Matt Steigenga was the first Grand Rapids-area winner of Michigan’s Mr. Basketball Award playing for South Christian High, then starred at Michigan State University and was drafted by the NBA’s Chicago Bulls as part of a nine-year professional playing career.
Steigenga, born in Grand Rapids in 1970, served notice of athletic achievements ahead when he was an NFL Punt, Pass, and Kick winner at age nine.
At South Christian, Mr. Basketball led the Sailors to a Class B state championship in his senior season of 1988 and was named a McDonald’s All-American. He was heavily recruited and won the dunk contest at the McDonald’s All-American Game by leaping and dunking over a person seated in a chair. The 6-foot-7 forward picked Michigan State and Coach Jud Heathcote over recruiting pitches from Duke, North Carolina, and many others.
At Michigan State, despite being hampered by foot injuries through his career, he averaged 10.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game over his four years. He was the Spartans 11th all-time leading scorer at the close of his career with 1,296 points and also the school’s leading career shot blocker at that point with 97. In 1990 he was part of a Big Ten Championship team that reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. He was also an academic All-American.
During his MSU career, Heathcote brought Steigenga and the Spartans to South Christian High for an intra-squad scrimmage and a play off the opening tip was planned for a Steigenga homecoming dunk. It worked too well. He shattered the backboard with a thunderous dunk and turned the visit into an autograph session when the game was stopped after just seconds of play.
The Chicago Bulls made him their second-round pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, No. 52 overall, and he would move between the CBA and the Bulls twice in his career in 1996-97 and again in 1999. He officially played in two NBA games with a dunk as his only field goal, but he did receive an NBA Championship ring for being part of the 1997 champions in training camp and for parts of the season. He also went through training camp with the Atlanta Hawks in 1995.
He was a journeyman otherwise, with stops in Spain and Japan in addition to playing for his hometown CBA team, the Grand Rapids Hoops, the Rochester Renegade, Quad City Thunder and Rockford Lightning.
At the international level, 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.
After his playing career, he started a business career in commercial real-estate investments and as of 2020 was serving as a radio analyst for the Spartan Sports Network.