Greg Kite was part of two championships with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s.
He was a strong backup center who was ready to play, and foul and provide some rebounds, when needed to.
Born in Houston, Texas, Greg Kite would play high school basketball there before attending Brigham Young University for four years.
At BYU, Kite had a rapid development from his first to second seasons, going from 1.9 points per game to 8.3 points per game which would end up being his highest average during his college career. At 6-11 and 250 pounds, Kite could guard the paint and make it tough on opposition centers to score.
The Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns made a trade which was mainly about guard Dennis Johnson joining Boston and center Rick Robey going to the Suns.
The Celtics did get a star guard in the deal but lost some of the height from their roster. The trade also included a late first rounder going to Boston while two second round picks went from Boston to Phoenix. It was with the first round pick in the deal that Boston would select Greg Kite.
In his rookie season, Kite joined a Boston team that started Robert Parish, Cedric Maxwell and Larry Bird and would also have Kevin McHale coming off the bench and McHale played all 82 games with 31.4 minutes per game at power forward and center.
There were few minutes available for Kite, he did start one game during the season and for his 35 games he averaged 5.6 minutes. Kite got a couple of points and a couple of rebounds per game.
The Celtics won the 1984 and 1986 NBA titles with Kite on the bench. He was valuable depth for the Celtics. The 1986 team had Walton as well, he stayed healthy that year so Kite wasn’t needed to play a lot.
The 1987-88 season would be the last for Kite in Boston. The Celtics had other bench options to use behind Bird, McHale and Parish and these included Fred Roberts, Darren Daye, Brad Lohaus, Mark Acres and big veteran Artis Gilmore. Kite was waived by Boston and would join the Clippers. Kite would then sign with the Charlotte Hornets and then the Sacramento Kings.
The Orlando Magic were a new expansion team in the NBA and, before the days of Shaquille O’Neal, needed some size in the paint. In August of 1990 Kite signed with the Magic as a free agent. He would start all 82 games in the 1990-91 season. Playing 27.1 minutes per game he averaged around 5 points and 5 rebounds per game, along with a block and 3.6 fouls.
Kite would play four seasons with the Magic before ending his career with brief stops in New York and Indiana.
Fans of basketball might be surprised how much Kite did play in the NBA. With 10,080 total minutes in his 680 games, including 225 starts, Kite had a long career.
Teams knew they weren’t going to get a lot of scoring from Greg Kite but he gave them strength in the paint, as well as 1,589 total fouls over his career. The amount of fouls was just a bit less than his total points, 1,717. One offensive highlight would have been the three-pointer he hit while playing with the Kings, it was the only time he hit a shot from outside the arc.