T.J. Ford

Terrance Jerod Ford is a professional basketball player from the United States of America who plays as a point guard. Ford attended the Willowridge High School where he became something of a legend. In his Junior and Senior years at the school, Ford ensured that the team had a 75-1 record over the two years, one that included an incredible 62-game winning streak. He helped his team win the Texas Class 5A state title, two years in a row, because of this amazing run.

After getting out of high school, Ford was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and began his college career at the University of Texas at Austin. With the Texas Longhorns, Ford played every game in his freshman year and led the team in steals and minutes. However, he became famous as the first freshman in the history of the NCAA to lead the conference in assists after averaging at 8.27 per game in his first season.

Ford took the Longhorns to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament and ensured that he led the way with an incredible 15 games with double-digit assists. He was aptly awarded the Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year title.
The following year, as a sophomore, Ford was third in the country in terms of assists with an average of 7.7 per game. Along with his incredible passing play, Ford also led the Longhorns in shooting and steals, along with assists. Under Ford’s guidance and vision on court, the Longhorns reached the Final Four of the NCAA for the first time since 1947. The year was riddled with awards for Ford.

He was named as the South Regional MVP and at the end of the season, made it to a consensus All-American First Team selection. He also won the Naismith College Player of the Year award as well as the John Wooden trophy. Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News, CBS SportsLine and ESPN.com, all named him Player of the Year. Ford decided to forego his remaining two years in college and declared for the NBA draft.

The Milwaukee Bucks picked T.J. at 8th overall, at the 2003 NBA Draft. In his honour, the University of Texas at Austin decided to retire his jersey to make him the fourth player from the college to receive this honour.

Ford had many injury problems related to his earlier back condition, ever since he joined the Bucks. Despite that, he led the Bucks in assists per game, with 6.5, and was scoring at 7.1 points per game. Playing only 55 games in the season, he was picked for the All-NBA Rookie Team, but only on the second team. His injury forced him to miss the final 26 games in the regular season as well as the 2004 NBA Playoffs. He hurt himself after a bad landing on his tailbone, against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

His sophomore season was spent entirely in trying to get back to playing fitness after a career threatening injury to his spinal cord. In June, 2005, Ford released a statement stating his intent to get back to the first team after making a complete recovery. Ford trained with John Lucas, a former NBA player and worked on his shooting, stamina and strength. Ford went back to the training camp with the Bucks and by November, made his return on court against the Philadelphia 76ers. His return was incredible as he ended with 16 points, 14 assists and 9 rebounds, one rebound short of a triple-double.

Ford began rapidly improving through the remainder of the season and it never seemed like he had been on the Disabled List. Despite a change in the playing pattern by abandoning the fast-paced offense, Ford scored at 12.2 points per game with 6.6 assists. Mo Williams, the point guard who was being trained to play in the team’s new format was now becoming the main point guard with Ford being left in the background.

In 2005-06, the Toronto Raptors underwent a major overhaul to their lineup and Ford was pulled in, in exchange for Charlie Villanueva. Ford’s injury history brought a lot of bad press with the trade however, with Chris Bosh, Ford went about setting things right at the Raptors. Ford was again injured in mid-season and when signs of “We told you so” were coming out, Jose Calderon held up the offensive push as his replacement.

Ford quickly gained a reputation of being the “go-to” man in crunch situations, especially in the final minute of games. In December 2006, he scored the winning shot against the LA Clippers, following it up two days later with incredible, almost 100%, shooting in overtime against the Portland Trailblazers. He then had another great overtime period against the Seattle Supersonics after scoring almost all the team’s points in the OT period.

Ford would go on to make 18 assists in a game against the New York Knicks, one short of the Franchise record of 19, by Damon Stoudamire. In 2006-07, Ford would play the regular season at 14.0 points per game with 7.9 assists, setting career high averages in each. He took the Raptors to their first playoff place in 5 years and helped the team win their first division title, averaging 16.0 points per game with 4.0 assists per game. Despite this, the Raptors would go out to the Knicks in the first round itself.

In 2007-08, Ford and Calderon had developed an excellent rotation system, supervised by coach Sam Mitchell. However, in December, Ford suffered a terrible foul by Al Horford, in a game against the Atlanta Hawks. Strapped to a stretcher, Ford was carried off the court and that gave Calderon a chance to grab the top spot, one he took with both hands. Ford, meanwhile, was back with John Lucas, building up his game again and in February 2008, he made his return to the team, albeit to the bench.
Ford was now playing second fiddle to Calderon and that meant that there were signs that he would be traded out of Toronto.

Despite two poor performances in the 2008 playoffs, he came back strongly against the Magic in Game 3, helping the team get its first win in the series. Ford, and the Raptors, were eliminated by the Magic and he refused to play backup to Calderon, leading to his trade.
Jermaine O’Neal came to the Raptors in exchange of Terrance Ford, who went out to the Indiana Pacers, on the eve of the 2008 NBA Draft. Ford took to his new team quite well, playing along with Jarrett Jack, in rotation for the starting place. Despite some minor injuries, Ford was quite impressive in his first season with the Pacers and even went on to score a career-high 36 points against the New York Knicks.

Outside of basketball, Ford started the T.J. Ford Foundation in September 2004 to help individuals by providing them programs to improve their academic, physical and general well-being conditions.

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