Thomas James Gugliotta (born December 19, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player who played thirteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was an All-American college player for the NC State Wolfpack.

Early life

Gugliotta was born in Huntington Station on New York’s Long Island. He is the youngest of seven children, and has far Italian descents (from Sicily). He attended Walt Whitman High School. His two older brothers, Frank Jr. and Charlie, both enjoyed limited collegiate success on the hardwood and played professionally in Europe. His father called an old friend, Jim Valvano at North Carolina State University, during his senior season and told Valvano that his youngest son was going to be a special basketball player. Valvano took a chance on Gugliotta and brought him to Raleigh.^{[citation needed]}

College career

During his freshman season, "Googs" was limited by a knee injury. However, he emerged in the second half of the ACC season as a member of the rotation for the Wolfpack and appeared in 28 games, averaging two points and 1.3 rebounds per game. During the offseason, Valvano began telling crowds at Wolfpack Club meetings that Gugliotta was beginning to blossom. Emerging as a taller, heavier sophomore, Gugliotta averaged 11.1 points and seven rebounds a game. As a junior, Gugliotta began to show his star potential, averaging more than 15 points and nine rebounds per game. As a senior, Gugliotta averaged more than 22 points and almost 10 rebounds per game.

NBA

Gugliotta was drafted in 1992 out of NC State with the sixth overall pick by the National Basketball Association's Washington Bullets. In 13 NBA seasons he averaged 13.0 ppg, 7.3 rpg and 2.8 apg over 763 regular season games, but appeared in only 12 playoff games.

In 1994, Gugliotta was traded, alongside draft considerations, to the Golden State Warriors for Chris Webber. Halfway through the season, Gugliotta was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for rookie Donyell Marshall. His best years were with the Minnesota Timberwolves, scoring 20.6 and 20.1 ppg in the 1996–1997 and 1997–1998 seasons.

Gugliotta signed with the Phoenix Suns in 1999. In 2004, Gugliotta was traded to the Utah Jazz for Keon Clark and Ben Handlogten. In 2004, Gugliotta signed with the Boston Celtics, and was traded with Michael Stewart and Gary Payton to the Atlanta Hawks for Antoine Walker.

Accident

On December 17, 1999, Gugliotta had a near-death experience. Having trouble sleeping after games, Gugliotta took a supplement marketed as a "sleep aid" which included furanon di-hydro, also known as gamma butyrolactone, or GBL. Gugliotta was talking to his wife, Nikki, on his cellular telephone when he collapsed and stopped breathing. His wife heard the commotion and called the wife of teammate Rex Chapman, who was able to call her husband on the bus and instruct him to check his bag for the supplement bottle.^[1]

Personal

Tom met his wife, Nikki, at North Carolina State and later had a daughter, Greer. They were later divorced.

He was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame on Long Island in the Basketball Category with the Class of 1994.

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season


Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1992–93	Washington	81	81	34.5	.426	.281	.644	9.6	3.8	1.7	0.4	14.7
1993–94	Washington	78	78	35.8	.466	.270	.685	9.3	3.5	2.2	0.7	17.1
1994–95	Washington	6	6	37.7	.398	.500	.788	8.8	3.0	3.5	1.8	16.0
1994–95	Golden State	40	40	33.1	.443	.311	.567	7.4	3.1	1.3	0.6	10.9
1994–95	Minnesota	31	17	32.8	.454	.318	.762	7.2	4.5	2.0	0.9	14.4
1995–96	Minnesota	78	78	36.3	.471	.302	.773	8.8	3.1	1.8	1.2	16.2
1996–97	Minnesota	81	81	38.7	.442	.258	.820	8.7	4.1	1.6	1.1	20.6
1997–98	Minnesota	41	41	38.6	.502	.118	.821	8.7	4.1	1.5	0.5	20.1
1998–99	Phoenix	43	43	36.3	.483	.286	.794	8.9	2.8	1.4	0.5	17.4
1999–00	Phoenix	54	54	32.7	.481	.125	.775	7.9	2.3	1.5	0.6	13.7
2000–01	Phoenix	57	2	20.3	.392	.250	.792	4.5	1.0	0.8	0.4	6.4
2001–02	Phoenix	44	40	25.7	.422	.333	.757	5.0	1.8	0.9	0.7	6.5
2002–03	Phoenix	27	11	16.6	.455	.000	1.000	3.7	1.1	0.5	0.2	4.8
2003–04	Phoenix	30	3	10.1	.313	.000	.750	1.9	0.7	0.5	0.1	2.3
2003–04	Utah	25	24	20.6	.375	.333	.700	5.2	1.7	0.7	0.3	3.7
2004–05	Boston	20	0	10.9	.297	–	.667	2.2	0.6	0.5	0.6	1.3
2004–05	Atlanta	27	9	27.7	.431	.308	.784	5.5	2.1	1.2	0.5	7.9
Career		763	608	30.9	.451	.284	.784	7.3	2.8	1.4	0.6	13.0
All-Star		1	0	19.0	.429	.000	.750	8.0	3.0	2.0	–	9.0

Playoffs


Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1996–97	Minnesota	3	3	40.3	.422	.750	.600	5.3	4.3	2.3	0.7	18.3
1998–99	Phoenix	3	3	39.3	.371	–	.750	8.3	3.3	1.3	1.0	10.7
2000–01	Phoenix	4	0	21.5	.308	–	.778	3.8	0.8	2.0	0.3	5.8
2002–03	Phoenix	2	0	5.0	.500	–	.500	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.5
Career		12	6	27.9	.393	.750	.690	4.8	2.2	1.6	0.5	9.6

Notes

External links

1992 NBA draft

First round

Second round

United States squad – 1999 Tournament of the Americas – Gold medal

United States squad – 1999 Tournament of the Americas – Gold medal
4 Smith 5 Kidd 6 Houston 7 Hamilton 8 Hardaway 9 Gugliotta 10 Garnett 11 Baker 12 Szczerbiak 13 Duncan 14 Payton 15 Brand Coach: Brown