Dirk Minniefield, Date of Birth, Place of Birth
TweetDirk Minniefield
American basketball player
Date of Birth: 17-Jan-1961
Place of Birth: Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Profession: basketball player
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn 
About Dirk Minniefield
- Dirk DeWayne Minniefield (born January 17, 1961) is an American retired professional basketball player.
- While at Lafayette High School in Lexington, he was named the 1979 Kentucky "Mr.
- Basketball", an honor given to the top high school player in the state of Kentucky.
- In addition to "Mr.
- Basketball", he was also named a McDonald's and Parade High School All-American.
- Minniefield played his college ball at the University of Kentucky (UK), where he became a member of the 1,000 point club.
- In 1983, he was drafted in the second round (33rd overall) by the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.
- The 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), 180 lb (82 kg) guard played three seasons in NBA, making stops in Cleveland, Houston, Golden State, and Boston. Minniefield began regularly using marijuana at age 14.
- Minniefield, who has been sober since the early 1990s, told a group of top high school prospects in 2007 that "My younger kids have never seen me take a drink.
- They don't know the daddy the older kids know.
- They know a totally different guy." (Minniefield was a father of three children by the time he graduated from high school, and has two children from his current marriage). His drug problem continued into college.
- He admitted to having carried a vial of cocaine with him regularly during his senior year at UK, and frequently took hits of the drug before games.
- Most notably, he admitted in 2007 that he and several teammates had gone to a park in Knoxville, Tennessee the night before Kentucky's showdown with Louisville in the 1983 NCAA Mideast Regional final and smoked marijuana.
- He also said that he smoked more marijuana after returning to his hotel room.As fate would have it, he had the ball late in the game, with UK clinging to a narrow lead.
- He went into the lane and threw up a tentative shot that UofL center Charles Jones blocked.
- The Cardinals went on to force overtime and then dominated the extra period, winning 80-68.
- He would later say about the incident, Minniefield's drug use eventually contributed to the early end of his NBA career.
- He returned to Lexington, but wound up serving a year in jail after writing bad checks and violating probation on those charges.
- His first wife divorced him and he left Lexington "penniless".
- He found his way to the John Lucas Drug Abuse Center in Houston; Minniefield would say of Lucas, "I finally found that person who talked my language.
- He could see past the outside facade I learned to put up." For his part, Lucas said, "I call him one of my children.
- He's delightful.
- He's helped me as much as I helped him."After treatment, Minniefield worked as transportation manager—according to him, "A better word is van driver"—for the San Antonio Spurs while Lucas was coach.
- He would go on to be a head coach/general manager in the United States Basketball League (USBL) for the Miami Tropics (a team that Lucas owned) and serve as the Spurs' strength and conditioning coach.
- When Lucas left for the Philadelphia 76ers, Minniefield took a job as a drug counselor with the NBA to enable him to stay in Houston.
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