David Lee

David Lee

New York Knicks  – No. 42
Forward-Center
Born	April 29, 1983 (1983-04-29) (age 26) St. Louis, Missouri
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight	240 lb (109 kg)
College	Florida
Draft	30th 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 American professional basketball player. He is currently playing for the New York Knicks. Lee played collegiately for the Florida Gators of the University of Florida as a power forward.

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.^[2]

College career

Lee played for the Florida Gators under coach Billy Donovan. In his freshman year, he was named to the All-SEC Freshman team by the conference's coaches. In his sophomore season, he started to play very well while averaging double figures in points and bringing down around seven rebounds a game. He was named Second Team All-SEC by the coaches in his junior year while averaging 13 points and seven rebounds.

NBA career

2005–06

Lee was selected by the Knicks with the team's second first-round pick (30th overall) in the 2005 NBA Draft, following Channing Frye. Lee signed with the team on July 1, 2005.^[3]

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 three steals in 52 minutes as the Knicks went on to defeat the Phoenix Suns in triple overtime on January 2, 2006. Those points were Lee's career high until he scored 24 points against the Sacramento Kings on November 16, 2007. He tied his career high of 15 rebounds against the Washington Wizards on November 15, 2006, and has since set a new career high by grabbing 21 rebounds on November 29th 2008 against the Golden State Warriors. Lee averaged 5.2 points (59.6%) and 4.5 rebounds per game in his rookie season while averaging 16 minutes 48 s of playing time 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 a 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. 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 and sprained his ankle. The original diagnosis was for him to only miss a few days, but nearly three weeks after the injury he was still unable 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.^[4]

2007–08

In the 2007–08 season, Lee continued to develop into a major contributor off the bench for the Knicks, and set career highs in most major categories, including minutes, points per game, and rebounds per game.^[5]

2008–09

David Lee had career highs of points 37 and rebounds 21 and became the first Knicks player with 30 points and 20 rebounds in a game since Patrick Ewing had 34 points and 25 rebounds on Feb. 23, 1997.^[6]

On December 9, in a match-up against the Chicago Bulls, Lee became only the 11th Knick to score 10 consecutive double-doubles.

Awards and honors

• 2007 T-Mobile Rookie Challenge MVP (30 points (14–14 FG), 11 rebounds)

Television appearances

In 2007 Lee was selected appeared on the game show Family Feud, in an "NBA Players vs Mothers week" to raise money for charity.^[7] On April 26, 2009, he appeared on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice.^{[citation needed]}}. Lee also made a cameo in an episode of the now-canceled series "Lipstick Jungle", playing himself.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Notes

External links

• David Lee Info Page at NBA.com

• David Lee at basketball-reference.com