Christian Lucien Vital (born March 21, 1997) is an American 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 for the Salt Lake City Stars of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. 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 the

UConn Huskies The UConn Huskies (or Connecticut Huskies) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, located in Storrs. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the Big East Conference. The university's fo ...

Early life and high school career

Vital is the oldest of five children born to Rose Vital-Williams. He grew up playing basketball for the PSA Cardinals

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

program. He played

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

from age five, competing in various tournaments in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and continued playing the game in high school. Vital began high school at the

Rectory School The Rectory School is an independent, coeducational, junior boarding (5–9) and day school (K–9) in Pomfret, Connecticut. The school was founded by the Rev. Frank H. Bigelow in 1920. It has expanded to , 26 buildings, 250 students, and 65 facu ...

in Pomfret, Connecticut, living away from his family. He played basketball for St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Connecticut for his final two years of high school. In his final season, Vital averaged 16.8 points, seven rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game, leading his team to a 31–7 record and the National Prep Championship final. He earned New England Preparatory School Athletic Council Class AAA first team honors and was selected to play in the Jordan Brand Classic Regional Game. Vital originally committed to play

for

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

but re-opened his recruitment after head coach Dave Rice left the program. On April 29, 2016, he committed to UConn over an offer from Louisville, among others.

College career

Vital started 10 games as a freshman and averaged 9.1 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, though the Huskies finished with a 16–17 overall record, the program's first losing season in 30 years. On November 19, 2017, Vital scored a career-high 30 points in a 85–66 win over

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

. As a sophomore, Vital averaged 14.9 points, a team-leading 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. Following the season he declared for the

2018 NBA draft The 2018 NBA Draft was held on June 21, 2018, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including inte ...

, but opted to return to UConn, citing "unfinished business." Vital averaged 14.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game as a junior while leading the Huskies with 52 steals. As a senior, Vital averaged 16.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.5 steals per game. He was named to the First Team All- American Athletic Conference. Vital scored 1,735 points in his UConn career, hitting an AAC-record 265 three-pointers.

Professional career

Rio Grande Valley Vipers (2021–2022)

On August 19, 2020, Vital signed his first professional contract with

BG Göttingen Basketballgemeinschaft Göttingen ( eng, Basketball Association Göttingen) is a German basketball club based in Göttingen, Germany. In 2010, the club won the EuroChallenge against Krasnye Krylya Samara from Russia. The team had played in Germa ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

. However, his contract was terminated on September 21. After going undrafted in the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecti ...

, he signed with the Memphis Grizzlies, but waived on December 16. He later joined the Memphis Hustle of the

in January 2021, but did not compete in any games. On October 16, 2021 Vital signed with the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

but was waived shortly thereafter. He subsequently joined the Rio Grande Valley Vipers where he played 45 games and averaged 12.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and shot .401 from three-point range while helping the Vipers win the G League Championship.

Hamilton Honey Badgers (2022)

On May 12, 2022, Vital signed with the

Hamilton Honey Badgers The Brampton Honey Badgers are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Brampton, Ontario, that competes in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. They play their games at the CAA Centre. The team was founded in 2018 as the Hamilton Honey B ...

of the

CEBL The Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) is a men's professional minor league basketball organization. The CEBL was founded in 2017 and began play in 2019 with six teams competing all owned and operated by ownership group Canadian Basketball V ...

. On August 14, he won the franchise's first CEBL title with the Honey Badgers. Vital was named the CEBL Final MVP after scoring 17 points in the 90-88 win over

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

. Over the season, Vital averaged a team leading 17.4 points and 4.8 rebounds in 15 games.

Raptors 905 (2022)

Vital joined the Toronto Raptors for the

2022 NBA Summer League The 2022 NBA Summer League, also branded as the NBA 2K23 Summer League 2022, was an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) primarily at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus ...

. He did not make the final roster but was added to their G League affiliate,

Raptors 905 The Raptors 905 are a Canadian professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Mississauga, Ontario, and are affiliated with the Toronto Raptors. Raptors 905 began play in the 2015–16 season and play their home games at Paramount Fi ...

Salt Lake City Stars (2022–present)

On December 15, 2022, Vital was traded to the Salt Lake City Stars.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", UConn , 31 , , 10 , , 28.5 , , .391 , , .366 , , .708 , , 3.5 , , 1.8 , , 1.1 , , .2 , , 9.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", UConn , 32 , , 23 , , 31.7 , , .383 , , .318 , , .846 , , 5.4 , , 1.7 , , 1.6 , , .0 , , 14.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", UConn , 33 , , 29 , , 30.2 , , .453 , , .409 , , .813 , , 5.6 , , 2.4 , , 1.6 , , .0 , , 14.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", UConn , 31 , , 31 , , 32.2 , , .398 , , .346 , , .899 , , 6.3 , , 2.6 , , 2.5 , , .2 , , 16.4 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 127 , , 93 , , 30.6 , , .407 , , .358 , , .836 , , 5.2 , , 2.1 , , 1.7 , , .1 , , 13.7

References

External links

UConn Huskies bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vital, Christian 1997 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Canada American men's basketball players Basketball players from New York City Hamilton Honey Badgers players Point guards Raptors 905 players Rio Grande Valley Vipers players Salt Lake City Stars players Sportspeople from Queens, New York UConn Huskies men's basketball players Vermont Academy alumni