Michael Howard Finley (born March 6, 1973, in Melrose Park, Illinois) is an American professional basketball player who is a member of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs.
The 6' 7" shooting guard/small forward was originally drafted out of University of Wisconsin-Madison by the Phoenix Suns as the 21st overall pick of the 1995 NBA Draft. Finley held the all-time scoring record at Wisconsin for eleven years, but was passed by Alando Tucker on March 10, 2007. At Wisconsin, his nickname was 'Shooter'.
He had an impressive rookie season, being named to the 1995-96 NBA All-Rookie First Team, finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting after averaging fifteen points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. He became only the third rookie in Suns history to score over 1,000 points in a season. Despite his solid play, he was traded by the Suns on December 26, 1996 to the Dallas Mavericks along with Sam Cassell, A.C. Green and a second-round draft pick for Jason Kidd, Tony Dumas and Loren Meyer.
In his first season with the Mavericks, he led them in scoring, assists and steals. Along with another Sun Steve Nash and forward Dirk Nowitzki, he became an integral part of the Mavericks' "run and gun" offense in no time, the trio often called "The Big Three".
In 2000, he was selected to represent the Western Conference in the 2000 All-Star Game, in which he scored eleven points. In 2001 he was again selected to represent the Western Conference on All-Star weekend. He played for the US national team in the 2002 FIBA World Championship , the team lost a record three games, failing to win a championship for the first time in a major competition since FIBA opened international competitions to NBA players.
Finley began to play more of a supporting role as he aged and teammate Dirk Nowitzki blossomed. He remained a clutch player for the Mavericks. For financial reasons, however, in 2005 he was waived by Dallas to avoid luxury taxes (as part of the league's new labor agreement) on his 51.8 million USD salary over the next three years. Finley became an unrestricted free agent and after being aggressively pursued by high-caliber teams like Detroit, Miami, Minnesota and Phoenix, he elected to remain in Texas with the San Antonio Spurs.
In San Antonio he has adapted well to a secondary role as Manu Ginobili's backup. He has adjusted his game to fit his role there, developing and emphasizing his outside shooting. The Spurs were knocked out of the 2006 NBA Playoffs by his former team one year after he made the switch. During the series, Finley was punched below the belt by former teammate Jason Terry during Game 5, which earned the Maverick a suspension for the next game of the series.
In the fifth and final game of San Antonio's first-round series against Denver in 2007, Finley set the Spurs' record for three-point field goals in a playoff game, shooting 8/9 from beyond the arc. He eclipsed the previous record of 7 set by teammate Bruce Bowen in 2003.
Finley won an NBA championship in 2007 with the San Antonio Spurs in his 12th NBA season. He was given the "game ball" by his teammates, and specifically mentioned in post-game interviews by Robert Horry and Tim Duncan. Out of the original Trio from the Dallas Mavericks, he became the first to achieve a title, surpassing the current NBA MVP, Nowitzki and previous two-time winner, Nash.
