Rashard Lewis

NBA career

Lewis bypassed college after being recruited by Florida State, Kansas, and Houston, entering the 1998 NBA draft. The Seattle SuperSonics selected him with the 32nd overall pick, and he was the last player remaining in the green room. After the Sonics acquired Ray Allen, Lewis and Allen made Seattle a contender in the early 2000s. In 2001, he won a gold medal with the United States Basketball Team at the Goodwill Games.

On October 31, 2003, Lewis scored a career-high 50 points in a win over the Los Angeles Clippers in Saitama, Japan. He was named an All-Star in the 2004-05 season. Lewis holds the SuperSonics' record for most three-pointers made, passing Dale Ellis on November 22, 2005, and Gary Payton on March 13, 2007, when he made his 918th three-pointer against the Detroit Pistons. After nine seasons with Seattle, Lewis joined the Orlando Magic in July 2007 via a six-year sign-and-trade deal worth $118 million.

He moved from small forward to power forward and made 53 more three-pointers than his previous single-season record. In the 2008 playoffs, the Magic reached the second round, and Lewis scored 33 points in Orlando's only win of the series against the Pistons. He was the Magic's top scorer in the playoffs, setting personal records in points, rebounds, and assists. In the 2008-09 season, Lewis was the team's second leading scorer and earned an All-Star appearance.

During the 2009 playoffs, he hit a game-winning shot in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, which he called the biggest shot of his career. The Magic advanced to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. On August 6, 2009, Lewis was suspended without pay for the first ten games of the 2009-10 season after testing positive for a banned substance taken during the 2008-09 season. The over-the-counter supplement he took contained Dehydroepiandrosterone, used to combat fatigue.