Lawrence Edward Roberts III (born October 20, 1982) 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. Standing at , he played at the power forward position.

College career

Roberts attended

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

for two seasons, where he made the Big 12 All-Freshman Team, but transferred to

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

in 2003 following the basketball scandal that rocked Baylor's program that year. He was a first-team All-American and the

SEC Player of the Year Southeastern Conference Player of the Year refers to the most outstanding player for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in a given sport for a given season. For lists of individual sport SEC Players of the Year by year: *Southeastern Conference Bas ...

in 2004, leading Mississippi State to its first top-two seeding in the NCAA tournament. In the 2003–04 season he averaged 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds. He was first-team All-SEC and a first-team All-American, finishing third to

Jameer Nelson Jameer Lamar Nelson Sr. (born February 9, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player who serves as assistant general manager for the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Saint Joseph's Hawk ...

and

Emeka Okafor Chukwuemeka Ndubuisi "Emeka" Okafor (born September 28, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. Okafor attended Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas and the University of Connecticut, where in 2004 he won a national champ ...

for national player of the year honors. In the 2004–05 season he averaged 16.9 points and 11 rebounds. He recorded the first triple-double in Mississippi State history against

Nicholls State University Nicholls State University is a public university in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Founded in 1948, Nicholls is part of the University of Louisiana System. Originally named Francis T. Nicholls Junior College, the university is named for Francis T. Nicholl ...

with 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists, while wearing an irritating translucent plastic face mask to protect his broken nose.

Professional career

NBA

Roberts was a second round draft pick (55th overall) of the Seattle SuperSonics in the

2005 NBA draft The 2005 NBA draft took place on June 28, 2005, in the Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. In this draft, NBA teams took turns selecting amateur college basketball players and other first-time eligible players, such as players f ...

, but was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for two future second round draft picks and cash considerations. He was signed to a contract on July 10, 2005.

Europe

After two seasons with the Grizzlies, in July 2007, Roberts moved to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and signed with Greek powerhouse

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

on a two-year deal. However, in October 2007, he was released from his contract before the season started. Without a club and not playing competitive basketball for several months, Roberts was signed by Serbian team

KK Crvena zvezda Košarkaški klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-cyrl, Кошаркашки клуб Црвена звезда, ), commonly referred to as KK Crvena zvezda mts for sponsorship reasons or simply Crvena zvezda, is a men's professional basketball Sports club, ...

on September 17, 2008, to a one-year contract. On September 25, 2009, Roberts was signed to the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...

training camp roster, but got released less than a month later on October 19, 2009. Two days later, October 21, 2009, Roberts signed a one-year contract with

KK Partizan Košarkaški klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Кошаркашки клуб Партизан, English: Partizan Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Partizan or simply Partizan, is a professional basketball team based in Belgrade, Serbia. It is ...

. With Partizan he won the 2009–10 Serbian National Championship, the 2010 Serbian National Cup, the 2010 Adriatic League and took 4th place at the Euroleague's Final Four in Paris. In July 2010, Roberts signed with the Turkish team

Efes Pilsen Anadolu Efes Biracılık ve Malt Sanayii A.Ş.''(lit. Anadolu Efes Brewery and Malt Industries)'' produces and markets beer and malt and non-alcoholic beverages in a wide geographical area comprising Turkey, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independe ...

. On July 12, 2011, Roberts signed with BC Lietuvos rytas. In July 2012, he signed with

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. In October 2013, he signed with Darüşşafaka of the

TBL2 Part of the troff suite of Unix document layout tools, tbl is a preprocessor that formats tables in preparation for processing with troff/nroff. Overview Mike Lesk is the original author of tbl. Like the main troff program, it uses command li ...

. On October 2, 2014, Roberts signed with

BCM Gravelines Basket Club Maritime Gravelines-Dunkerque, commonly referred to as BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque, is a French professional basketball club based in Gravelines. They currently play in the Pro A, the highest professional league in France. The team plays ...

of the French

LNB Pro A The LNB Pro A, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Betclic Élite, is the top-tier men's professional basketball league in France. The competition has existed since 1921. Since 1987, the Ligue Nationale de Basket has governed the league. ...

averaging 4.7 points and 4.9 rebounds. On February 4, 2015, Roberts left the team citing personal reasons.Lawrence Roberts leaves Gravelines-Dunkerque
/ref>

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

, - , align="left" , 2005–06 , align="left" , Memphis , 33 , , 0 , , 5.5 , , .455 , , .000 , , .478 , , 1.5 , , .2 , , .2 , , .1 , , 1.5 , - , align="left" , 2006–07 , align="left" , Memphis , 54 , , 18 , , 17.9 , , .452 , , .000 , , .725 , , 4.8 , , .6 , , .7 , , .2 , , 5.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 87 , , 18 , , 13.2 , , .452 , , .000 , , .688 , , 3.6 , , .4 , , .5 , , .2 , , 3.8

Euroleague

, - , align="left" , 2009–10 , align="left" , Partizan Belgrade , 21 , , 21 , , 32.2 , , .335 , , .319 , , .658 , , 7.4 , , 2.3 , , 1.1 , , .3 , , 9.0 , , 10.0 , - , align="left" ,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, align="left" ,

, 16 , , 3 , , 20.9 , , .435 , , .379 , , .594 , , 5.1 , , .8 , , .9 , , .6 , , 6.5 , , 7.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 37 , , 24 , , 27.3 , , .368 , , .337 , , .640 , , 6.4 , , 1.6 , , 1.0 , , .5 , , 7.9 , , 8.9

Personal

Roberts is the son of Lawrence E. "Butch" Jr., and Cynthia Roberts, nephew of former sportscaster Robin Roberts of ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'' fame and grandson of the late Col. Lawrence E. Roberts, Sr and Lucimarian Roberts.

References

External links

Lawrence Roberts
at eurobasket.com
Lawrence Roberts
at euroleague.net

at basketball-Reference.com

at fiba.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Lawrence 1982 births Living people ABA League players African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Germany American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in Lithuania American expatriate basketball people in Serbia American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American men's basketball players Anadolu Efes S.K. players Arkansas RimRockers players Basketball players from Houston Baylor Bears men's basketball players BC Rytas players BCM Gravelines players Darüşşafaka Basketbol players FC Bayern Munich basketball players KK Crvena zvezda players KK Partizan players Lamar High School (Houston, Texas) alumni Memphis Grizzlies players Mississippi State Bulldogs men's basketball players Olympiacos B.C. players Power forwards (basketball) Seattle SuperSonics draft picks 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people