Sammy Mejia

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Basketball player
Sammy Mejia
Player information
Full name Samuel José Mejia
Nickname Sammy
birthday February 7, 1983
place of birth Bronx (NYC), USA
size 198 cm
position Small Forward /
Shooting Guard
college DePaul
NBA draft 2007 , 57th Pick Detroit Pistons
Club information
society Banvit BK
league Türkiye Basketbol Ligi
Jersey number 9
Clubs as active
2003–2007 DePaul Blue Demons ( NCAA ) 2007–2008 Fort Wayne Mad Ants 2008 Pierrel Capo d'Orlando 2008–2009 AE Larisa 2009 CPN Pueblo Nuevo 2009–2011 Cholet Basket 2011–2012 PBK CSKA Moscow Since 2012 Banvit BK Bandırma United StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
00000ItalyItaly
GreeceGreece
00000Dominican RepublicDominican Republic
FranceFrance
RussiaRussia
0TurkeyTurkey
National team
Since 02007 Dominican Republic

Samuel José "Sammy" Mejia (born February 7, 1983 in Bronx , New York City ) is an American - Dominican basketball player . After studying in his native country, Mejia became a professional in the NBA Development League (D-League) and then played in Europe, where he became French champion in 2010 with Cholet Basket and the VTB United League 2011/12 and the Russian championship in 2011/12 with CSKA Moscow won the PBL 2011/12 . In addition, he reached the runner-up in the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 with the Russian club . With Banvit Bandırma he won the Turkish runner-up in the 2012/13 season.

Career

Mejia studied in the USA at DePaul University in Chicago , where he was active from 2003 to 2007 for the university team Blue Demons , which first played in the Conference USA and then moved to the Big East Conference of the NCAA in 2005 . In his first season in college, the Blue Demons won the regular season of Conference USA and lost the final in the Conference championship tournament to the Bearcats of the University of Cincinnati . In the national NCAA finals 2004 you lost in the second round against the eventual title winner Huskies of the University of Connecticut . Then you played with the Huskies and the Bearcats in the Big East Conference, in which you could no longer place yourself in the front field and also no longer reached the finals. The National Invitation Tournament took part in 2005 and 2007, where after a second round defeat in 2005 they advanced to the quarterfinals two years later, in which they failed with just one point difference to a place in the Final Four tournament of this competition. In the Blue Demons, Mejia ranks 1,494 points in four years among the “top ten” of the all-time best list of this university team. In the " Entry Draft " of the highest endowed professional league NBA , Mejia was selected by the Detroit Pistons in 2007 at the end of the second round. With the Pistons the next to the " center legend" George Mikan probably best known basketball graduate of DePaul University Mark Aguirre won their first two NBA championships at the end of the 1980s.

In August 2007 Mejia played with the Dominican national team at the Caribbean Championships, in which the Dominicans lost the final against Puerto Rico and won the silver medal. With the Pistons, Mejia was not granted a great NBA career, instead he did not make the jump into the Pistons' season squad and was transferred to the " farm team " Mad Ants from Fort Wayne , Indiana in the D- at the beginning of the 2007/08 season. League submitted. There Mejia completed only twelve missions before moving to Europe at the beginning of February 2008 to the Pierrel Basket from Capo d'Orlando in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A , where he replaced his former teammate from college Drake Diener , who became master Montepaschi Siena had migrated. At the end of the season, the team made it into the play-offs for the Italian championship for the first time in the club's history as sixth in the final table , in which, however, they played in three games against A.IR. Avellino left. Then the club got no license for another season for economic reasons and Mejia moved to the Greek league A1 Ethniki to AEL from Larisa . However, AEL won only two of 26 games and rose at the end of the season as bottom of the table again from the top division.

In the summer of 2009 Mejia played in the land of his ancestors in the Dominican Republic before he got a contract from the French first division club from Cholet in the LNB Pro A for the 2009/10 season . Mejia, who was named Pro A's Player of the Month for January 2010, took first place with Cholet after the regular season and reached the final of the championship with the club against second-placed regional rival Le Mans Sarthe Basket , which they won with 81: 65 won and brought the first championship for the club. Then Mejia played with the club in the highest European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 , where he was named the most effective player on the fifth day of the game as the " Most Valuable Player " (MVP) of the day. The four preliminary round victories in the Euroleague were not enough because of the poorer direct comparison to move into the intermediate round of the 16 best teams. In the French championship they again reached first place in the regular season and Mejia was voted player of the month April 2011 and as "MVP étranger" the best foreign player of the season. In the play-offs they remained undefeated until the final, but in the final game Mejia scored 15 points with a meager throw rate of under 30%, which was just as modest as that of his teammates Antywane Robinson , the final MVP of the previous season, DeMarcus Nelson and Development player Vule Avdalović . In the end they lost the final against SLUC Nancy with two points difference 74:76, although they won the rebound duel with 41 rebounds to 28 and made almost 50% more attempts to throw than the new master.

For the 2011/12 season Mejia got a contract with the Russian series champion PBK ZSKA from Moscow . With this club he defended the title of Russian champion in the PBL 2011/12 and took back the title in the Eastern European VTB United League 2011/12 . In the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 , however, the highly-favored star ensemble lost in the final after a large lead in dramatic final minutes against Olympiacos . Mejia was only used in six Euroleague games in the top-class team and not in a single game after the second round. After the season he looked for a new club and moved to Turkey to Banvit BK from Bandırma . In the Eurocup 2012/13 Mejia was the most effective player MVP of the second match day and only narrowly failed with the Turkish team because of the poorer direct comparison at the quarter-finals. In the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi they suffered only six defeats before the play-off final series of the Turkish championship, but in the final series against Galatasaray Medical Park only one victory was possible and they missed the first national title win for this club in the first final participation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2012–13 DePaul Basketball - Men's Basketball Media Guide. (Flash animation) DePaul University , p. 162 , accessed June 25, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Sammy Mejia - player profile on basketball-reference.com (English), accessed on June 25, 2013
  3. ↑ Legabasket: Samuel Mejia. Lega Basket Serie A , accessed June 25, 2013 (Italian, player profile).
  4. ↑ Sportingbet Week 5 MVP: Sammy Mejia, Cholet Basket. ULEB , November 19, 2010, accessed June 25, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Cholet / Nancy - Playoffs - Finals - 2010/11 - Result match - Pro A. Ligue Nationale de Basket , accessed on June 25, 2013 (French, match statistics).
  6. ↑ CSKA Moscow vs. Olympiacos - Report. ULEB , May 13, 2012, accessed June 25, 2013 (game report).
  7. ↑ Eurocup regular season Game 2 co-MVPs: Mejia, McKee. ULEB , November 15, 2012, accessed June 25, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Sammy Mejia - Turkish Basketball League Player. TBLStat.net, accessed on June 26, 2013 (English, profile on statistics pages ).
personal data
SURNAME Mejia, Sammy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mejia, Samuel José (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Dominican basketball player
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Bronx , New York City, USA