Antonio Keithflen McDyess (born September 7, 1974, in Quitman, Mississippi) is an American professional basketball player. McDyess is listed at 6'9" (2.06 m), 245 lb. (111 kg) and is a power forward. He plays for the Detroit Pistons.
McDyess played college basketball at the University of Alabama. In 1995 he was drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers as the second pick in the NBA Draft and was traded to the Denver Nuggets before the season began for fellow power forward Rodney Rogers and a mid-first round pick that turned out to be Brent Barry. McDyess's explosive leaping and power dunking ability allowed him to average 17.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game over his first six seasons. In 1997, before his third year, McDyess was traded to the Phoenix Suns. He returned to the Nuggets as a free agent the next season. In 1999, McDyess became just the third Nugget to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds for a season, after Dan Issel in '77-78 and George McGinnis in '78-79. Considered an up and comer, the quiet McDyess was selected to be a part of the gold-winning U.S. Olympic men's basketball team at the 2000 Summer Olympics (as a replacement for injured Tim Duncan).
Early in the 2001-2002 season McDyess suffered a serious knee injury, a Patellar tendon rupture, that required season-ending surgery. McDyess struggled to play through the injury, re-aggravating it several times and going through additional surgeries over the next few seasons. He was sidelined due to injury for the remainder of the 2001-2002 season as well as the entire 2002-2003 NBA season. McDyess was traded to the Knicks on June 26, 20021 in exchange for Marcus Camby, Mark Jackson and the draft rights to Nene Hilario, the seventh overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. McDyess began the 2003–2004 season as a highly anticipated addition to the New York Knicks. But on October 8, 2003, with 1 minute 55 seconds left in an exhibition game against Phoenix, McDyess reinjured the knee while dunking a rebound.2 He would undergo another surgery four days later. McDyess was traded to the Phoenix Suns after just 18 games with the Knicks in an eight-player deal that brought Stephon Marbury to New York.3 He remained healthy while in Phoenix for the remainder of the 2003–2004 season and became an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2004. By then, McDyess had lost most of his explosiveness. Nevertheless, in the 2004 offseason, his knee was declared healthy and the Detroit Pistons signed him for the full mid-level exception.
As a member of the Pistons, McDyess was successful in reinventing his game. In his first season with the Pistons, McDyess became a dependable sixth man, averaging 9.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per 23.3 minutes. He relied mostly on mid-range and turn-around jumpers, but remained an efficient scorer, with a 51.3% FG% (ranked 13th in the NBA) in his first season with the Pistons. In 2007-08, following the departure of Chris Webber, McDyess became the Pistons' starting power forward.
On November 3, 2008, McDyess returned to the Denver Nuggets when he was traded, along with Chauncey Billups and Cheikh Samb, for Allen Iverson.4 He was released on November 10 and became a free agent after he cleared the 48-hour waiver window. Although McDyess was eligible to sign with any team except the Pistons, who must wait until December 7, 30 days from when all conditions to the trade were satisfied by the Nuggets and Pistons,5 his agent told the Associated Press that McDyess would rejoin the Pistons at the end of the 30-day period.6 McDyess re-signed with the Pistons on December 9.7 The 6-foot-9 forward/center averaged seven points and two rebounds in two games for Detroit before the trade. The 34-year-old Mississippi native signed with the Pistons after they won the 2004 NBA title and helped them reach the finals in his first season and conference finals in the next three.
