Justin Gray

Justin Gray
Player information
Full name	Justin Eugene Gray
birthday	March 31, 1984
place of birth	Raleigh (NC), USA
size	188 cm
position	Point Guard / Shooting Guard
college	Wake Forest
Club information
society	Rilski athlete Samokov
league	NBL Bulgaria
Clubs as active
2002–2006 WFU Deamon Deacons ( NCAA ) 2006–2007 RBC Verviers-Pepinster 2007–2008 Dexia Mons-Hainaut 2008–2009 ČEZ Nymburk 2009–2010 Turów Zgorzelec 2010–2011 PAOK Saloniki 2011 BK Donezk 2011 Guangzhou FM 2011–2012 Fraport Skyliners 2012 EK Kavalas 2012–2013 Poitiers Basket 86 2013 Pertevniyal Istanbul 2014 Homenetmen Beirut 2014 Rilski Sportist Samokow 2014–2015 Apollon Limassol Since 2015 Zmoki Minsk 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 0

Justin Eugene Gray (born March 31, 1984 in Raleigh , North Carolina ) is an American basketball player . After studying in his home country, Gray did not make the leap into the highest endowed US professional league NBA , but played in various European leagues, including the basketball Bundesliga 2011/12 for the Fraport Skyliners from Frankfurt am Main .

Career

Before studying, Gray, who had previously attended West Charlotte High School in Charlotte, North Carolina , had a preparatory year at Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson , Virginia on the North Carolina border, where he and the future NBA All -Star and Olympic champion Carmelo Anthony played in one team. In 2002 he moved back to his home state North Carolina to study at Wake Forest University . Here he was, although he himself was the top scorer of the university team Deamon Deacons and was appointed to the first team of the five best players of the Atlantic Coast Conference , soon in the shadow of Chris Paul , who joined the team a year later and who later became Olympic champion in 2008 and 2012 with Carmelo Anthony . While he won the 2004 American Championships together with Chris Paul in the U21 national junior team, Paul registered for the 2005 NBA draft a year later , while Gray finished fifth with the U21 national team at the 2005 World Cup after you had to accept the only tournament defeat against Canada in the quarterfinals. A year later, Gray also signed up for the Entry Draft , but unlike many of his teammates from the junior selection such as Rajon Rondo , who was also after Gray at Oak Hill Academy, Marcus Williams or Rudy Gay was not selected. While another selection player like Allan Ray , who would later also play in the German basketball league, made the leap into the NBA via training camps and the NBA Summer League , Gray was also blocked this way.

Gray began his professional career in Europe in 2006 at the Royal Basket Club in Pepinster, Belgium . After a season he moved within Belgium to league rivals Dexia from Mons . They also took part in the FIBA EuroCup 2007/08 , where they just lost the final by one point. In international games there are no verifiable appearances from Gray, while his appearances for Dexia in national championship games are consistently reported. For the 2008/09 season, Gray moved to the Czech champions ČEZ Basketball from Nymburk , with whom he played in the 2008/09 Eurocup , but was eliminated in the preliminary round against the later quarter-finalists Iurbentia Bilbao and KK Hemofarm Vršac. Under coach Muli Katzurin , however, the national double was defended . For the 2009/10 season Gray moved to the Polish Tauron League to PGE Turów from Zgorzelec . The former Polish runner-up, however, retired prematurely as fifth in the main round in the play-off quarter- final series . Previously, like Nymburk, they were eliminated in the preliminary round of the Eurocup 2009/10 . The only victory in six preliminary round matches was against Panellinios Athens, who later participated in the Final Four .

Greece was also the target of Gray's next season 2010/11 in 2010, where he took part in the ULEB Eurocup for the third time in a row with PAOK from Thessaloniki and failed for the third time in a row with a team in the preliminary round when they narrowly faced a direct comparison CB Estudiantes lost. At the end of the season, Gray left the club and joined the Donetsk basketball club in the Basketball Superliga Ukraine in April 2011 , but with coach Saša Obradović he lost the national championship final against BK Budiwelnik Kiev . In the summer of 2011, Gray played in the National Basketball League of China, which is settled under the Chinese Basketball Association , for Guangzhou FM. At the beginning of the 2011/12 BBL season , his former coach Katzurin brought him to the Fraport Skyliners in Frankfurt, the German twin city of Guangzhou . In the six preliminary round defeats in the 2011/12 Eurocup of Frankfurt, Gray remained without use, otherwise his season was characterized by few missions and injuries. At the end of the season, the contract was dissolved by mutual agreement and Gray joined the Greek first division side Enosi Kalathosfairisis from Kavala in the A1 Ethniki for the rest of the season , who qualified for the championship play-offs as sixth in the main round.

In the 2012/13 season Gray was initially under contract with the French first division club Union Poitiers Basket 86 in the LNB Pro A , but after this contract was terminated prematurely, he moved to the second Turkish division to Pertevniyal in Istanbul . The following season he went to Lebanon and played for the first division returnee Homenetmen from Beirut . After four missions in February 2014, he went to the Bulgarian first division club Rilski Sportist from Samokow .

Web links

• Gray, Justin - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB (English)
• Players - Justin Eugene Gray (USA). archive.fiba.com - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• Justin Gray Profile - player profile on the sports websites of Wake Forest University, as of 2006 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carmelo Anthony Biography - On the rise. JockBio.com, 2011, accessed January 29, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Andy Katz: 'Unsung' Gray may be best Deacon. ESPN , October 14, 2004, accessed January 29, 2013 . 
3. ↑ 2004 U21 The Americas Tournament for Men - Teams: USA. FIBA , accessed on January 29, 2013 (English, squad of the U21 American champions 2004 USA in the FIBA ​​web archive). 
4. ↑ 2005 FIBA ​​U21 World Championship for Men - Teams: USA. FIBA , accessed on January 29, 2013 (English, U21 US Junior National Team in the FIBA ​​web archive). 
5. ↑ Dexia Mons-Hainaut / EuroCup 2008 - roster. FIBA Europe , accessed on January 29, 2013 (English, season squad in FIBA ​​EuroCup 2008). 
6. ↑ Justin Gray Basketball Player Profile, stats, biography, career. Eurobasket.com, accessed on January 29, 2013 (player profile at eurobasket.com). 
7. ↑ GRAY, JUSTIN. ULEB , accessed on January 29, 2013 (English, player profile on the ULEB website). 
8. ^ Group F Player to Watch: Justin Gray, PAOK BC. ULEB Eurocup , November 15, 2010, accessed on January 29, 2013 . 
9. ↑ Timur Tinç: Accurate Wandervogel. Frankfurter Rundschau , September 19, 2011, accessed on January 29, 2013 . 
10. ↑ Justin Gray (FRAPORT Skyliners). (No longer available online.) Basketball Bundesliga , 2012, archived from the original on November 12, 2011 ; accessed on January 29, 2013 (player profile on statistics pages). 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.  
11. ↑ Leonhard Kazda: Jello for training dessert. FAZ.net , February 29, 2012, accessed on January 29, 2013 . 
12. ↑ Justin Gray leaves the Skyliners. Frankfurter Neue Presse , April 12, 2012, accessed on January 29, 2013 . 
13. ^ Justin Gray - Poitiers - Joueurs - Pro A. Ligue Nationale de Basket , accessed on January 29, 2013 (French, player profile on the websites of the French LNB).