Brenton Joe Birmingham (born November 29, 1972) is an American and Icelandic former

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

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 who for the majority of his career played in the Úrvalsdeild karla. He won the Icelandic championship three times and was voted the

Icelandic Basketball Player of the Year The Icelandic Basketball Player of the Year award was established in 1973 to recognize the best Icelandic basketball player of the year. The winners are basketball players who have Icelandic citizenship, and whose performances with its sports club ...

in 2006 and Úrvalsdeild domestic player of the year in 2007.

Basketball

College career

Birmingham started his college career with

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

but after it announced it was abandoning its basketball program in the spring of 1992, he transferred to

Manhattan College Manhattan College is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university in the Bronx, New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) as an academy for day students, it was la ...

. In two seasons with the Jaspers he averaged 13.4 points per game. He was elected to the Jaspers' Hall of Fame in 2010.

Club career

Birmingham started his professional career in 1995, when he was a late-season addition to

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

club

Tapiolan Honka Tapiolan Honka is a basketball club based in Espoo, Finland. Their men's team plays in Korisliiga and their women's team plays in Naisten Korisliiga, both on highest tiers of Finnish basketball. History It was founded as a sports club Tapion Ho ...

. In 5 games for Honka, he averaged 22.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. He spent the majority of his career in the Icelandic Úrvalsdeild karla with

Njarðvík Njarðvík () is a town in southwestern Iceland, on the peninsula of Reykjanes. As of 2009, its population was 4,400. History In 1995 it merged with the town of Keflavík and the village of Hafnir to form the new municipality of Reykjanesbær. T ...

and

Grindavík Grindavík () is a fishing town on the Southern Peninsula (Iceland), Southern Peninsula of Iceland not far from the tuya Þorbjörn (mountain), Þorbjörn. It is one of the few cities with a harbour on this coast. Most of the inhabitants work in ...

, but also played for Rueil Pro Basket in France and the

London Towers London Towers were a professional basketball team based in London, England. They enjoyed considerable success in the 1990s and early 2000s, collecting 3 titles in the British Basketball League (BBL) as well as regularly competing in European c ...

in England. He twice posted a

quadruple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

in the Úrvalsdeild playoffs. On 16 March 2020, Birmingham had 17 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals for Grindavík in a first round victory against

Keflavík Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavik merged with nearby Njarðv ...

. A year later, on 17 April 2001, he had 28 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists and 11 steals in the championship clinching victory against Tindastóll in the Úrvalsdeild finals.

Icelandic national team

Birmingham played 19 games for the

Icelandic National Basketball team The Iceland men's national basketball team ( is, Íslenska karlalandsliðið í körfubolta) represents Iceland in international basketball tournaments. The team is controlled by the Icelandic Basketball Association. Iceland has qualified for t ...

between 2002 and 2007. In 2007, he helped Iceland winning gold in basketball at the

Games of the Small States of Europe The Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) is a biennial multi-sport event, launched by the Republic of San Marino, organized by and featuring the National Olympic Committees of nine European small states since 1985. The Games are held at t ...

.Kýpverjar réðust á allt og alla
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Acting career

In the late nineties, Birmingham auditioned for ''

He got game ''He Got Game'' is a 1998 American sports drama film written, produced and directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington and Ray Allen. The film revolves around Jake Shuttlesworth ( Denzel Washington), father of the top-ranked basketball p ...

''. In 1999, he appeared in ''Game Day'', starring

Richard Lewis Richard, Rich, Richie, Rick, Ricky or Dick Lewis may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Richard Field Lewis Jr. (1907–1957), American radio network owner * Dick "Rocko" Lewis (Richard Henry Lewis III, 1908–1966), American entertainer * Rich ...

Personal life

Birmingham lives in

in southwestern Iceland with his wife and four children, and works as an

air traffic controller Air traffic control specialists, abbreviated ATCS, are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. Usually stationed in air traffic control centers and control ...

Keflavík Airport Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavik merged with nearby Njarðv ...

References

External links

Icelandic competitions statistics (2007–present)
at

Icelandic Basketball Association The Icelandic Basketball Association (''Icelandic:Körfuknattleikssamband Íslands - KKÍ'') is the national governing body of basketball in Iceland and is a member of the continental association FIBA Europe and the global International Basketbal ...

Korisliiga statistics
at korisliiga.fi

at

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC, is an American company which operates several sports-related websites, including Sports-Reference.com, Baseball-Reference.com for baseball, Basketball-Reference.com for basketball, Hockey-Reference.com for ice hockey, Pro- ...

Úrvalsdeild statistics (1998–2007)
at

Eurobasket.com player profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Birmingham, Brenton 1972 births Living people Icelandic men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Iceland American men's basketball players American emigrants to Iceland American expatriate basketball people in Finland American expatriate basketball people in France Basketball players from New York (state) Brooklyn College alumni Grindavík men's basketball players Guards (basketball) Brenton Birmingham Brenton Birmingham Brenton Birmingham Njarðvík men's basketball players Úrvalsdeild karla (basketball) players