Bernard Ronald James (born February 7, 1985) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

. He is also the oldest player ever to be drafted in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) at 27 years and 148 days old.

Background

In a 2012 piece for ''The Tipoff'', the magazine of the

United States Basketball Writers Association The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awa ...

, ''

ESPN.com ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN. It is owned by ESPN Internet Ventures, a division of ESPN Inc. History Since launching in April 1995 as ESPNET.SportsZone.com (ESPNET SportsZone), the website has developed numerous sections including: ...

'' writer Dana O'Neil called James

...the most unconventional of high school dropouts, a kid who grew disenchanted with the social hierarchy of school yet would head to Barnes & Noble to read on the days that he cut.

After dropping out, he earned his

GED The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...

, and shortly afterwards enlisted in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

while still 17. He served six years in the Air Force as a security forces specialist, attaining the rank of

Staff Sergeant Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. History of title In origin, certain senior sergeants were assigned to administrative, supervi ...

. He was assigned to the 9th Security Forces Squadron at Beale Air Force Base and deployed in support of

Operation Iraqi Freedom {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

and

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used synonymously by the U.S. government for both the War in Afghanistan (2001–2014) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response to the September 11 at ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

, and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. He initially planned to have a career in the military, but was drafted onto an intramural basketball team at his base. During this time, he underwent a late growth spurt of 5 inches (13 cm), and soon rose through the ranks of military basketball to the Air Force's all-star team. This in turn led him to pursue basketball as a potential career path; when his enlistment term expired, he left the Air Force and enrolled at

Tallahassee Community College Tallahassee Community College (TCC) is a public community college in Tallahassee, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. As of fall 2017, TCC reported 24,639 stu ...

so that he could eventually fully qualify for

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

Professional career

James was selected as the 33rd overall pick by the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

in the

2012 NBA draft The 2012 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2012, at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The draft started at 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (2300 UTC), and was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, National Basketball Asso ...

. He was later traded to the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

in a draft night trade that included the 24th overall pick Jared Cunningham and the 34th overall pick

Jae Crowder Corey Jae Crowder (born July 6, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Not being heavily recruited out of high school, Crowder committed to South Georgia Technical ...

. The Cavaliers received guard

Kelenna Azubuike Kelenna David Azubuike (born 16 December 1983) is a British-Nigerian-American former professional basketball player and currently the Golden State Warriors television analyst on NBC Sports Bay Area. Born in London, England and raised in Tulsa, ...

and the 17th overall pick

Tyler Zeller Tyler Paul Zeller (born January 17, 1990) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball at the University of North Carolina, where as a freshman he played on their 2009 national championship team and as a seni ...

. On July 25, 2012, James signed with the

. On July 19, 2013, he was waived by the Mavericks, but he was quickly re-signed on July 26. On February 27, 2014, James was assigned to the Texas Legends of the NBA D-League. He was recalled the next day. On September 3, 2014, James re-signed with the Mavericks. However, he was later waived by the Mavericks on October 25, 2014. On November 3, 2014, he was acquired by the Texas Legends as an affiliate player. After playing in the Legends' first two games of the season, he left the team in order to sign in China. On November 21, 2014, he signed with the

Shanghai Sharks The Shanghai Sharks () are a Chinese Basketball Association team based in Shanghai. It is best known outside China as the club that developed Yao Ming before he entered the National Basketball Association. With Yao on the team, the Sharks made ...

for the 2014–15 CBA season. On February 11, 2015, James signed a 10-day contract with the Dallas Mavericks, returning to the franchise for a second stint. He signed a second 10-day contract with the Mavericks on February 21, and for the rest of the season on March 3. On July 31, 2015, James re-signed with the Shanghai Sharks for the 2015–16 CBA season. On March 12, 2016, he signed with Galatasaray of Turkey for the rest of the 2015–16 Turkish Basketball Super League season. In early May 2016, he left Galatasaray. On January 6, 2017, James signed with French club

Limoges CSP Limoges Cercle Saint-Pierre, commonly referred to as Limoges CSP or CSP, is a French professional basketball club based in the city of Limoges. History The club was founded in 1929, but its peak was during the 1980s and 1990s, when they became t ...

for the rest of the

2016–17 Pro A season The 2016–17 Pro A season was the 95th season of the Pro A, the top basketball league in France organised by the Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB). The season started on 24 September 2016 and ended on 24 June 2017. A total of 330 games were played ...

. On February 7, 2017, he parted ways with Limoges after appearing in two games.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

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, 30 , , 0 , , 4.9 , , .478 , , .000 , , .545 , , 1.4 , , .1 , , .1 , , .3 , , .9 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

, 16 , , 2 , , 9.9 , , .444 , , .000 , , .870 , , 2.4 , , .3 , , .1 , , .9 , , 2.8 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , , 92 , , 13 , , 8.3 , , .497 , , .000 , , .680 , , 2.3 , , .1 , , .2 , , .7 , , 2.2

Playoffs

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References

External links

* *
FIBA.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Bernard 1985 births Living people African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball people in China American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American men's basketball players Basketball players from Savannah, Georgia Centers (basketball) Cleveland Cavaliers draft picks Dallas Mavericks players Florida State Seminoles men's basketball players Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players Limoges CSP players Shanghai Sharks players Tallahassee Eagles men's basketball players Texas Legends players United States Air Force airmen United States Air Force personnel of the Iraq War United States Air Force personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)