Lakers to look at him before he becomes a star. We could already see its full potential. »
In Charlotte and Seattle, he misses his appointment with history
Charlotte retained him in fifth position in the 1990 draft. A rookie season to show off his nose and impress the veterans. “In my first game against Boston, Larry Bird slapped my butt as a congratulations. I was crushed… He didn't do that often, especially for a young person. Dominique Wilkins also had kind words. Even Michael Jordan was nice to me. »
Kendall Gill is at 11 points for his first year in the League and joins the first five rookies. From the next, he compiled 20.5 points (18th NBA), 5.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists. His association with Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning seems to herald a bright future in North Carolina. But her production crumbled (16.9 pts) and Charlotte was crushed by New York in the Conference semi-finals (4-1).
The Hornets sent him to Seattle during the summer of 1993 against Dana Barros and Eddie Johnson. With Gary Payton, Nate McMillan, Shawn Kemp, Sam Perkins and Detlef Schrempf, the cast put together by the Sonics looks good. The backcourt in particular. Payton and McMillan are real leeches on defense. A born interceptor, Gill ideally completes the picture. For two years, he averaged more than 13 points but Seattle (63 then 57 victories) cracked in the first round of the playoffs.
Return to Charlotte during the summer of 1995 in an exchange for Hersey Hawkins followed, the following winter, by a transfer to the Nets, a franchise still traumatized by the tragic disappearance of Drazen Petrovic two years earlier. A team, too, which seems to collect cannonballs over the years (Shawn Bradley, Eric Montross, the late Yinka Dare, Evan Eschmeyer and other Jim McIlvaine…)
In a ring at 37
Repositioned small forward, Gill offers an astonishing cocktail of tone, liveliness, velocity and shooting skill. During the 1996-97 season, he exceeded the 20-point average for the second time: 21.8, accompanied by 6.1 rebounds, 4 assists and 1.88 interceptions (13th NBA). The Atlantic division is under the yoke of the Heat. No playoffs to get your teeth into, except in 1998 when the Nets served as a punching bag for Michael Jordan (3-0 in the first round).
From the lockout, Gill must learn to deal with injuries. His offensive production falters but his sense of anticipation remains intact. He finished No. 1 in the League in 1999 with 2.68 steals per game and equaled Larry Kenon's record (11 stolen balls in a match against Miami on April 3). That year, Sam Cassell abandoned her and took her to a certain Stephon Marbury. New Jersey is armored on the outside (Kerry Kittles, Van Horn, Lucious Harris plus the Stephon-Kendall doublet) but the racket is as depressing as possible. It will remain so until the arrival of the first choice of the 2000 draft, Kenyon Martin.
Gill doesn't take advantage of it. He toured franchises for four years (Miami, Minnesota, Chicago and Milwaukee) and finally bowed out in 2005 to launch a career… as a boxer.
At 37, he entered the ring and won three professional fights, heavyweight category. After considering becoming a promoter, Kendall Cedric Gill was a consultant for the Comcast group, the largest American cable operator whose Spectacor subsidiary owns the Sixers and the Wells Fargo Center. In 2012, he was fired for hitting a colleague, and the channel did not renew his contract in September 2013.
Since then, like other former stars, he has participated in the Big3, the veterans' league set up by Ice Cube.
| Kendall Gill | Percentage | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Party | Int | Bp | Ct | Pts |
| 1990-91 | CHA | 82 | 24 | 45.0 | 14.3 | 83.5 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 3.7 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 11.1 |
| 1991-92 | CHA | 79 | 37 | 46.7 | 24.0 | 74.5 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 5.1 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 20.5 |
| 1992-93 | CHA | 69 | 35 | 44.9 | 27.4 | 77.2 | 1.7 | 3.2 | 4.9 | 3.9 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 16.9 |
| 1993-94 | SEA | 79 | 31 | 44.3 | 31.7 | 78.2 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 0.4 | 14.1 |
| 1994-95 | SEA | 73 | 29 | 45.7 | 36.8 | 74.2 | 1.4 | 2.6 | 4.0 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 13.7 |
| 1995-96 * | All Teams | 47 | 36 | 46.9 | 32.9 | 78.4 | 1.5 | 3.4 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 2.8 | 0.5 | 14.0 |
| 1995-96 * | CHA | 36 | 35 | 48.1 | 31.5 | 76.1 | 1.6 | 3.7 | 5.3 | 6.3 | 2.8 | 1.2 | 3.1 | 0.6 | 12.9 |
| 1995-96 * | NJN | 11 | 38 | 44.1 | 36.0 | 83.1 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 3.9 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 17.5 |
| 1996-97 | NJN | 82 | 39 | 44.3 | 33.6 | 79.7 | 2.2 | 3.9 | 6.1 | 4.0 | 2.7 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 0.6 | 21.8 |
| 1997-98 | NJN | 81 | 34 | 42.9 | 25.7 | 68.8 | 1.4 | 3.4 | 4.8 | 2.5 | 3.3 | 1.9 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 13.4 |
| 1998-99 | NJN | 50 | 32 | 39.8 | 11.8 | 68.3 | 1.2 | 3.7 | 4.9 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 11.8 |
| 1999-00 | NJN | 76 | 31 | 41.4 | 25.6 | 71.0 | 1.1 | 2.6 | 3.7 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 13.1 |
| 2000-01 | NJN | 31 | 29 | 33.1 | 28.6 | 72.2 | 1.0 | 3.2 | 4.2 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 0.2 | 9.1 |
| 2001-02 | MIA | 65 | 22 | 38.4 | 13.6 | 67.7 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 5.7 |
| 2002-03 | MIN | 82 | 25 | 42.2 | 32.2 | 76.4 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 8.7 |
| 2003-04 | CHI | 56 | 25 | 39.2 | 23.7 | 73.5 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 9.6 |
| 2004-05 | MIL | 14 | 20 | 40.0 | 33.3 | 90.0 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 6.1 |
| Total | 966 | 31 | 43.4 | 30.0 | 75.4 | 1.3 | 2.8 | 4.1 | 3.1 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 13.4 | |
How to read the stats? MJ = matches played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Successful shots / Attempted shots; 3pts = 3-points / 3-points attempted; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; Off = offensive rebound; Def=defensive rebound; Tot = Total rebounds; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal fouls; Int = Intercepts; Bp = Lost balls; Ct: Against; Pts = Points.
