Today's profilee is proof that there are second acts in life. This man exploded out of the gates, winning Rookie of the Year, three scoring titles, and a league MVP. Then, he was left practically for dead, as he was considered too accustomed to losing. Then, he finished his NBA career with two NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is Bob McAdoo.

Bob McAdoo was born September 25, 1951 in Greensboro, North Carolina. He attended Ben Smith High School in Greensboro, which he led to the state semifinals. McAdoo then attended Vincennes Junior College because he wasn't a great student. After two years there, McAdoo finally made the grade and joined the University of North Carolina, where he average 19.5 PPG and 10.1 RPG in his lone season there, earning 1st Team All-America honors. Declaring early for the NBA, he was selected #2 overall (behind LaRue Martin) in the 1972 NBA Draft by the Buffalo Braves, a team in desperate need of a spark.

McAdoo flourished in new coach Jack Ramsay's system, even as the Braves continued to struggle on the court. He averaged 18 PPG and 9.1 RPG, winning Rookie of the Year honors. The next season, he was even better; McAdoo led the league in scoring for the first time with a 30.6 PPG average, and made the first of four All-Star teams (the other years were 1975-77) and led the Braves to their first ever playoff berth. His third season was the best of his career; he won another scoring title with a career-best 34.5 PPG and was selected as the NBA's regular season MVP (the only man ever to win the award with the Braves/Clippers) and took Buffalo to a still team record 49-33 record. It seemed that McAdoo and the Braves would have nowhere to go but up.

However, McAdoo's career soon took a southernly turn. During the 1975-76 season, he and Braves owner Paul Synder feuded (Synder even suspended McAdoo for a game when he refused a second opinion on a back injury) and despite winning a third straight scoring title (31.1 PPG), the relationship never healed. By the middle of the next season, he had been traded to the New York Knicks with Tom McMillen for John Gianelli and cash. McAdoo's tenure in New York lasted only two years before he was traded in 1978-79 to the Boston Celtics. The move was done secretly by Celtics owner John Brown, which nearly made Red Auerbach resign as general manager and take the Knicks' GM job. McAdoo was used sparingly by the Celtics before being happily dumped onto the Detroit Pistons as compensation for signing M.L. Carr in 1979.

By the 1980-81 season, McAdoo's reputation was in tatters; the Pistons waived him after one season and six games of the next, and after he and the New Jersey Nets couldn't agree on a contract for the 1981-82 season, it appeared that his career was over, and people considered him a troublemaker and unable to play for a championship team. However, fate intervened; when Los Angeles Lakers PF Mitch Kupchak suffered a devestating knee injury after 26 games in 1981-82, Lakers management gambled and acquired McAdoo's rights from the Nets for a second round draft pick. While many questioned the move, it proved to be a brilliant move; McAdoo averaged 9.6 PPG during the regular season, then averaged a sizzling 16.7 PPG as L.A. went 12-2 and won their second NBA title of the 1980s. In his four seasons with the Lakers, he averaged over 10 PPG three times, and his 13.1 PPG in 1983-84 led all non-starters in the NBA. McAdoo contributed to another Lakers title in 1984-85 before being cast aside for younger players.

McAdoo closed out his NBA career with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1985-86, but his basketball career wasn't over quite yet. He signed with Tracer Milan in 1986, and led the team to two FIBA European Champions Cups; his first season showed he still had game, with averages of 26.1 PPG and 10.2 RPG. He then played for Filanto Forli (1990-92) and Teamsystem Fabriano (1992-93) before retiring at age 42. McAdoo was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000, and currently is in his eleventh season as an assistant coach with the Miami Heat. His career stat line is 18,787 points (22.1 PPG) and 8,048 rebounds (9.4 RPG).

Season-by-Season Statistical Review:
1972-73: 80 GP, 18.0 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 1.7 APG, 45.2 FG%, 77.4 FT%
1973-74: 74 GP, 30.6 PPG, 15.1 RPG, 2.3 APG, 54.7 FG%, 79.3 FT%
1974-75: 82 GP, 34.5 PPG, 14.1 RPG, 2.2 APG, 51.2 FG%, 80.5 FT%
1975-76: 78 GP, 31.1 PPG, 12.4 RPG, 4.0 APG, 48.7 FG%, 76.2 FT%
1976-77: 72 GP, 25.8 PPG, 12.9 RPG, 2.8 APG, 51.2 FG%, 73.8 FT%
1977-78: 79 GP, 26.5 PPG, 12.8 RPG, 3.8 APG, 52.0 FG%, 72.7 FT%
1978-79: 60 GP, 24.8 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 2.8 APG, 52.9 FG%, 65.6 FT%
1979-80: 58 GP, 21.1 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 3.4 APG, 48.0 FG%, 73.0 FT%
1980-81: 16 GP, 10.3 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 1.9 APG, 43.3 FG%, 70.7 FT%
1981-82: 41 GP, 0 GS, 9.6 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 0.8 APG, 45.8 FG%, 71.4 FT%
1982-83: 47 GP, 1 GS, 15.0 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 0.8 APG, 52.0 FG%, 73.0 FT%
1983-84: 70 GP, 0 GS, 13.1 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 1.1 APG, 47.1 FG%, 80.3 FT%
1984-85: 66 GP, 0 GS, 10.5 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 1.0 APG, 52.0 FG%, 75.3 FT%
1985-86: 29 GP, 0 GS, 10.1 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 1.2 APG, 46.2 FG%, 76.5 FT%

There were many high profile scorers in the NBA during the 1980s. Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Alex English are among the best of the decade. Another high scorer who toiled in relative anonymity is today's profile, Adrian Dantley of the Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons.

Adrian Dantley was born February 28, 1956 in Washington, D.C. In the early 70s, he starred at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, where he played for Basketball Hall of Fame coach Morgan Wooten. He then attended the University of Notre Dame, where he would rank among the greatest basketball players in school history. In his three seasons there, he averaged 25.8 PPG and 9.8 RPG (his best year was 1974-75, with averages of 30.4 PPG and 10.2 RPG), was named an All-American in his final two years, won the National Player of the Year in 1976. He also played on the Notre Dame team that ended UCLA's legendary 88 game winning streak in 1973. Dantley then led the United States to a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal before being drafted sixth overall in the 1976 NBA Draft by the Buffalo Braves.

As a Brave in 1976-77, Dantley won Rookie of the Year, averaging 20.3 PPG and 7.6 RPG. After the Braves finished 30-52 that year, however, Dantley was traded to the Indiana Pacers for Billy Knight; he is the only ROY in a major American sports league to be traded after winning the award. His tenure in Indiana lasted only 23 games before he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for James Edwards (a future teammate) and Earl Tatum. Dantley enjoyed a solid year and a half with the Lakers, averaging 17.3 PPG in his only full season there in 1978-79, before being traded yet again, this time to the Utah Jazz for Spencer Haywood. Finally, though, Dantley settled in with the Jazz and became a scoring force as the young team began climbing up the NBA ladder.

In his first season with Utah, Dantley was named to the Western Conference All-Star team for the first time with an average of 28 PPG (his other All-Star nods came in 1981-82 and 1984-86). In 1980-81, Dantley won his first scoring title with an average of 30.7 PPG. After a devestating knee injury occured during the 1982-83 season (causing him to miss 60 games), he returned with a vengence in 1983-84, as he won another scoring title with a 30.6 PPG average as the Jazz made their first postseason ever. By the 1985-86 season, however, Dantley and coach Frank Layden were not on the best of terms, and after the season, Dantley was traded to the Detroit Pistons for Kelly Tripucka and Kent Benson.

Dantley remained a solid scorer as the Pistons emerged as a force in the NBA in the late 80s. Dantley averaged better than 20 PPG in each of his two full seasons with the team, and helped the Pistons reach the NBA Finals in 1988, before he was traded yet again (at the All-Star break in 1989), this time to the Dallas Mavericks, for Mark Aguirre. It was believed by many that the deal was done because Aguirre and Isiah Thomas were childhood friends and that Thomas and Dantley didn't get along (Thomas denied the charges), but Dantley finished the season with an average of 19.2 PPG.

During the 1989-90 season, Dantley suffered another severe knee injury, causing him to miss the final 37 games of the season. Dallas released him, and he spent most of the 1990-91 season unsigned until the Milwaukee Bucks picked him up with 10 games to go in the season. Dantley played those game and the playoffs for the Bucks before being released again. He would finish his professional career in Itlay with Breeze Milan before retiring. He finished with 23,177 points (24.3 PPG career, 18th all-time entering the 2008-09 season) and 5,455 rebounds (5.7 RPG) and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.

Season-by-Season Statistical Review:
1976-77: 77 GP, 20.3 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 1.9 APG, 52.0 FG%, 81.8 FT%
1977-78: 79 GP, 21.5 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 3.2 APG, 51.2 FG%, 79.6 FT%
1978-79: 60 GP, 17.3 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 2.3 APG, 51.0 FG%, 85.4 FT%
1979-80: 68 GP, 28.0 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.8 APG, 57.6 FG%, 84.2 FT%
1980-81: 80 GP, 30.7 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 4.0 APG, 55.9 FG%, 80.6 FT%
1981-82: 81 GP, 81 GS, 30.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 4.0 APG, 57.0 FG%, 79.2 FT%
1982-83: 22 GP, 22 GS, 30.7 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 4.8 APG, 58.0 FG%, 84.7 FT%
1983-84: 79 GP, 79 GS, 30.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 3.9 APG, 55.8 FG%, 85.9 FT%
1984-85: 55 GP, 46 GS, 26.6 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 3.4 APG, 53.1 FG%, 80.4 FT%
1985-86: 76 GP, 75 GS, 29.8 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 3.5 APG, 56.3 FG%, 79.1 FT%
1986-87: 81 GP, 81 GS, 21.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 2.0 APG, 53.4 FG%, 81.2 FT%
1987-88: 69 GP, 50 GS, 20.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 2.5 APG, 51.4 FG%, 86.0 FT%
1988-89: 73 GP, 67 GS, 19.2 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.3 APG, 49.3 FG%, 81.0 FT%
1989-90: 45 GP, 45 GS, 14.7 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 1.8 APG, 47.7 FG%, 78.7 FT%
1990-91: 10 GP, 0 GS, 5.7 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 0.9 APG, 38.0 FG%, 69.2 FT%