Frank Aron Booker (born 7 July 1994) is an American-Icelandic

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 plays for the Úrvalsdeild karla club

Valur Valur may refer to: People * Birkir Valur Jónsson (born 1998), Icelandic football player * Björn Valur Gíslason (born 1959), Icelandic politician * Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson (born 1979), Icelandic handball player * Guðni Valur Guðnason (born ...

. In 2019, he debuted with 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 ...

Early life

Booker was born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

, Iceland, to Frank Booker, an American professional basketball player who was drafted by the

New Jersey Nets New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

in 1987, and Icelander Þórunn Jónsdóttir. He grew up in Iceland until the age of 11 when he moved to his father in

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...

to attend school. At Westside High School in Augusta, Booker averaged 27.9 points and 4.1 assists per game as a senior.

College career

Booker attended the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

from 2013 to 2015, where he backed up

Buddy Hield Chavano Rainer "Buddy" Hield (born December 17, 1992) is a Bahamian professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was named the Big 12 Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year in 2015 ...

. On 22 May 2015, he scored 12 points in Oklahoma's victory 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 ...

in the second round of the 2015 NCAA tournament. He transferred to

Florida Atlantic Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-cam ...

in 2015 and

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his first year while undergoing a back surgery to repair a herniated disc. In 2016–2017, Booker averaged 5.7 points and 16.7 minutes per game for the Owls. Prior to his senior year, Booker transferred to

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

for the 2017–18 season. In 33 games for the

Gamecocks A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ente ...

, Booker averaged 12.7 points while shooting 40,9% from the three point range.

Club career

In July 2018, Booker signed with ALM Évreux of the French

LNB Pro B The LNB Pro B, commonly known as Pro B, is the French basketball league system, 2nd-tier level men's professional basketball league in France. It is the second division of the Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB), which has organized the league since t ...

. In 29 games for the team, he averaged 8.7 points in 21.6 minutes per game. On 29 August 2019, Booker signed with Úrvalsdeild karla club

, the same team his father played for from 1991 to 1994 and led to the Úrvalsdeild Finals in 1992. After a rough debut where he scored 7 points on a dismissal 2 of 14 shooting in a narrow win against

Fjölnir Fjölnir ( non, Fjǫlnir ) is a legendary king in Norse mythology said to have been the son of Freyr (Frey) and his consort Gerðr (Gertha). The name appears in a variety of forms, including Fiolnir, Fjölner, Fjolner, and Fjolne. He was claime ...

, Booker bounced back in his second game, scoring a team high 25 points and connecting on six of his three point shots in a victory against

Þór Þorlákshöfn Ungmennafélagið Þór, commonly known as Þór Þorlákshöfn, is a multi-sport club in Þorlákshöfn, Iceland. It has active departments in athletics, badminton, basketball, motorcycle sports and track & field but has also featured various othe ...

. Booker averaged 15.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game in 2019-20. After sitting out the first half of the 2021–2022 season due to injury, Booker signed with Breiðablik in January 2022. He appeared in 10 games for Breiðablik, averaging 6.1 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. In September 2022, Booker signed back with

. On 2 October 2022, he won the Icelandic Super Cup with Valur. On 14 January 2023, he won the Icelandic Cup with Valur after the team defeated

Stjarnan Ungmennafélagið Stjarnan, commonly known as Stjarnan, is an Icelandic multi-sports club specialising in handball, football, basketball, volleyball and gymnastics located in Garðabær.and in the top 10 in the World and they have won the League ...

in the Cup final.

National team career

Booker was invited by Icelandic national team coach

Craig Pedersen Craig Pedersen (born June 13, 1965) is a Canadian basketball coach and the head coach of the Iceland national team, where he coached them at the EuroBasket 2015 and EuroBasket 2017. He is the second longest tenured coach of Iceland behind Einar Bo ...

to attend training camp prior to Iceland's

EuroBasket 2015 qualification This article describes the qualification procedure for EuroBasket 2015. Qualification format In the first qualifying round, 13 teams which didn't qualify for EuroBasket 2013 have been divided into four groups. The winners of each group advance ...

but could not attend due to commitments to

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 ...

. In July 2019, he was selected to Iceland's 15-man roster ahead of its games against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in the

EuroBasket 2021 qualification The EuroBasket 2022 qualification was a basketball competition that was played from November 2017 to February 2021, to determine the 20 FIBA Europe nations who would join the automatically qualified co-hosts Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy, and G ...

. He played his first game in a 1-point loss against Portugal on 8 August, scoring 2 points.

References

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Booker, Frank 1994 births Living people American men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in France American people of Icelandic descent Frank Booker Florida Atlantic Owls men's basketball players Guards (basketball) Frank Booker Frank Booker Frank Booker Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball players South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball players Frank Booker

Early life

College career

Club career

National team career

References

External links