Michael Ruffin

Who is Michael Ruffin?

Michael David Ruffin is an American former professional basketball player. At 6'8" and 248 lbs, he played as a forward/center.

After playing college basketball at the University of Tulsa, where he studied chemical engineering, Ruffin was drafted in the second round of the 1999 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. He has played for the Bulls, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Utah Jazz, the Washington Wizards, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Portland Trail Blazers. He averaged 1.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game through his NBA career and is considered to be a defensive presence on the court.

Michael Ruffin committed a costly error for his team in the dying seconds of a March 30, 2007 game against the Toronto Raptors. With his Washington Wizards up 109–106 with 3.8 seconds left, Ruffin intercepted a Raptors half-court inbounds pass, only to heave the ball in the air to try to allow the remaining time left on the clock to run out, but the ball was not thrown high enough and the Raptors' Morris Peterson caught the ball on its descent and made a 31-foot three-point shot at the buzzer to tie the score and send the game into overtime. The Raptors went on to defeat the Wizards, 123–118.