Glen Anthony Rice (1967–)

Glen Anthony Rice was a professional basketball player from Jacksonville (Pulaski County). Rice played for the Miami Heat (1989–1995), the Charlotte Hornets (1995–1998), the Los Angeles Lakers (1998–2000), the New York Knicks (2000–2001), the Houston Rockets (2001–2003), and the Los Angeles Clippers (2003–2004). His son, Glen Jr., also became an NBA player.

Although often billed as being from Flint, Michigan, Glen Anthony Rice was born on May 28, 1967, in Jacksonville. When Rice was a few months old, the family moved to Benton (Saline County), where the Rice family lived in Benton’s Ralph Bunche Community. While in Benton, Rice attended both Angie Grant and Howard Perrin elementary schools. When Rice was twelve, the Rice family moved to Flint, Michigan, where he graduated from Flint Northwestern High School in 1985.

Rice’s basketball career began in 1985 when he enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and started playing for the Michigan Wolverines. By 1989, his last year at Michigan, he was a 6’8″ small forward who averaged more than thirty points per game in the 1989 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament alone. Rice was named the team’s Most Outstanding Player that year. His strength on the court was scoring. When he left the Wolverines, he had scored 2,442 points in his four seasons.

His talent on the court led him to the NBA, and he was fourth pick overall in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft, being drafted by the Miami Heat on June 27, 1989. His NBA debut was on November 3, 1989. Rice played six seasons as a small forward for Miami until he was traded along with Matt Geiger, Khalid Reeves, and Tony Delk to the Charlotte Hornets. The NCAA named Glen Rice an AP All-American in 1989.

Rice said that his three seasons with the Hornets were his best. He averaged just under twenty-five points per game with Charlotte and shot an NBA-leading forty-seven percent from the three-point line. He was named Most Valuable Player after scoring twenty-six points in the 1997 NBA All-Star game, which was his second All-Star game. Rice had scored seven points in 1996 and also scored sixteen in the 1998 All-Star game, all with the Charlotte Hornets. Rice was traded in 1998 to the Los Angeles Lakers. During the two seasons he played for the Lakers, he averaged almost seventeen points per game. He was traded to the New York Knicks for a single season in 2000–2001. In 2001, Rice began the first of his two seasons with the Houston Rockets. In 2003, Rice began the last year of his playing career with a single season for the Los Angeles Clippers. He signed with the Clippers as a free agent on October 10, 2003. On January 16, 2004, he was waived from the team.

Rice scored 18,336 points in his NBA career, placing him in the top 100 on the league’s all-time scoring list at the time of his 2004 retirement.

After leaving the NBA, Rice became a teacher and personal trainer. Living in Miami, he began working as a scout and community liaison for the Miami Heat. An article published in the Saline Courier on September 22, 2015, reported that Rice was returning to Arkansas to teach basketball fundamentals that October at the P.A.R.K. Center on Geyer Springs Road in Little Rock (Pulaski County).

For additional information:
“Glen Rice.” Basketball Reference. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/ricegl01.html (accessed July 13, 2018).

Lenahan, Tony. “NBA Champion Rice Coming Back Home to Benton.” Saline Courier, September 22, 2016.

Cody Lynn Berry
Benton, Arkansas