Alexis Amber Gray-Lawson (born April 21, 1987) is a basketball player who most recently played for the

Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the league ...

of the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

. She was the 2010 recipient of the Frances Pomeroy Naismith award, which is presented by the WBCA annually to 'the nation's most outstanding NCAA Division I female basketball player who stands 5'8" tall or under".

Childhood

Gray-Lawson was born April 21, 1987, in Oakland, California. Her parents are Orlando Gray and Roslyn Lawson. She has eight siblings, Kameron, Kenya, Layce, Violet, Vanessa, Kevin, William, and Kenny.

Jason Kidd Jason Frederick Kidd (born March 23, 1973) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Regarded as one of the greatest point guards ...

is a close family friend, she is related to Willie McGee who played for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

High school career

Gray-Lawson went to Oakland Tech for her entire high school career, and earned the 2005 second team Parade All-American and All-State Honors as she and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

teammate Devanei Hampton led Oakland Tech to their second state title. She was ranked 17th nationally by the Blue Star Index and 25th by Mike White's All-Star Girls Report. She was listed as 5th by the NorCal Scouting Report. She was MVP of the 2004 California state Championships, named to the 2005 McDonald's All-American game, and the Senior Slam All-Star game in 2005. Oakland Tech retired her jersey, as they lost only one home game while she was there. She also played softball, earning three all-city honors and league MVP as a senior with the softball team. She competed on the volleyball team as a freshman as well.

College career

Gray-Lawson spent a total of five years at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. During her sophomore year she would play only nine games before suffering a season-ending injury. She would be red-shirted for the remainder of her sophomore season. Gray-Lawson was on the All-Pac-10 First Team in 2009 and 2010, the Pac-10 All-Defensive team in 2010, All-Pac-10 Second Team in 2008, Pac-10 All-Freshmen Team in 2006, All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention in 2006, and was the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 2006. She was named to the Women's Basketball News Service All-Freshman Team in 2006, Associated Press All-American Honorable Mention in 2009, and was a WNIT Champion in 2010. She was first on the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

career list for three-pointers made with a total of 148, and named one of the top five 2-guards in the nation by ESPN.com in a 2008-2009 women's basketball preseason ranking.

California statistics

Source

USA Basketball

Gray-Lawson was named a member of the team representing the U.S. at the 2009 World University Games held in

Belgrade, Serbia Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 millio ...

. The team won all seven games to earn the gold medal. Gray-Lawson averaged 7.9 points per game and 4.3 rebounds per game.

WNBA career

Gray-Lawson was selected the third round of the

2010 WNBA Draft The 2010 WNBA Draft is the league's annual process for determining which teams receive the rights to negotiate with players entering the league. The draft was held on April 8, 2010. The first round was shown on ESPN2 ( HD), while the second and ...

(30th overall) by the

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was founded pri ...

.http://www.wnba.com draft2010/draft_board.html 2010 WNBA Draft board She was cut prior to the season. The

signed Gray-Lawson to a training camp contract and she would make the team. She played in 27 games with the Mercury, scoring her first WNBA career points on June 24, 2011, in Atlanta.

International career

Gray-Lawson went to play for Samsun Basketbol in the Turkish Women's League during the 2010-2011 off-season after she was waived by the

. For her second year overseas, following her rookie season with the WNBA she is playing in Israel with H. R. Le-Zion for 2011-2012.

Coaching career

In 2015 named the Como Park Girls basketball head coach. In 2020 names the Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School girls head varsity coach

References

External links

*
Cal Golden Bears bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray-Lawson, Alexis 1987 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Israel American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American women's basketball players Basketball players from Oakland, California California Golden Bears women's basketball players Parade High School All-Americans (girls' basketball) Phoenix Mercury players Universiade medalists in basketball Universiade gold medalists for the United States Guards (basketball) Medalists at the 2009 Summer Universiade 21st-century American women United States women's national basketball team players