Randolph Morris

Infobox NBA Player
name = Randolph Morris


caption =
league = NBA
team = Atlanta Hawks
number = 33
height_ft = 6
height_in = 10
weight_lb = 260
position = Power forward/Center
birth_date = birth date and age|1986|1|2
birth_place = Houston, Texas
highschool = Landmark Christian
college = Kentucky
nationality = American
draft = Not drafted
draft_year = 2005
draft_team =
career_start = 2007
career_end =
former_teams = New York Knicks (2007–2008)
awards = McDonald's All-American Team

Randolph Albert Morris (born January 2 1986 in Houston, Texas) is an American professional basketball player currently with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.

High school

Morris averaged 23.0 ppg, 16.0 rpg and 8.0 bpg as a senior for Atlanta's Landmark Christian High School, earning him McDonald's All-American Team status. Randolph Morris was the #2 rated center and #10 overall prospect by Rivals.com in a year when a record eight high schoolers went directly to the NBA draft. Morris strongly considered a jump straight to the NBA as well, but decided to spend at least a year in school. Kentucky won a late recruiting battle, after drawing Morris away from early favorite Georgia Tech. Morris stated he chose Kentucky partly because of lower academics. [Davis, Seth (May 31, 2004), [http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1032165/index.htm College Basketball: Who's No. 1? ] , "Sports Illustrated"] Morris, along with All-Americans Joe Crawford and Rajon Rondo, gave Kentucky the top-rated recruiting class in the nation. [cite web |url=http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=910&CID=297763 |title=Rivals.com Top 25 for 2004 |publisher=Rivals.com |accessdate=2007-03-12]

College

After a solid debut in his first year at Kentucky, Morris decided to declare for the 2005 NBA draft and hired an agent. He averaged 8.8 points per game and 4.2 rebounds. Despite playing well for Kentucky and starting every game but one, he did not prove himself NBA ready and often got in foul trouble. Morris went undrafted and decided to attempt a return to Kentucky. The NCAA agreed to reinstate him, but not before sitting out the first half of the 2005-2006 season. Morris returned to Kentucky in January 2006, but could not help the team get out of its season-long slump. Nevertheless, he improved in almost every statistical category from his freshman year and was very impressive at times. As a sophomore, he averaged 13.3 points and 6 rebounds per game. In his junior season Morris made further progress, averaging 16.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game, earning first team All-SEC honors.

Pro career

After his freshman year at Kentucky, Morris declared himself eligible for the 2005 NBA Draft. He was not drafted, but because he hired an agent, Morris was not allowed to return to Kentucky to continue playing college basketball, but the NCAA reinstated him. At the same time, because the NBA's collective bargaining agreement prohibited him from re-entering into a future draft, Morris was also legally an NBA free agent, who could be signed at any time; he would be able to leave Kentucky in the middle of the college basketball season if signed by an NBA team. [cite web |url=http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ArIdXHcsDMBVPp7nISY7oBO8vLYF?slug=aw-morris121106&prov=yhoo&type=lgns |title=The Problematic Prospect |last=Wojnarowski |first=Adrian |publisher=Yahoo! Sports |date=2006-12-11 |accessdate=2007-04-04]

Morris took advantage of being an NBA free agent, and signed a two-year, $1.6 million contract with the New York Knicks on March 23, 2007, 5 days after Kentucky was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament. [cite web |url=http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2809958|title=Knicks sign Kentucky center Morris to 2-year deal |publisher=ESPN.com |accessdate=2007-03-23]

In the summer of 2008, Morris joined the summer league team of the Atlanta Hawks, and signed a two year, $1.7 million contract with the Hawks on July 29. [ [http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/hawks/stories/2008/07/29/hawks_randolph_morris.html Hawks land big man] ]

NBA career statistics

Regular season

-
align="left" | 2006–07
align="left" | New York
5 || 0 || 8.8 || .167 || .000 || .333 || 1.8 || .2 || .4 || .2 || .8
-
align="left" | 2007–08
align="left" | New York
18 || 2 || 10.1 || .362 || .000 || .483 || 2.1 || .1 || .2 || .1 || 3.1
-
align="left" | Career
align="left" |
23 || 2 || 9.8 || .344 || .000 || .457 || 2.0 || .1 || .3 || .1 || 2.6
###@@@KEYEND@@@###

References

External links

* [http://ukathletics.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=37&url_article_id=13141&change_well_id=2 University of Kentucky bio]
* [http://www.nba.com/playerfile/randolph_morris/index.html NBA.com Player Profile]
* [http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4242 Yahoo! Sports Player Profile]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=4242 ESPN.com Player Card]