Antonio Graves

Antonio Graves
Player information
Full name	Antonio Dapreis Graves
birthday	April 17, 1985 (35 years 137 days)
place of birth	Mansfield , Ohio , United States
size	191 cm
position	Shooting Guard
college	Pittsburgh
Club information
society	Fraport Skyliners
league	Basketball Bundesliga
Clubs as active
2003–2007 Pittsburgh Panthers ( NCAA ) 2007 Pittsburgh Xplosion ( CBA ) 2008 EB Pau-Orthez 2008–2009 Galatasaray Café Crown 2009 KK Cibona Zagreb 2010 Hapoel Holon 2010–2011 Banvit BK Bandırma 2011–2012 Canton Charge 2012–2013 Giorgio Tesi Pistoia 2013 –2015 Artland Dragons 2016 Crailsheim Merlins Since 2016 Fraport Skyliners 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 0

Antonio Dapreis Graves (born April 17, 1985 in Mansfield , Ohio ) is an American basketball player . After studying in his home country, Graves turned pro and played in US minor leagues and European leagues. After he won the Legadue championship and promotion to the top Italian division Lega Basket Serie A with Giorgio Tesi Pistoia in 2013 , he played the following two seasons for the German first division club Artland Dragons. After his withdrawal, Graves returned to the top German division in early 2016 and has been playing for the Crailsheim Merlins ever since.

Career

After graduating from school in his hometown, Graves received a scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh in 2003 , where he played for four years for the Panthers college team in the old Big East Conference of the NCAA . In 2004 the Panthers , in which Carl Krauser and "Junior" Chevon Troutman also played two later basketball Bundesliga professionals, lost as defending champions the new edition of the previous year's final in the Big East championship tournament against the huskies of the University of Connecticut . In the national NCAA finals they reached the last sixteen Sweet Sixteen , as in the previous year , which was lost to the Cowboys of Oklahoma State University . In the following year 2005 you could not maintain this level and already lost in the first round of the NCAA championship. 2006 they stood again in the final of the Big East championship tournament, which this time was lost to the Orangemen of Syracuse University . In the second round of the NCAA finals tournament, however, they lost to the surprise team Braves of Bradley University . A year later Graves lost with the Panthers for the third time a final game of the Big East tournament, this time against the Hoyas of Georgetown University . In the NCAA finals they saved themselves in the second round, which was lost to the favored UCLA Bruins . While Graves' teammate Aaron Gray was selected in the NBA Draft 2007 , this was not considered by the clubs of the highest endowed professional league NBA .

After finishing his studies, Graves initially stayed in Pittsburgh and played on the local professional team Xplosion in the minor league CBA , where he wanted to recommend himself for higher tasks. After the restart of this league in 2001, it found itself in crisis again after it had grown into serious competition with the NBA Development League (D-League). Before the CBA was finally closed in 2009, Graves had already taken the opportunity at the turn of the year 2007/2008 to sign a contract in Europe. From January 2008 he played in LNB Pro A for the traditional club Élan Béarnais from Pau in southwest France . Despite good individual performances from Graves, who scored 20 points per game and was named Player of the Month for February 2008, the nine-time champion missed out on the play-offs for the championship in ninth place . In the 2008/09 season Graves then played in the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi for Galatasaray Café Crown from Istanbul . However, Galatasaray clearly lost fourth in the main round in the play-off semi-final series against local rivals and eventual title winners Efes Pilsen . In the 2009/10 season Graves played in Croatia for KK Cibona from Zagreb , for which he also participated in the highest European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2009/10 . In November 2009, however, Graves fell out with club management and coach Velimir Perasović , which is why he finally played from January 2010 in the highest Israeli league Ligat ha'Al for Hapoel from Cholon . However, the 2008 champions ended the season after only six wins in 22 games in the bottom of the table and relegated.

For the 2010/11 season, Graves returned to Turkey and played in Bandırma for Banvit BK. After the third main round place and the historically best placement in the preseason, the club played for the first time in a European Cup competition of the ULEB . In the Eurocup 2010/11 , however, they were eliminated after the preliminary round. After problems with the calf at the beginning of the season, Graves was far less productive at Banvit than two years earlier at Galatasaray and from the end of January 2011 could no longer play a game for the club due to injury. In the D-League of the 2011/12 season Graves tried a fresh start with the Charge from Canton (Ohio) , but he could not play a prominent role in this team. Therefore, he went back to Europe for the 2012/13 season, where he played in the second Italian league Legadue for the Giorgio Tesi Group Baskets from Pistoia . After losing the final of the second division cup , they won the main round runner-up in the play-offs for promotion to the top division, which the predecessor club Olimpia Pistoia had belonged to for seven years in the 1990s. For the basketball Bundesliga 2013/14 Graves got a contract with the German first division club Artland Dragons from Quakenbrück . After an early elimination in the extended Eurocup 2013/14 , the team reached the play-offs for the national championship in seventh place, in which the defending champion Brose Baskets , who had previously won the championship four times in a row, was dethroned in the first round . In the play-off semi-final series, after a tough battle, they lost to the cup winner Alba Berlin in four games . In the following season, they failed again early in the Eurocup and after a disappointing season in eleventh place even missed the play-offs of the basketball Bundesliga 2014/15 . After the end of the season, the main sponsor and patron withdrew his engagement and the club completely reorganized itself, for which purpose he withdrew the team from the top division to the third division ProB . Graves initially remained without a new contract before signing with the relegation-threatened first division club Merlins from Crailsheim at the end of February 2016 . Crailsheim finished the season in 18th place and was relegated to the 2nd ProA basketball division .

At the beginning of September 2016, the Fraport Skyliners announced that they would sign Graves. He receives a contract until mid-January with an option until the end of the season.

Web links

• easyCredit BBL - Antonio Graves - player profile on the easyCredit Basketball-Bundesliga website
• GRAVES, ANTONIO - Profile on the Eurocup website ( English )
• Antonio Graves - player profile on basketball-reference.com
• Antonio Graves Bio - Profile on the University of Pittsburgh Sports Websites

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Antonio Graves - Pau-Orthez - Joueurs - Pro A. Ligue Nationale de Basket , accessed on June 3, 2014 (French, player profile). 
2. ^ Antonio Graves - Turkish Basketball League Player. TBLStat.net, accessed June 3, 2014 (English, player profile). 
3. ^ Cibona coach furious over Graves. Croatian Times: croatianTimes.com, November 26, 2009, archived from the original on June 6, 2014 ; accessed on June 3, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Gokhan Ture: Banvit BK vs. Le Mans Sarthe - Game Report. ULEB , September 21, 2010, accessed June 3, 2014 (English, match report). 
5. ↑ Michael Wiedmann: Welcome to Crailsheim, Antonio Graves! Crailsheim Merlins , February 26, 2016, accessed on April 3, 2016 (media information). 
6. ↑ FRAPORT SKYLINERS sign Antonio Graves / Philip Scrubb has to take a break | FRAPORT SKYLINERS. (No longer available online.) In: www.fraport-skyliners.de. Archived from the original on September 11, 2016 ; accessed on September 5, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.