Matt Steigenga

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Matthew Todd Steigenga (born February 27, 1970 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is a retired professional basketball player. He was a 6'7, 220-40 lbs. power forward.

A second round pick of the Chicago Bulls in the 1992 NBA Draft, Steigenga was signed late in the 1996-97 season when the Bulls needed to fill an injury-depleted roster. He appeared in 2 games playing a total of 12 minutes and scoring 3 points. Athletic, he scored his only field goal on an alley oop dunk against the Toronto Raptors at the United Center. He again signed with the Bulls in January 1999 but was put on waivers a few weeks later without appearing in any games. Despite playing so little, Steigenga was awarded an NBA championship ring as the Bulls led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen won the 1997 NBA Championship. With his ultra-short career crowned with a championship ring, Steigenga had the opposite pro basketball fate to that of Karl Malone, who had an extremely long and successful NBA career but never won a ring.

As a collegian, Steigenga started his final 3 years at Michigan State University, averaging 10.5 ppg and 4.3 rpg in his four years. He finished the Spartans 11th all-time leading scorer and currently stands 17th with 1296 career points. He is the school's leading career shot blocker with 97. The Jud Heathcote coached Spartans won the 1990 Big Ten championship. As a high schooler, Steigenga starred for South Christian High School, leading them to the 1988 Michigan Class B title while being named Mr. Basketball of Michigan. In the year's McDonald's All American all-star game, Steigenga won the slam dunk contest.

Steigenga played the 1995-96 pre-season with the Atlanta Hawks but failed to make their regular season roster. He played the 1996-97 season with CBA's Quad-City Thunder and the '97-98, '98-99, and '99-00 seasons for the Rockford Lightning. Steigenga was on the silver-medalist 1999 Pan American Games US team. He was also a member of NBA Ambassador teams who played in league championships in South America during the summer of 1999 and China the following summer. He also played overseas for clubs in Spain and Japan.

He has been in the real estate business since retiring from the pros. He is currently a member of USA Basketball's Officials Committee.