Daron "Fatts" Russell (born May 6, 1998) is an American

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 Galatasaray Nef of the

Basketbol Süper Ligi The Basketball Super League ( tr, Basketbol Süper Ligi; BSL), also known as the Türkiye Sigorta Basketbol Süper Ligi for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's professional basketball division of the Turkish basketball league system. It replac ...

and the

Basketball Champions League The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Intercontin ...

. He played college basketball for four years for

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, and after graduating he played one season for the

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

Early life and high school career

Russell grew up in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and looked up to basketball player

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...

, who was born in the same city. His mother gave him the nickname "Fatts," which he has been called his entire life, because he was chubby as a baby. Russell played for

Imhotep Institute Charter High School Imhotep Institute Charter High School is a public charter high school located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1998 to offer an African-centered education that emphasizes STEM subjects. During the 2015–16 school year, the sch ...

in Philadelphia, where he was coached by Andre Noble. Russell became its all-time leader in points, assists and steals. As a senior, he led his team, which was considered one of the best in the country, to a 31–2 record and the

Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., also known by its acronymn PIAA, is one of the governing bodies of high school and middle school athletics for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. The PIAA's main ...

(PIAA) 4A state championship, scoring 25 points in the title game. Russell was named

Philadelphia Public League The Philadelphia Public League (PPL) is the interscholastic sports league for the public high schools of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The league traces its origin to 1901, with the formation of the Philadelphia Interscholastic League, a conference en ...

and Pennsylvania Class 4A

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

(MVP). He was a consensus three-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * '' Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (E ...

and committed to play collegiately for

over offers from

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesa ...

, SMU and

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

, among others.

College career

On December 4, 2017, Russell was named

Atlantic 10 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

freshman of the week after scoring 20 points in wins over

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

and

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

. As a freshman, Russell averaged 7.0 points per game. In the NCAA Tournament, he scored 15 points including two clinching free throws with 11 seconds remaining and had five assists and two steals in a 83–78 overtime win against

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. Russell scored a career-high 41 points on March 5, 2019, in a 86–85 overtime win against St. Joseph's. It was the highest scoring effort by a Rhode Island player in a road game. Russell finished his sophomore season averaging 14.2 points and 3.7 assists per game. On January 15, 2020, Russell scored 25 points against St. Joseph's and surpassed the 1,000 point threshold. He scored 30 points on January 30, in a 87–75 win over VCU. On February 13, Russell was named to the midseason watch list for the

Naismith Trophy The Naismith Trophy is a trophy awarded to the men's champion of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, and is named in honor of basketball's inventor, James Naismith. The trophy was first awarded to the winner of the 1967 FIBA World Championship. The ...

. At the close of the regular season, Russell was named to the First Team All-Atlantic 10 and the Defensive Team. He was named the U.S. Basketball Writer's Association District I Player of the Year and was selected to the National Association of Basketball Coaches 2019–20 Division I All-District 4 First Team. Russell averaged 18.8 points and 2.9 steals per game, second in Division I. Following the season, he declared for 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 ...

but intended to keep his college eligibility. On February 16, 2021, in a game against

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

, Russell became Rhode Island's all-time leader in steals. As a senior, he averaged 14.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, earning Third Team All-Atlantic 10 honors. After the season, Russell transferred to

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. On February 27, 2022, Russell scored a career-high 27 points and surpassed the 2,000 point mark in a 75-60 win over

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. He was named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten.

Professional career

Mornar (2022–2023)

On July 7, 2022, Russell signed with Mornar of the

ABA League The ABA League, renamed to the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the 1st-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Mace ...

and the Montenegrin League.

Galatasaray Nef (2023–)

On January 21, 2023, he signed with Galatasaray Nef of the

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 34 , , 0 , , 17.9 , , .352 , , .298 , , .810 , , 1.6 , , 1.6 , , .8 , , .0 , , 7.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 32 , , 32 , , 34.1 , , .338 , , .223 , , .737 , , 2.7 , , 3.7 , , 1.8 , , .3 , , 14.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 29 , , 35.7 , , .388 , , .357 , , .824 , , 3.4 , , 4.6 , , 2.9 , , .2 , , 18.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 23 , , 22 , , 33.2 , , .337 , , .235 , , .799 , , 4.5 , , 4.5 , , 1.9 , , .1 , , 14.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 119 , , 83 , , 29.7 , , .356 , , .281 , , .790 , , 2.9 , , 3.5 , , 1.8 , , .2 , , 13.4

Personal life

Russell's older brother

DeWayne Dwayne or Dewayne is a traditionally male name. It is Gaelic in origin, deriving from the Irish saint Dubhán. History St. Dubhán was an Irish monk who established an abbey in Hook Head, Ireland during the 5th century. As a surname it is O'Dubha ...

played college basketball for

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

before playing professionally overseas.

References

External links

Maryland Terrapins bioRhode Island Rams bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Fatts 1998 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Philadelphia Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players KK Mornar Bar players Maryland Terrapins men's basketball players Point guards Rhode Island Rams men's basketball players