Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

Michael Anthony Edward Kidd-Gilchrist is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Gilchrist attended basketball powerhouse St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, New Jersey and was considered as one of the best basketball players in the USA. In 2011, Gilchrist was named USA Today’s All-USA First Team, Mr. Basketball USA and McDonald's All-American Game Co-MVP. He was also a part of the gold medal-winning team in the FIBA U-17 World Championships in Hamburg, Germany.

Gilchrist decided to attend the University of Kentucky. In the 2011-12 season, Kidd-Gilchrist delivered his most dominating performance of the year against the Louisville Cardinals scoring 24 points and grabbing 19 boards. He also made 13 free throws and had zero turnovers leading Kentucky to a win. He helped Kentucky win the 2012 NCAA Championship. For the season, Gilchrist was named First-team All-SEC, All-SEC Defensive team, All-SEC Freshman team, NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team and Consensus second team All-American.

Kidd-Gilchrist was selected as the second overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Bobcats. In just the fifth game of his rookie season, Gilchrist scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 101–97 win over the Dallas Mavericks thus ending a 16-game, nine-year losing streak for the Hornets against the Mavericks. He backed this up with another 25 point, 12 rebound performance becoming only the second player to post two games with at least 25 points and at least 12 rebounds before the age of 20 and just the fourth player in 20 years to record two such games in the first 25 games of his career in NBA history.

Despite playing only 55 games due to a series of injuries in the 2014-15 season, Kidd-Gilchrist averaged personal bests in points (10.9) and rebounds (7.6). In 2015, Kidd-Gilchrist signed a four-year, $52 million contract extension with the Hornets. In the 2016-17 season, Kidd-Gilchrist was one of the players in the league to start at least 81 games. He finished the season with 9.2 points, a team-high 7.0 boards, and 1.4 dimes on 47.7 percent shooting per game to go along with career-best marks in free throws (78.4 percent), steals (1.0), blocks (1.0) and turnovers (0.7).