Shane Battier

Shane Battier

Houston Rockets  – No. 31
Small forward
Born	September 9, 1978 (1978-09-09) (age 31) Birmingham, Michigan
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Listed weight	220 lb (100 kg)
Salary	$6,864,200
High school	Detroit Country Day School Beverly Hills, Michigan
College	Duke
Draft	1st round, (6th pick), 2001 Vancouver Grizzlies
Pro career	2001–present
Former teams	Memphis Grizzlies (2001-06)
Awards	Mr. Basketball of Michigan (1997) 1997 Naismith Prep Player of the Year 2001 Oscar Robertson Trophy Naismith College Player of the Year John R. Wooden Award Lowe's Senior CLASS Award (2001) NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player ACC Athlete of the Year (2001)

Medal record
Competitor for  United States
World Championships
Bronze	2006 Japan	USA

Shane Courtney Battier (born September 9, 1978 in Birmingham, Michigan) is an American professional basketball player (small forward) with the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association and the U.S. national team.

Battier was born and raised in Birmingham, Michigan, and attended Derby Middle School, before starting his basketball career at Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan, where he won many awards including 1997 "Mr. Basketball of Michigan" while playing for coach Kurt Keener. On September 11, 2007, Shane returned to Detroit Country Day School as they retired his jersey, number 55. Shane joined Chris Webber as only the second player to have his athletic number retired by Detroit Country Day School.

Career

Early years

Battier was an outlier from his childhood; by the time he entered Country Day as a seventh-grader, he was already 6'4"/1.93 m, and was 6'7"/2.01 m a year later. He was also the only child in the school with a black father and a white mother. As Michael Lewis put it in a 2009 article, the young Battier "was shuttling between a black world that treated him as white and a white world that treated him as black."^[1] More specifically in the context of basketball, Lewis noted that "the inner-city kids with whom he played on the A.A.U. circuit treated Battier like a suburban kid with a white game, and the suburban kids he played with during the regular season treated him like a visitor from the planet where they kept the black people."^[1] Battier also noted that his cerebral approach to the game was forged from that time:

Although he was almost always the best player on the court, he never fully embraced the starring role. In the Lewis article, Battier's high school coach, Kurt Keener, said "He had a tendency to defer. He had this incredible ability to make everyone around him better. But I had to tell him to be more assertive. The one game we lost his freshman year, it was because he deferred to the seniors."^[1] However, his apparent deference was not a sign of lack of ambition; an exchange between Battier and Lewis made this clear:

College

Battier, who graduated from Country Day with a 3.96 grade point average and was named the school's outstanding student in his senior year,^[1] went on to attend Duke, where he played four years under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. While at Duke, Battier often was the best defender on the court and gave people fits. He constantly took charges which prompted the Cameron Crazies to chant, "Who's your daddy? Battier!" He led the Blue Devils to two Final Fours, in 1999 and 2001. The Blue Devils lost to the Connecticut Huskies in the 1999 finals, but came back to win the national championship by defeating the Arizona Wildcats two years later. In 2001, Battier swept the major National Player of the Year awards, and subsequently had his jersey number 31 retired by the Blue Devils. Additionally, Battier was a three-time awardee of the NABC Defensive Player of the Year. Battier graduated from Duke with a major in religion^{[citation needed]}.

After the conclusion of his college career, Battier was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team.

NBA

Battier was selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies with the sixth pick of the first round of the 2001 NBA Draft. He was the Grizzlies' second draft pick since the team relocated from Vancouver, Canada after six years. Pau Gasol of Spain was selected in the same draft with the number three pick, by the Atlanta Hawks, then traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Battier is a versatile player with the size to play inside and the range to score from further out (particularly the corner three-pointer). However, he makes his living as a hustle player on the defensive end, where he defends three positions (shooting guard, power forward, small forward) with a high degree of skill, nets a good number of blocks and steals, dives for loose balls, and frequently draws offensive fouls from his opponent.

On June 28, 2006, Battier was traded by the Grizzlies to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Stromile Swift and the Rockets' number 8 selection Rudy Gay in the 2006 NBA Draft.^[2]

Battier has often been called "the ultimate glue guy" for playing sound, fundamental, team-oriented basketball, making his teammates more effective without flash or padding his own stats, and for making the most of his skills with discipline and hustle rather than raw athleticism.^[3] He's also known for his extensive preparation in studying the opposing team and the player he is assigned to guard: "I try to prepare for my opponent as thoroughly as possible. I want to know every angle on the man I am guarding to give me an edge. I read many, many pages and go over strengths and weaknesses many times before a game. 'Proper preparation prevents poor performance.' That is a motto I like."^[4] The Rockets currently oblige him in that regard by making him the team's only player with access to a huge amount of highly sophisticated statistical data that they compile on all opposing players; he uses this data to familiarize himself with the tendencies of the players he will guard in each game.^[1] His team-oriented approach is also illustrated by one game between the Rockets and San Antonio Spurs in the 2007–08 season in which he was assigned to guard Manu Ginóbili. Because Ginóbili generally plays off the bench, his minutes are not in sync with those of typical NBA starters. Before the game, Battier went to Rockets coach Rick Adelman and asked to be kept out of the starting lineup and substituted in whenever Ginóbili entered the game. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey later said about the incident that “No one in the NBA does that. No one says put me on the bench so I can guard their best scorer all the time.”^[1]

He played for the US national team in the 2006 FIBA World Championship, winning a bronze medal.^[5]

Awards and honors

• Gold medal with Team USA, 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia ^[6]
• NBA All-Rookie First Team: 2002
• Bronze medal with Team USA, 2006 FIBA World Championship
• NBA All-Defensive Second Team: 2007-08, 2008-09

Media appearances

In the 2006-07 NBA season, Battier appeared in the NBA Fundamentals series, hosted by TNT, in which players showcase several aspects of the game. He explained how to take charges, i.e. draw offensive fouls. In this clip, Battier explained that a good charge taker needs three things: good court vision, so he knows where the ball is at all times; anticipation, so he can guess the spot where a slashing attacker will dribble to; and courage, because taking a charge hurts. He also emphasised the need to keep your feet outside the blocking circle, because otherwise, the legal charge becomes an illegal block. Battier joked that Charles Barkley, who is known for his size, was an elite charge taker.

Other

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (February 2008)

He once told ESPN The Magazine's Stuart Scott: "I don't know what I will end up doing post-basketball. I've always been intrigued by politics. I may be a bit too idealistic to run for office. We'll see."^[7]

He was featured on the cover of EA's NCAA March Madness 2002 video game.

In addition, Battier is the Tech Editor for HOOP Magazine.

Personal life

In summer 2004, Battier married Heidi Ufer, his high school sweetheart. ^[8] They had their first son, Zeke Edward Battier, on June 2, 2008.

Battier is a co-owner of D1 Sports Training in Memphis.^[9]

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

See also

• Lewis, Michael (February 14, 2009), "The No-Stats All-Star", The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html?hp 

References

External links

• Official Site (Under Construction)
• Shane Battier player profile at NBA.com
• Shane Battier at ESPN.com
• Shane Battier on BlackHistoryDaily.com
• ClutchFans.net Shane Battier Profile - Houston Rocket Fan Site
• 2001 Oscar Robertson Trophy
• Shane Battier movie and film appearances at IMDB