Glen Rice won NCAA, NBA championships; Where is he now?
(BVM) — Glen Rice was a winner at the highest levels of basketball. Over a decade after capturing a national title with the University of Michigan, he became an NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers. Now almost 20 years removed from his professional playing career, the game still plays a big part in his life. What is he up to these days?
From Arkansas to Michigan
The 6-foot-8 sharpshooter was born in Jacksonville, Arkansas. His family stayed in the state for a little over a decade. They relocated to Flint, Michigan when Rice was 12 years old. He would attend Flint Northwestern and become a hoops star for the Wildcats.
That earned him a spot on the University of Michigan basketball team. His college career began in 1985. And Rice quickly progressed, as his scoring average jumped nearly ten points per game from his freshman to sophomore season.
As a junior, he posted 22.1 points per game. As a senior, Glen scored 25.6 points per contest and tallied a terrific .516 3-point field goal percentage. Rice led the Big Ten in scoring each of those seasons. Plus he topped the conference in 3-pointers his final season at Michigan. He’s the all-time leader in points at U of M.
Rice added a number of accolades during his tenure in Ann Arbor. He got awarded All-Big Ten first-team honors in both 1987-88 and 1988-89. He won Big Ten Player of the Year and the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award in 1989. Michigan would win it all that year. He was on his way to the NBA.
NCAA champ to the NBA
The Miami Heat picked Rice fourth overall in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft. He played for Miami until 1995 and notched 19.3 points per game. Rice would make five more stops in his 15-year NBA career before it was over. One such stop was the Los Angeles Lakers where he became an NBA champion in 2000.
HBD GLEN RICE 🔥
NCAA Champion
NBA Champion
3-Point Champion
All-Star Game MVPBest Games With
Heat: 56 (20/27 FG)
Hornets: 48 (18/27 FG)
Lakers: 40 (14/20 FG)— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 29, 2021
His final season concluded in 2004 as a member of the L.A. Clippers. Several years passed as Rice cultivated his growing interest in mixed martial arts.
Post-NBA life
In 2008, Rice launched G-Force Promotions, a fledgling MMA promotion based in Florida. Yet unlike other pro athletes, he wasn’t compelled to step inside the cage. G-Force went on for the next few years then stopped in 2011. The former baller remains in Florida but has returned back to the hardwood.
He has taken up roles as a scout and team ambassador for the Miami Heat. To add, Rice even works during the summer as a “shooting specialist” at Heat basketball camps. As an ambassador, last month, he traveled to Mexico City as Miami met the San Antonio Spurs at Mexico City Arena on December 16.
What’s more, he holds a yearly celebrity golf tournament to benefit charity. Most recently, Rice and friends raised funds for Community Health of South Florida Inc. (CHI). In May 2022, they helped fund the inaugural Children’s Crisis Center in South Florida.
With a major league lineup of ex-MLB stars including pitchers Livan Hernandez and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, Rice and co. raised almost $100,000 for the cause. The cause means a lot to Rice. It’s his mission to spread awareness of their efforts and the countless benefits it brings.
The facility will offer mental health care to kids aged 17 and under. That is, without financial consideration — whether they can pay or not.
Rice not only made his mark on the Miami Heat but also on the rest of his community.
