The 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), 180 lb (82 kg) guard played three seasons in NBA, making stops in Cleveland, Houston, Golden State, and Boston.

Minniefield, who has been sober since the early 1990s, told a group of top high school prospects in 2007 that "My younger kids have never seen me take a drink.

He admitted to having carried a vial of cocaine with him regularly during his senior year at UK, and frequently took hits of the drug before games.

[1] Most notably, he admitted in 2007 that he and several teammates had gone to a park in Knoxville, Tennessee the night before Kentucky's showdown with Louisville in the 1983 NCAA Mideast Regional final and smoked marijuana.

He returned to Lexington, but wound up serving a year in jail after writing bad checks and violating probation on those charges.

"[1] After treatment, Minniefield worked as transportation manager—according to him, "A better word is van driver"—for the San Antonio Spurs while Lucas was coach.

He would go on to be a head coach/general manager in the United States Basketball League (USBL) for the Miami Tropics (a team that Lucas owned) and serve as the Spurs' strength and conditioning coach.

When Lucas left for the Philadelphia 76ers, Minniefield took a job as a drug counselor with the NBA to enable him to stay in Houston.