Lawrence Roberts (basketball player)

Lawrence Roberts
Player information
Full name	Lawrence Edward Roberts III
birthday	October 20, 1982 (37 years 317 days)
place of birth	Houston , Texas , USA
size	206 cm
position	Power forward
college	Mississippi State
NBA draft	2005 , 55th Pick Seattle SuperSonics
Clubs as active
2001–2003 Baylor Bears ( NCAA ) 2003–2005 MSU Bulldogs (NCAA) 2005–2007 Memphis Grizzlies → 2006 Arkansas RimRockers 2008–2009 KK Red Star Belgrade 2009–2010 KK Partizan Belgrade 2010–2011 Efes Pilsen Istanbul 2011–2012 Lietuvos rytas Vilnius 2012–2013 FC Bayern Munich 2013–2014 Darüşşafaka SK Istanbul 2014–2015 BCM Gravelines 000

Lawrence Edward Roberts III (born October 20, 1982 in Houston , Texas ) is an American basketball player . Roberts continued his professional career in 2008 after a short career in the highest endowed professional league NBA in Europe. After two seasons in Serbia , where he achieved a triple from winning the national championship, cup and ABA league with KK Partizan in 2010 , as well as one each in Turkey and Lithuania , Roberts played in the basketball Bundesliga 2012/13 for FC Bayern Munich, with whom he won the German runner-up.

Career

Roberts moved to Baylor University in Waco in 2001 after graduating from Lamar High School in his hometown . There he played for the college team Bears in the Big 12 Conference of the NCAA . In 2003, after the murder of Robert's teammate Patrick Dennehy, various violations of NCAA regulations were uncovered in the Bears basketball program. Roberts then moved to Mississippi State University (MSU). As a result of the Baylor Bears violations of the NCAA regulations, Roberts was released from the one-year ban for championship games, which would otherwise have been provided for the change of university, and he played the following two years for the MSU Bulldogs in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In the following two seasons they reached the second round in the national final of the NCAA . After a surprising loss to the Musketeers of the Xavier University of Cincinnati in 2004, a loss to the favorite Blue Devils of Duke University followed the following year .

Roberts, who had a double-double on average in each of the two strong conferences in three of four college seasons and was classified by Associated Press in the "All-American Team" of the top five college players in 2004 , was in the 2005 NBA draft selected in the second round by the Seattle SuperSonics and passed on to the Memphis Grizzlies immediately afterwards for future “draft picks”. At the Grizzlies, Roberts had a rather mediocre playing time as a " rookie " and was used in only 33 games with less than an average of six minutes of play time. In addition, he was passed on to the farm team Arkansas RimRockers in the NBA Development League (D-League), where he had another ten missions this season. In his second NBA season he was a permanent member of the Grizzlies squad and played 18 times as a player in the " Starting Five " in 54 missions . Nevertheless, he had no new contract at the beginning of the 2007/08 season and initially signed a contract in Europe with the Greek top club Olympiacos Piraeus . However, this contract was terminated before the start of the season. A new contract in the NBA with the Washington Wizards , where he acted in the pre-season in October, did not come about as a result.

It was only at the beginning of the 2008/09 season that Roberts signed a new professional contract with KK Roter Stern in the Serbian capital Belgrade . Here he lost with Red Star both the national cup final, the final series of the championship and the semi-finals of the Adria League against local arch-rivals KK Partizan. For the following season 2009/10 he was signed by the Serbian series champion Partizan. Together with his compatriot Bo McCalebb , Roberts again won the triple of championship, cup and Adria League for Partizan . In addition, they were very successful in the ULEB Euroleague 2009/10 and reached the Final Four tournament of the highest European club competition, in which they finished fourth after two defeats after extra time. For the following season 2010/11 he went to Efes Pilsen in Istanbul , with the Turkish runner-up he won the presidential cup at the beginning of the season , but lost the play-off semi- final series for the championship against defending champion Fenerbahçe Ülker at the end of the season . In the ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 they reached the intermediate round of the 16 best teams, in which, among other things, Montepaschi Siena had to give way to Robert's former teammate McCalebb and was eliminated.

For the 2011/12 season Roberts moved to the Lithuanian Lietuvos rytas from Vilnius . At the beginning of the season they lost the final match in the qualification for the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 in front of their own audience against Galatasaray Istanbul and then started the Eurocup 2011/12 , in which they once again reached the Final Four tournament as a two-time cup winner. After a semi-final defeat against Valencia Basket Club they won the game for third place against BK Spartak Saint Petersburg . In the national competitions and in the Baltic Basketball League , the club again had to give way to long-term rivals Žalgiris Kaunas . Only in the VTB United League 2011/12 could they place before Kaunas, but lost the semifinals in the Final Four tournament of this competition against the Russian series champion PBK CSKA Moscow . The small final against Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar could then be won again and took third place in this Eastern European competition. For the following season 2012/13 Roberts moved together with his teammate Tyrese Rice to the German first division club Bayern Munich, who, however, had previously refrained from participating in European club competitions. In the play-offs, the fourth player in the main round lost the final series of the 2012/13 Basketball Bundesliga against defending champion Brose Baskets in just under five games.

For the following season Roberts went back to Istanbul in 2013, where he played for the ambitious second division Darûşşafaka SK. After the Doğuş Holding got on as a sponsor and, among other things, made the commitment of Roberts possible, the club managed to return to the top Turkish league at the end of the season. For the 2014/15 season, however, Roberts moved to France on the English Channel to the Basket Club Maritime from Gravelines ( Dunkerque ), which after a twelfth place in the pre-season of the LNB Pro A, however, no longer participated in any international competition. Roberts gave personal reasons to terminate his contract with the club in February 2015 before the end of the season.

Web links

Commons : Lawrence Roberts  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• easyCredit BBL - Lawrence Roberts - player profile on the easyCredit Basketball-Bundesliga website
• Roberts, Lawrence - Player profile on the website of the ULEB (English)
• Lawrence Roberts - player profile on basketball-reference.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Associated Press : Baylor's top player to transfer. News.google.com, August 19, 2003, accessed March 3, 2013 (repro of an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ). 
2. ^ Lawrence Roberts Becomes MSU's First AP All-American Since Bailey Howell. Mississippi State University , 2004, accessed March 3, 2013 . 
3. ^ NCAA College Basketball AP All-America Teams. Basketball-Reference.com, accessed March 3, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Olympiacos: Roberts released, Vassiliadis hurt. ULEB , October 4, 2007, accessed March 3, 2013 . 
5. ↑ Lawrence Roberts - Turkish Basketball League Player: 2010-2011 Season. TBLStat.net, accessed on March 3, 2013 (English, seasonal statistics). 
6. ↑ Lawrence Roberts - Gravelines-Dunkerque - Joueurs. Ligue Nationale de Basket , accessed August 8, 2015 (French, player profile).