Delroy James

Delroy James (born June 4, 1987) is a Guyanese-born, naturalized American professional basketball player who currently plays for Enel Brindisi of the Italian Serie A. He plays at the power forward and small forward positions.

Player profile

A versatile combo forward he uses his size and athleticism, both power and speed, to muscle his way to the hoop and score. Thanks to his unorthodox left handed style and dribbling skills he's a tough matchup. In defence, his forte, he's always ready to make a play, benefiting from his size and strength to guard a few positions, with good rebounding thanks to his explosiveness. Coaches that have worked with him have also praised his work ethic and drive. On the negative side he depends too heavily on muscling his way to the basket, hesitating to shoot and having average to poor figures in shooting accuracy, especially from the 3 point line.^[1]

Personal life

The son of Gordon and Marva James, he has seven siblings. Three of his older brothers played basketball professionally or at college level, one is Shawn James who plays at rival Serie A club EA7 Emporio Armani Milano, Gordon has played professionally in Japan and Latin America whilst Lex played for St. Francis without going pro.^[2] He has another brother Devaun and three sisters, Teceeta, Enola, and Minette Graves.^[3]

His parents moved to the United States from Guyana in 1990 with four children, leaving Delroy with two siblings whilst they made arrangements for them to join them, which they were able to do about 3 years later. Arriving in Brooklyn, New York aged 7, he struggled to adapt to a completely different life, skipping classes although he also avoided meddling with the gangs that were rife in his neighbourhood.^[4]

He has a son, Jaylen, he cites fatherhood as one of his greatest accomplishments, another is graduating and he would like to use his sociology degree in the future to be a guidance counsellor or a mentor to kids.^[5]

Career

College ^[3]

Having started playing basketball in high school, he soon saw a future in the game and joined reputed Laurinburg Prep High School that had a history of developing basketball players.

After a season there he received a scholarship to play for Rhode Island in the NCAA Division I. He barely played in his freshman season but in his sophomore season he became an important bench player with good scoring and rebounding that led to being designated Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year. In the 2009-10 season he became a permanent fixture in the starting five, was named to the All-Atlantic 10 third team and had a notable game in the NIT against Nevada scoring a career high 34 points whilst also locking up future first round pick Luke Babbitt.^[6] The next season he started all of his teams games again, leading Rhode Island in scoring, rebounding and blocks, making the All-Atlantic 10 second team whilst also scoring the first triple-double in school history against Miami (Ohio) in the CBI.^[7]

Following a good performance in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament pre-draft camp in April 2011 and after graduating in May he declared for the 2011 NBA draft, enthusiastically attending workouts with different NBA teams.^[8]

Professional

All his efforts proved to be vain as James went undrafted and became an unrestricted free agent. As the 2011 NBA lockout had cancelled all activities including summer leagues and free agent camps he went to Europe to gain experience, signing his first professional contract with Bnei Hasharon of the Israeli Basketball Premier League, a team his elder brother Shawn had just left after 3 successful years. He slotted in the team instantly, starting all but one game including three from start to finish, scoring in double digits in the majority of those^[9] including a double-double against Shawn's new team and league leaders Maccabi Tel Aviv in a heavy loss for Bnei Hasharon.^[10]

However after the NBA lockout ended he was released in order to return to the U.S., signing with NBA D-League team Tulsa 66ers in January 2012^[11] posting average stats before leaving at the end of his truncated season there. After playing one game in May for IBA side Jersey G-Force he was finally able to attend NBA free-agents camps^[12] and play in the Las Vegas Summer League, playing sparingly for the Atlanta Hawks.

Italy

Following this he returned to Europe, this time to Italy to play in the second division for Basket Ferentino, signing for one season after GM Pierfrancesco Betti - who had seen him play in Portsmouth the year before - exhibited his history in bringing players such as Manu Ginóbili to Italy as a spring for joining stronger sides.^[13] Betti wasn't lying as a stellar season for James, including being nominated as MVP of the Legadue All Star Game^[14] led him to be signed by first division side Enel Brindisi in August 2013 for one season.^[15]

James continued on his good form in the top division, playing in every of his team's games, his 7,8 rebounds per game the fifth best in the league, again making the league's All star game whilst leading Brindisi to the playoffs for the first time, qualifying for the next season's European third tier EuroChallenge after losing in the first round, he was promptly signed for another season.

References