Samuel José Mejía (born February 7, 1983) is a Dominican American retired 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. 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 ...

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

. Standing at , he plays at the

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

and

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three or swingman, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than power forwards and centers but taller, larger, and stronger t ...

positions.

Amateur career

Mejía attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx. He was there from 1997 to 2000 and led the Rough Riders basketball team to the PSAL's "B" division championship in 2000. Mejía left there to attend the

Storm King School The Storm King School (SKS) is an independent coeducational boarding and day school in the U.S. state of New York. Established in 1867, it is one of New York's oldest boarding schools. It is a college preparatory school for students in ...

Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York Cornwall-on-Hudson is a riverfront village in the town of Cornwall, Orange County, New York, United States. It lies on the west bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of New York City. The population as of the 2010 census was 3,018. It ...

, from which he graduated. He was coached there by Kevin Houston who led the nation in scoring in 1986–87.

Professional career

Mejía was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the 2007 NBA draft, with the 57th overall pick. The Pistons waived Mejía on October 29, 2007. In 2007–08, he briefly played with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA D-League. On January 30, 2008, he signed with the Italian club Pierrel Capo d'Orlando, for the rest of the season. Mejía signed with the Greek League club AEL 1964 GS for the 2008–09 season, where he averaged 14.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in 20 Greek League games.CHOLET BASKET signs Mejia, Eitutavicius
/ref> On September 29, 2009, Mejía moved to France and signed a one-year deal with Cholet Basket. On July 1, 2010, he re-signed with Cholet for one more season. During the 2010–11 EuroLeague, Meija was named the EuroLeague MVP of the 5th week games. He was named the 2011 French League Foreign MVP, and was selected to play at the 2010 LNB All-Star Game, as a forward in the starting line-up of the "Foreign" team, at

Paris-Bercy Gare de Paris Bercy, officially Gare de Paris Bercy Bourgogne - Pays d'Auvergne, is one of the seven mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It handles about 4.3 million passengers annually according to the estimates of the SNCF, m ...

, representing Cholet Basket. On June 22, 2011 he signed a two-year contract with the Russian club CSKA Moscow. On June 22, 2012, he parted ways with CSKA. The next day, he signed a contract with the Turkish club Banvit. On January 7, 2015, in a EuroCup away game against

Budućnost Podgorica Budućnost means "the future" in many Slavic languages, and it may also refer to: *SD Budućnost Podgorica, a sports society from Podgorica, Montenegro ** KK Budućnost Podgorica, a professional basketball club FK Budućnost may refer to: * FK Bud ...

, he was involved in an incident. With two minutes of game remaining, a hooligan ran onto the court and hit him from the back, after which his teammate Rowland punched the hooligan. Mejía later joined Rowland in the brawl. Referees later ejected both players from the court. He was fined by the

Euroleague Basketball Euroleague Basketball is the private company that runs and operates the top continental-wide basketball men's professional sports club competitions in Europe, the first-tier level EuroLeague, and the second-tier level EuroCup. It has been org ...

organization for taking part in the incident, with three games of suspension, and a 30,000-

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

fine. On April 16, 2015, he was named to the

All-EuroCup First Team The EuroCup Basketball All-EuroCup Team is an annual award of the secondary level European-wide professional club basketball league, the EuroCup. The EuroCup is the European-wide professional basketball league that is one tier level below the ...

. On August 13, 2015, Mejia signed with

Tofaş Tofaş (acronym for ''Türk Otomobil Fabrikası Anonim Şirketi''; ''Turkish Automobile Factory Joint-Stock Company'' pronounced ) is a Turkish automobile manufacturer which was established in 1968 by Vehbi Koç, who was the founder of Koç Hold ...

. On July 17, 2020, he announced his retirement from professional basketball.

National team career

Mejía has been a member of the senior Dominican Republic national basketball team. He played at the

2007 CBC Championship Qualifying for the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship the basketball championships for the Americas (North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America) began on August 12, 2007 at the FIBA CBC Championship for national teams from the Car ...

.Sammy MEJIA (DOM).
/ref>

References

External links