Rucker Park streetball shaped him — the Brooklyn kid's playground nickname was Mel The Abuser — before junior college and Iowa State, where he was Big 12 Player of the Year and led the Cyclones to the 2000 Elite Eight. As a Pacers rookie in 2001 he posted a five-by-five, and Indiana was his home for eight seasons until the front office froze him out, shipping his belongings to Atlanta before the players' union filed a grievance on his behalf.
The Jazz gave him the closing chapter: signed in December 2011 after he went first overall in the D-League draft, he ran backup point in Utah into 2013, finishing an 11-season NBA career.
HOW HE CAME & WENTUtah signed him on December 12, 2011 to back up Devin Harris. The Jazz brought him back on October 26, 2013 after Trey Burke broke a finger — we need a point guard, said Ty Corbin — and waived him on November 12.
No photograph of this signature is online yet.
| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011–12 | UTA | 37 | 13.7 | 3.7 | 1.2 | 3.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | .404 | .270 | .765 |
| 2012–13 | UTA | 66 | 18.5 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 4.4 | 1.0 | 0.2 | .368 | .307 | .692 |
| 2013–14 | UTA | 8 | 13.8 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 2.9 | 0.3 | 0.0 | .200 | .067 | — |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 3 SEASONS | 111 | 16.6 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 3.9 | 0.7 | 0.2 | .372 | .279 | .721 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗