Kenny Gregory

Kenny Gregory
Player information
Full name	William Kendrick Gregory
Nickname	Kenny
birthday	16th November 1978 (age 41)
place of birth	Columbus , Ohio , United States
size	197 cm
position	Small forward
college	Kansas
Clubs as active
1997–2001 Kansas Jayhawks ( NCAA ) 2001–2002 Greenville Groove 2002 Dodge City Legend ( USBL ) 2002–2003 Chester Jets 2003–2005 Edimes Pavia 2005–2007 Le Mans Sarthe Basket 2007–2008 Efes Pilsen Istanbul 2008–2009 PAOK Thessaloniki 2009 Pamesa Valencia 2009–2010 PAOK Thessaloniki 2010–2011 KK Union Olimpija 2011 SLUC Nancy 00000 00000 00000

William Kendrick "Kenny" Gregory (born November 16, 1978 in Columbus , Ohio ) is a retired American basketball player . After studying in his home country, Gregory first played in the National Basketball Development League (D-League) before continuing his professional career in Europe. With the recommendation of a " Most Valuable Player " (MVP) of the British Basketball League (BBL) in 2003, Gregory also received offers from more lucrative southern European leagues. With Le Mans Sarthe Basket he won the French championship and the league cup in 2006 and at the end of his career also the Slovenian cup competition with KK Union Olimpija. His last engagement with the French champion SLUC Nancy ended after almost four weeks in December 2011 and Gregory was no longer professionally active afterwards.

Career

Gregory went to study at the University of Kansas as the MVP of the "McDonald's All-American Game" in 1997 for the best high school basketball players in the country , where he played for the renowned Jayhawks college team in the NCAA's Big 12 Conference . In the 1997/98 season, the Jayhawks were able to successfully defend their title in the championship tournament of the Big 12, with Gregory's teammate, the future NBA All-Star Paul Pierce , again MVP of the tournament. In Pierce's senior college season, however, they lost as the top seeded team in the national NCAA finals in the second round against the Lamar Odom- led Rhode Island Rams . A year later you could win the Big 12 championship tournament without Pierce in its third edition in a "low scoring game" with 53:37 against the Oklahoma State Cowboys . The Jayhawks have not won a Big 12 championship final by less than ten points. At number six on the regional seed list in the NCAA finals, they met the Kentucky Wildcats in the second round , which they lost after extra time. In the final two college seasons of Gregory, the Jayhawks could not connect to their usual level. In the Conference it was not enough for title successes and after another defeat in the second round it was enough at least in 2001 to move into the round of 16 "Sweet Sixteen" of the NCAA finals, in which one was defeated by the Illinois Fighting Illinois from coach Bill Self, who two years later coached Jayhawks should be.

After Gregory was not selected in the 2001 NBA Draft , he tried to win a place in the NBA's most highly endowed professional league through the newly established D-League . Drafted by the Mobile Revelers , he finally played with the Groove from Greenville (South Carolina) together with his former teammate Eric Chenowith , who was selected in the NBA Entry Draft , but remained without a contract. Both were no longer represented in the squad at the end of the season when the Groove won the first championship of the D-League. Gregory tried to recommend himself for a contract in the NBA via the summer league United States Basketball League (USBL). When this was not crowned with success, he finally got only one contract in the sporting rather insignificant British Basketball League (BBL) with the Jets from Chester . The Jets had dominated the BBL in the preseason and won all the titles to be awarded in this closed professional league. At the last edition of the cup competition in its original form as the "National Cup", the defending champion lost the final by ten points against the Brighton Bears . The title in the League Cup BBL Trophy could, however, defend after the final victory with two points difference over the London Towers . Although Gregory was named as the " top scorer " of the BBL to the MVP of the season, they finished in the regular season of the BBL only third place and lost in the first play-off round against the eventual title winner Scottish Rocks .

After Gregory did not get a season contract in the NBA after the NBA Summer League 2003 in the jersey of the Chicago Bulls , he looked for a contract in a more lucrative southern European league. However, he only got one engagement in the second Italian league Legadue at the basketball club from Pavia , which had already brought Eric Burks from the BBL in the preseason . In the play-offs for promotion they were eliminated as the sixth in the main round in the first round. Although Gregory increased his points yield in the 2004/05 season, Pavia missed the play-off places in eleventh. For the 2005/06 season, Gregory got a contract in the first French league LNB Pro A with MSB from Le Mans . With this club he won the league cup "Semaine de As" and moved into the play-offs for the French championship as fifth in the main round, in which they did not lose a game and celebrated the club's fourth championship with the victory in the final over SLUC Nancy . In the preliminary group of the highest European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2006/07 one could only leave the German champions RheinEnergie Cologne behind and not qualify for the intermediate round of the 16 best European teams. The title defense in the French League Cup was missed after a final defeat against Chorale Roanne , who, like Le Mans in the previous year, also won the championship in the play-offs, while the defending champion, who was sixth in the main round, was eliminated in the first round. For the 2007/08 season Gregory got a contract with the Turkish runner-up Efes Pilsen from Istanbul in the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi . In the ULEB Euroleague 2007/08 it was enough this time to move into the intermediate round, in which, however, only one victory in six games was achieved. As the main round runner-up in the Turkish championship you lost the play-off semifinal series against defending champion Fenerbahçe Ülker .

For the season 2008/09 Gregory moved to the Greek league A1 Ethniki to PAOK from Thessaloniki . After PAOK had liquidity problems, Gregory left the club in February 2009 and joined Pamesa from Valencia in the Spanish ACB league . This club qualified in the Eurocup 2008/09 after only two defeats in twelve group games comparatively confidently for the "Final Eight" tournament in Turin, in which, however, they lost in the quarter-finals to the later Russian finalist BK Chimki . In the Spanish championship they were eliminated in the first round of the play-offs against the eventual title winner FC Barcelona Regal . For the 2009/10 season, Gregory returned to PAOK, which was able to improve to fifth place at the end of the season, but was eliminated in the first play-off round of the Greek championship as in the previous year. In the 2010/11 season Gregory played in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana for the local runner-up KK Union Olimpija, with whom he was able to achieve second place in the preliminary group after six wins in the ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 . After the opening win in the second round , in which Gregory was appointed as the most effective player to the MVP of the game day, you lost the remaining five games and were eliminated. The title in the national cup competition was successfully defended, while the final series in the championship was again lost to defending champion and arch-rival KK Krka . The following season, Gregory got a new contract with the French champions SLUC from Nancy in December 2011 , after Nicolas Batum returned to the NBA after the end of the " lockout ". After the elimination in the preliminary round of the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 and only two championship appearances in the national league, the contract was terminated at the end of December. Subsequently, Gregory never returned to the field as a professional player.

Web links

Commons : Kenny Gregory  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• GREGORY, KENNY - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB ( English )
• Kenny Gregory - Nancy - Joueurs - Pro A - player profile on the websites of the French LNB ( French )
• Kenny Gregory - player profile on basketball-reference.com
• Kenny Gregory Stats - Kansas Jayhawks - College season stats at statsheet.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1997 McDonald's All American Game. YouTube , February 22, 2008, accessed on July 7, 2013 (English, video from user “McDonaldsAllAmerican”). 
2. ↑ Gregory joins Chenowith on Greenville's roster. LJWorld.com, November 29, 2001, accessed July 7, 2013 . 
3. ↑ 2002–03 BBL Championship & Playoffs. British Basketball League , accessed July 7, 2013 (season summary). 
4. ↑ NBDL Players Populate NBA Summer Leagues. (No longer available online.) National Basketball Association , July 9, 2003, archived from the original on April 1, 2016 ; accessed on July 7, 2013 (English, media info). 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.  
5. ↑ Legaduebasket: Kenny Gregory. Legadue , accessed on July 7, 2013 (Italian, player profile with statistics). 
6. ↑ Kenny Gregory - Turkish Basketball League Player: 2007-2008 Regular Season. TBLStat.net, accessed on July 7, 2013 (English, seasonal statistics). 
7. ↑ ACB.COM: Kenny Gregory. Liga ACB , accessed July 7, 2013 (Spanish, player profile). 
8. ↑ Euroleague Magazine: Kenny Gregory, Union Olimpija Ljubljana. YouTube , November 5, 2010, accessed on July 7, 2013 (English, video upload from “KlezaTheRaptor”). 
9. ↑ Sportingbet Top 16, Week 1 MVP: Kenny Gregory, Union Olimpija. ULEB , January 21, 2011, accessed on July 7, 2013 (English, media info). 
10. ↑ SLUC NANCY fills roster with Gregory. (No longer available online.) ULEB , December 6, 2011, archived from the original on October 31, 2014 ; accessed on July 7, 2013 . 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.