If you have a disability, and you're letting that disability affect your performance, you make excuses, football was the first thing [where] I didn't want to make excuses for this. I just want to play.

Derrick Coleman

Derrick D. Coleman is a retired American basketball player in the NBA. Coleman was born in Mobile, Alabama but grew up and attended high school in Detroit, Michigan and attended college at Syracuse University. He was selected first overall in the 1990 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets. Throughout his career, the left-handed Coleman was an effective low post scorer, averaging 16.5 points and 9.3 rebounds. He enjoyed his best years as a member of the New Jersey Nets, where he averaged 19.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. When Coleman entered the NBA, he was compared to elite power forwards such as Karl Malone and Charles Barkley, and expected to put up similar numbers, only with the added ability to shoot from three-point range. Instead, his career was overshadowed by numerous injuries and attitude problems. Sports Illustrated once remarked that "Coleman could have been the best power forward ever; instead he played just well enough to ensure his next paycheck." His Syracuse jersey number, 44, was retired on March 5, 2006. As of 2007, he was working as a developer and entrepreneur in Detroit, Michigan.

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