College

After graduating from Roosevelt Junior High School and then North Shore High School in West Palm Beach, Harper played three seasons for the Fighting Illini and coach Lou Henson having his best season in 1982-1983, when he led the Fighting Illini in scoring with 15.4 points per game. Harper was named First-Team All-Big Ten and Second-Team All-American in 1983, and was Honorable Mention All-Big Ten in both 1981 and 1982. Harper averaged 4.7 assists per game for his collegiate career, and led the Big Ten in assists in the 1981-1982 season. Harper was elected to the "Illini Men's Basketball All-Century Team" in 2004.

Professional

At 6 ft 4 in, Harper was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the 11th overall pick of the 1983 NBA draft. He spent his first ten seasons with them, averaging 15 points and 6.1 assists. For almost the entire time in his first stint with the team, he was part of the starting backcourt tandem with All-Star shooting guard Rolando Blackman.

Harper was traded to the New York Knicks (where he was reunited with Blackman) 28 games into the 1993-94 season. The Knicks were looking for a defensive point guard to replace the injured Doc Rivers, who was sidelined for the rest the season. The shift sent him from a team that finished 13-69 to being an integral part of one that came within one game of winning the 1994 NBA Championship.

After one more season with the Knicks, Harper returned to Dallas in 1996-97, then played one season each with the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers traded him to the Detroit Pistons, but he retired without reporting to the team.

Harper played in 1199 regular season games in his career, tying him for 35th in NBA history (as of the 2013-14 NBA season). He retired having the eleventh most steals and the seventeenth most assists in NBA history. He is also the Mavericks' career leader in those categories. Harper is widely regarded as one of the best players to never have been selected to an All-Star game.

Post-career

Harper presently lives in Dallas with his family. He is now a game analyst for the Dallas Mavericks on their locally broadcast games. Beginning in fall 2005, he was the weekend sports anchor at KTXA serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex until the station ended its newscasts. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had earlier announced that Harper's jersey was to be retired during the 2013-2014 season, but later Cuban said that it would not be retired that season.

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1983-84	Dallas	82	1	20.9	.443	.115	.673	2.1	2.9	1.2	.3	5.7
1984-85	Dallas	82	1	27.0	.520	.344	.721	2.4	4.4	1.8	.5	9.6
1985-86	Dallas	79	39	27.2	.534	.235	.747	2.9	5.3	1.9	.3	12.2
1986-87	Dallas	77	76	33.2	.501	.358	.684	2.6	7.9	2.2	.3	16.0
1987-88	Dallas	82	82	37.0	.459	.313	.759	3.0	7.7	2.0	.4	17.0
1988-89	Dallas	81	81	36.6	.477	.356	.806	2.8	7.0	2.1	.5	17.3
1989-90	Dallas	82	82	36.7	.488	.371	.794	3.0	7.4	2.3	.3	18.0
1990-91	Dallas	77	77	37.4	.467	.362	.731	3.0	7.1	1.9	.2	19.7
1991-92	Dallas	65	64	34.6	.443	.312	.759	2.6	5.7	1.6	.3	17.7
1992-93	Dallas	62	60	34.0	.419	.393	.756	2.0	5.4	1.3	.3	18.2
1993-94	Dallas	28	28	31.9	.380	.352	.560	2.0	3.5	1.6	.1	11.6
1993-94	New York	54	27	24.3	.430	.367	.743	1.6	4.4	1.5	.1	8.6
1994-95	New York	80	80	34.0	.446	.363	.724	2.4	5.7	1.0	.1	11.5
1995-96	New York	82	82	35.3	.464	.372	.757	2.5	4.3	1.6	.1	14.0
1996-97	Dallas	75	29	29.5	.444	.341	.742	1.8	4.3	1.2	.2	10.0
1997-98	Orlando	66	45	26.7	.417	.360	.696	1.6	3.5	1.1	.2	8.6
1998-99	L. A. Lakers	45	29	24.9	.412	.368	.813	1.5	4.2	1.0	.1	6.9
Career		1,199	883	31.5	.463	.354	.745	2.4	5.5	1.6	.3	13.3

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1984	Dallas	10	-	22.6	.389	.375	.714	2.0	2.8	1.1	.2	5.0
1985	Dallas	4	0	33.0	.476	.333	.714	3.0	5.0	1.5	.3	6.5
1986	Dallas	10	10	34.8	.533	.571	.750	1.9	7.6	2.3	.0	13.4
1987	Dallas	4	4	30.8	.500	.222	.800	3.0	6.8	1.8	.0	16.5
1988	Dallas	17	17	35.4	.441	.250	.729	2.5	7.1	1.9	.3	13.5
1990	Dallas	3	3	39.7	.438	.313	.688	2.7	7.7	1.3	.0	19.3
1994	New York	23	22	32.6	.429	.341	.643	2.3	4.5	1.8	.0	11.4
1995	New York	11	11	35.3	.514	.574	.750	3.5	5.6	1.0	.1	14.3
1996	New York	8	8	36.6	.354	.314	.733	2.1	4.8	1.3	.1	10.0
1999	L. A. Lakers	7	0	16.1	.419	.100	.500	1.4	2.1	.3	.0	4.3
Career		97	75	31.9	.449	.365	.712	2.4	5.3	1.5	.1	11.3

[ Source: Wikipedia ]