William Percey Wennington (born April 26, 1963) is a Canadian former professional basketball player who won three National Basketball Association (NBA) NBA Finals with the Chicago Bulls. A center, he represented Canada in the 1984 Olympics and 1983 World University Games, where the team won gold. He was also on the Canadian team that narrowly missed qualification for the 1992 Olympics. Wennington has been inducted into the Quebec Basketball Hall of Fame and the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.
Amateur career
Born in
Montreal, Wennington later attended New York City's Long Island Lutheran Middle and High School, where he played under coach
Bob McKillop, and led the Crusaders to, at one time, a No. 1 ranking in the northeast region, and a top 10 ranking in the nation. He then was recruited to St. John's University, and he played on one NCAA
Final Four team under basketball coach
Lou Carnesecca.
Professional career
He was drafted 16th in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft by the
Dallas Mavericks, where he played his first several seasons. Wennington made his NBA debut on October 29, 1985.
On June 26, 1990, he was traded to the
Sacramento Kings along with two 1990 first-round draft picks in exchange for Rodney McCray and two future second-round draft picks.
Before signing as a free agent with the Chicago Bulls in 1993, he spent a few years in Italy playing for Virtus Bologna from Bologna. In 1998, Chicago-area McDonald's restaurants sold a sandwich named after Wennington called the Beef Wennington.[Elliott Harris. "Beefing up his role - Bulls' Wennington latest burger celebrity". Chicago Sun-Times. March 8, 1998. Sports, 14.] After the break-up of the highly successful Chicago Bulls of the 1990s, Wennington played his final NBA season with the Sacramento Kings.
Post-basketball career
After his playing career ended, Wennington became a radio color commentator for the Bulls.
Wennington was inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005.
Wennington featured in the 2020 docuseries The Last Dance.
Career stats
NBA
Source
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 56||3||10.0||.471||.000||.726||2.4||.4||.3||.4||3.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 58||0||9.7||.424||.000||.750||2.2||.4||.2||.2||2.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 30||0||4.2||
.510||.500||.632||1.3||.1||.2||.3||2.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 65||9||16.5||.433||.111||.744||4.4||.7||.2||.5||4.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 60||2||13.6||.449||.000||.800||3.3||.7||.3||.4||4.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Sacramento
|
77||
23||
18.9||.436||.200||.787||4.4||
.9||
.6||
.8||5.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 76||0||18.0||.488||.000||.818||
4.6||
.9||
.6||.4||
7.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 73||1||13.1||.492||.000||.810||2.6||.5||.3||.2||5.0
|-
| style="text-align:left; background:#afe6ba;"| †
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 71||20||15.0||.493||
1.000||.860||2.5||.6||.3||.2||5.3
|-
| style="text-align:left; background:#afe6ba;"| †
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 61||19||12.8||.498||.000||.830||2.1||.7||.2||.2||4.6
|-
| style="text-align:left; background:#afe6ba;"| †
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 48||8||9.7||.436||–||.810||1.7||.4||.1||.1||3.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 38||3||11.9||.348||
1.000||.818||2.1||.5||.3||.3||3.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Sacramento
| 7||0||8.1||.316||–||
1.000||2.7||.1||.3||.3||2.0
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 720 || 88 || 13.5 || .459 || .139 || .787 || 3.0 || .6 || .3 || .3 || 4.6
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1986
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 6 || 0 || 3.0 || .333 ||
1.000 ||
1.000 || .8 || .0 || .0 || .0 || 1.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1987
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 4 || 0 || 11.8 || .500 || – || .600 || 2.5 ||
1.0 || .0 ||
.8 || 3.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1988
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 6 || 0 || 2.3 || .000 || – || – || .7 || .2 || .2 || .0 || .0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1990
| style="text-align:left;"| Dallas
| 3 || 0 || 8.3 || .200 || – || – || 1.0 || .3 || .0 || .3 || .7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1994
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 7 || 0 || 6.7 || .500 || – || .667 || 1.0 || .6 || .0 || .1 || 1.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1995
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 10 || 0 ||
13.3 || .412 || – ||
1.000 ||
2.8 || .3 || .3 || .3 ||
4.8
|-
| style="text-align:left; background:#afe6ba;"|1996†
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
|
18 || 0 || 9.4 || .520 || .000 || .500 || 1.7 || .5 || .2 || .1 || 3.0
|-
| style="text-align:left; background:#afe6ba;"|1998†
| style="text-align:left;"| Chicago
| 16 || 0 || 7.4 ||
.526 || – || .500 || .9 || .2 ||
.4 || .1 || 2.8
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 70 || 0 || 8.2 || .459 || .500 || .679 || 1.4 || .4 || .2 || .2 || 2.5
See also
-
List of Montreal athletes
-
List of famous Montrealers
External links
