David Lee

(basketball)

David Lee
Position	Power forward
Height	ft in ( m)
Weight	lb ( kg)
Team	New York Knicks
Nationality	USA
Born	April 29 1983 (1983--) (age 24) St. Louis, Missouri
College	Florida
Draft	30^th overall, 2005 New York Knicks
Pro career	2005–present
Awards	2007 NBA T-Mobile Rookie Challenge MVP

David Lee (born April 29, 1983 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an Jewish American professional basketball player for the NBA's New York Knicks. A 6'9", 249 lb. power forward, Lee played collegiately for the Florida Gators of the University of Florida.

Career

Early career

Lee was a highly-touted player at Chaminade College Preparatory School. Naturally left-handed, Lee became essentially ambidextrous when he broke his arm and learned to play right-handed.^[1] Before playing for the University of Florida, Lee was a McDonald's All American and won the 2001 Slam Dunk competition.

Pro career

Lee was selected by the Knicks with the team's third first-round pick (30th overall) in the 2005 NBA Draft, following Channing Frye and Nate Robinson. Lee signed with the team on July 1, 2005.^[2]

2005-06

Lee was installed as the Knicks' starting small forward for a stretch of 13 games in December 2005 and January 2006. Lee posted 23 points on 10-11 shooting, along with 15 rebounds and 3 steals in 52 minutes as the Knicks went on to defeat the Phoenix Suns in triple overtime on January 2, 2006. The points remain Lee's career high but he tied his career high 15 rebounds against the Washington Wizards on November 15, 2006, and has since set a new career high by grabbing 20 rebounds on December 18, 2006 against the Utah Jazz.

Lee averaged 5.2 points (59.6%) and 4.5 rebounds per game in his rookie season while averaging 16 minutes 48 s in 67 games.

2006-07

With an injury to Channing Frye, Lee started his first game of the season against the Chicago Bulls on November 28, 2006.

On December 16, 2006, he was one of 10 players ejected in the Knicks-Nuggets brawl. However, he was not involved in the brawl and was not suspended by the NBA.

On December 20, 2006 in a double-overtime game against the Charlotte Bobcats, with 0.1 of second left, Lee scored the winning basket on a tip-in without breaking the league's so-called Trent Tucker Rule, whereby a player cannot legitimately make a field goal with less than three tenths of a second remaining on the clock. As this applies almost exclusively to jump shots, Lee's shot attempt was the first ever made with 0.1 of a second left on the game clock, post Trent Tucker Rule. ^{[citation needed]}

At the All Star break, Lee had averaged 11.1 points on 61.05% shooting (first in the league), an 80.0% free throw percentage, 10.8 rebounds (8th in NBA) and 1.8 assists in 30.9 minutes a game.

On February 16, 2007, Lee, playing for the Sophomores, was named the Most Valuable Player in the Rookie Challenge, finishing with 30 points on 14 of 14 shooting from the field and 11 rebounds.

On February 23, 2007, in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Lee came down on Andrew Bogut's foot, spraining his ankle. The original diagnosis was for him to only miss a few days, but nearly three weeks after the injury he still wasn't able to play. He was reexamined and the doctor found that he had a much more severe sprain than was originally diagnosed. Lee played only sporadic minutes for the remaining games of the season.^[3]