Abdul Qadir Jeelani (born Gary Cole; February 10, 1954 – August 3, 2016) was an American professional basketball player. Born in Bells, Tennessee, he was a 6'8" and 210 lb small forward and played college basketball for the Wisconsin–Parkside Rangers. He had a brief career in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
College career Jeelani is the University of Wisconsin–Parkside's career leader in points scored (2,262) and rebounds (1,237) and he holds records in the top four of seven other single-game, single-season and career statistical categories.University of Wisconsin Parkside Athletics – Hall of Fame Members He twice scored 47 points in a game, one of the top records for a single game scoring performance. He was a member of two NAIA National Tournament teams in 1974 and 1975 and was named an NAIA All-American in 1975 and 1976. He attended Washington Park High School in Racine, Wisconsin.
Professional career Jeelani was drafted on June 8, 1976, by the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers in the third round of the 1976 draft, and he was waived in October of that year. Later he was signed by the Detroit Pistons on September 2, 1977, but was again waived a month later,1977 NBA Transactions , n-c-systems.com prior to the start of the 1977–78 season. He played one season with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1979–80 and was made available in the expansion draft on May 28, 1980, where he was taken by the Dallas Mavericks prior to their inaugural season in 1980–81. He was part of the starting lineup for the Mavericks' first NBA game in 1980 and scored the first points in franchise history.MAVERICKS: Mavs History In his first season with the Mavs, he seemed to have a knack for scoring in the final quarter of games. As of January 20, 1981, when he had played 43 games, 142 of his 350 points had come in the last period.Suns Not Benefiting In Westphal Trade
Jeelani also had a career overseas playing in Italy,,Sports Illustrated, published October 29, 1979. in Lazio Basket and Libertas Livorno and Spain.Abdul Jeelani profile at basketpedya.com
Personal life Jeelani became interested in Islam as a college student. He formally converted and changed his name in 1976.
Jeelani died on August 3, 2016, at Wheaton Franciscan All-Saints hospital in Racine.
Career statistics
NBA Source
Regular season {| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;" !Year !Team !GP !MPG !FG% !3P% !FT% !RPG !APG !SPG !BPG !PPG |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"|Portland | 77 || 16.7 || .510 || .000 || .789 || 3.5 || 1.2 || .5 || .5 || 9.6 |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"|Dallas | 66 || 16.8 || .425 || .000 || .814 || 3.5 || 1.0 || .7 || .5 || 8.4 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career | 143 || 16.7 || .473 || .000 || .802 || 3.5 || 1.1 || .6 || .5 || 9.0
References
External links NBA stats at basketball-reference.com at mavswiki.com