Anthony Tolliver has been playing professional basketball since 2007, and in his 11 seasons in the NBA, which are still counted, he has played for more than a dozen teams, including the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Atlanta Hawks, the Charlotte Bobcats, the Phoenix Suns, the Detroit Pistons and others. Before his NBA career, Tolliver played college basketball in Creighton and also played for the German basketball club Eisbären Bremerhaven. Read on to learn more about him.
Anthony Tolliver Biography
Tolliver is the son of Donna Lewis and Johnny Tolliver and was born on the first day (June 1, 1985) in Springfield, Missouri. He has six siblings (all sisters).
For school, Anthony attended Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri, where he played Division 1 basketball as one of 4 players from his high school team. During the senior season, which ended in 2002, his high school team was named Missouri Class 5A State Champions and ranked 12th in the nation’s top rankings by USA Today. In the fall of 2002, Anthony Tolliver signed up to play for Creighton.
As a rookie, he played as a reserve for players like Joe Dabbert, Mike Grimes, and Brody Deren, who played in twenty-seven games this season. As a sophomore, he started in thirty of the team’s thirty-four games, including a game against Missouri State in the 2005 MVC Tournament Championship, where he scored eight points and seven rebounds. The game ended with a 75-57 win.
As a junior, Tolliver won all MVC honors on the second team, while as a senior international he was named a finalist for Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, the first team all MVC, and Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major All-America. He also helped his team return to the NCAA tournament, and in the game against Nevada (in the first round of the NCAA tournament), which happened to be his last game as a college student, Anthony Tolliver scored 1,000 points – the most incredible way to end a college career.
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Anthony Tolliver NBA Career
Tolliver spent the 2007 preseason with the Cleveland Cavaliers after he scored 6.4 rebounds and an average of 11.5 points per game for the NBA Development League team Iowa Energy in the preseason without a draft and for much of the regular season. He later played briefly for the German basketball club Eisbären Bremerhaven before the San Antonio Spurs signed him in July 2008.
In the early part of the season, Anthony shared his playing time between San Antonio and the D-League team Austin. He played 11 games with San Antonio before being sent to the Austin Toros where he played 6 games and averaged 7.8 rebounds and 17.8 points. He was scheduled to play 8 more games with San Antonio before re-signing with Iowa in January 2009, before leaving for New Orleans on a 10-day contract after 3 games with San Antonio.
He returned to Iowa after the expiration of the 10-day contract, which was not renewed. Not long after that, he signed with Galatasaray Café Crown of the TBL. In December 2009 he played for the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League, later he was signed by the Portland Trail Blazers, but he only played four games for the Blazers before he was released to return to Idaho.
In January 2010 he signed a ten-day contract with the Golden State Warriors, after the original ten-day contract expired, the contract was extended and Tolliver remained on the team until the end of the 2009/10 season. At the end of the season, he averaged 7.3 rebounds and 12.3 points per game. In the 2010 post-season, he signed a 2-year contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves worth $4.5 million.
In the 2012/2013 season he was with the Atlanta Hawks, the next season (2013/2014) with the Charlotte Bobcats, and in July 2014 with the Phoenix Suns, where he stayed for the rest of the 2014/2015 season, averaging 0.8 rebounds and 3.3 points per game.
Anthony Tolliver was transferred to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Tony Mitchell and was later to play for the Sacramento Kings after the Kings relinquished him in January 2017. He went back to the Pistons until July 2018 when the Minnesota Timberwolves signed him.
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Who is Anthony Tolliver’s Wife? – Family
Since 2011 Tolliver is happily married to his wife Jessica Svoboda. The couple met at Creighton University during orientation in the first year of study. They became friends and as they say: “the rest is history.” The couple has two wonderful children together.
When asked when and how he wants to die, Anthony said that he wants to die lying next to Jessica at the age of ninety. He would prefer them to go together, but only if ‘she’s ready for it,’” he quickly added.
His Height and Weight
The small striker stands at a height of 2.03 m (6 ft 7 in) and weighs 109 kg (240 pounds), which fits his size pretty well. Undoubtedly, his success on the basketball court is due in large part to his physical attributes.
