By John Askounis / info@eurohoops.net
In about a month, on August 18, he will be 28 years of age. He’s been playing professionally since 2012, but the course of his career hasn’t been like most would have imagined it. He may have won two Greek championships with Panathinaikos in the last two seasons and gotten to play in the NBA, but just four years ago he was playing in Italy’s third division with Omegna. Now, he’s back in Italy and the best Italian team in recent years.
The… leap to Vitoria
James started playing basketball at a very young age but he was 20 years old when he secured a spot on the roster of a college team in the first division of the NCAA at Lamar University. He was in the Cardinals from 2010 to 2012, and in his first season he was the team’s top scorer even though he was a starter in just two games. Among other things, he scored 52 points in a game with Louisiana on January 11, 2011.
His impressive progress didn’t get him selected in the 2012 NBA Draft, but got him a contract with KK Zagreb. He started out his professional career in the Croatian team and completed his debut season in Israel with Hapoel Gilboa Galil. He spent the 2013-14 season in Italy’s third division playing in the colors of Omegna.
In August of 2014 he signed a one-year contract with Kolossos, who, by acquiring James, continued their streak of successful transfer moves with regard to American players. With the team from Rhodes, James was something more than impressive. By scoring an average of 21 points, he secured a transfer to then Laboral Kutxa, now Baskonia, where he completed the 2013-14 season.