BRANDON MCKNIGHT'S BLOG View profile
188cm / 6'2'' - Guard - 1983 USA
Brandon McKnight Basketball Career
Born: Sep.25, 1983
Son of Levinus Clemons and Carolyn McKnight
Has one brother, Lavarus Williams and three sisters: LaShanda, Lela and Lynne
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Outlook:
Possesses explosive quickness and great ball-handling ability. Tremendous defender who can put pressure on the ball ... solid scorer who can get to the basket ... excellent passer who looks to distribute first and score second.
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Career:
2000-2001: South Bend, Ind. (LaSalle): Averaged 28.6 points, 8.0 assists, 7.8 rebounds and 4.0 steals per game
2001-2002: Purdue (NCAA): 14 games: 1.7ppg, 0.8rpg, 0.7apg, FGP: 66.7%
2002: European Trip: Averaged 7.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game
2002-2003: Purdue (NCAA): 28 games: 5.4ppg, 2.3rpg, 2.5apg, FGP: 44.6%, 3PT: 11.1%, FT: 77.1%
2003-2004: Purdue (NCAA, starting five): 31 games: 9.0ppg, 2.6rpg, 2.8apg, FGP: 40.1%, 3PT: 27.3%, FT: 69.6%
2004-2005: Purdue (NCAA, starting five): 28 games: 11.8ppg, 3.4rpg, 3.8apg, 1.3spg, FGP: 35.5%, 3PT: 26.5%, FT: 73.2%
2005: May: Jersey Shore Invitational Tournament in River Toms, NJ
2005-2006: Buyuk Kolej Ankara (Turkey-D1): 30 games: 8.8ppg, 2.4rpg, 1.9apg, 1.0spg, 2FGP: 40.0%, 3PT: 32.0%, FT: 68.0%
2006-2007: In Nov.'06 signed at Tekelspor Istanbul (Turkey-TBL, starting five): 24 games: 13.2ppg, 4.6rpg, 3.4apg, 1.9spg, 2FGP: 41.1%, 3PT: 32.6%, FT: 65.3%
2007-2008: Solna Vikings (Sweden-Basketligan, starting five): 31 games: 22,4ppg, 5.1rpg, 5.1apg, 2.3spg, 2FGP: 50.5%, 3PT: 35.7%, FT: 76.4%
2008-2009: Elitzur Qiryat Ata/Motzkin (Israel-Premier League, starting five): 21 games: 8.5ppg, 2.7rpg, 2.6apg, 1.2spg, FGP: 42.2%, 3PT: 29.0%, FT: 58.2%
2009-2010: Plannja Basket Lulea (Sweden-Basketligan, starting five): 37 games: Score-3(19.2ppg), 5.2rpg, 3.9apg, Steals-3(2.0spg), FGP: 47.2%, 3PT: 39.8%, FT: 65.5%
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Awards/Achievements:
HS runner-up in Indiana Mr. Basketball voting -01
Player of the year by the South Bend Tribune -01
First team all-conference -00, 01
Swedish Basketligan All-Star Game -08
Eurobasket.com All-Swedish Basketligan Defensive Player of the Year -08
Eurobasket.com All-Swedish Basketligan 1st Team -08
Eurobasket.com Swedish Basketligan All-Imports Team -08, 10
Eurobasket.com Swedish Basketligan All-Defensive Team -08, 10
Swdish League Champion -08
Swedish Basketligan Regular Season Runner-Up -08, 10
Eurobasket.com All-Swedish Basketligan 2nd Team -10
BLOG POSTINGS
YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE GOOD WITH THE BAD- Apr.16, 2010 (by Brandon)
Hello eurobasket! Here i am again posting my second blog and i would like to talk about the good and bad dealing with Europe. You know its very funny to me that people seem to think that professional basketball players overseas have it so nice and sweet. When in reality everything is not what it seems. I have people asking me all the time 'you live the good life over there huh? they treat you like a KING'. Well in some cases they do, but not it all[read more]
Hello eurobasket! Here i am again posting my second blog and i would like to talk about the good and bad dealing with Europe. You know its very funny to me that people seem to think that professional basketball players overseas have it so nice and sweet. When in reality everything is not what it seems. I have people asking me all the time 'you live the good life over there huh? they treat you like a KING'. Well in some cases they do, but not it all. See playing pro basketball in the states is a little bit different because if you sign a contract in the states your money is guaranteed without any doubt. Here in Europe that is not the case, I know many people who have signed contracts for a certain amount of money and didn't receive the full payment or if any at all. My first year in Turkey i received all of my money the team was very professional so i didn't have to worry about that at all. My second year i was in Turkey again, but on a different team and i didn't receive all of my money. They were fining me for things that weren't even in my contract. Like for example towards the end of the year when they seen we couldn't make the playoffs they started fining my teammates and myself for losing. I'm thinking to myself like 'WOW ARE YOU SERIOUS' i have never heard such a thing. I know you can get fined for going against the rules in your contract such as being last to practice, or to a game etc, but i have never heard anything like this before. So my next season i wanted to be in a situation where i knew i would get paid all of my money. So i decided to come to Sweden because i heard that the money is guaranteed. I got all the money that i was supposed to get plus bonus for winning the championship. The following year i went to Israel where i didn't receive all of my money once again. I'm like 'OH LORD' here we go again, but like my second season in Turkey this didn't start to happen until the end of the season. The team still owes me my last paycheck, but who knows if i would ever see that. The other crazy thing about that is during the whole year i would receive a lot of my paychecks late. I had to repeatedly ask for my money it was so unprofessional. It made my whole experience in Israel not very pleasant because i was unhappy about what was taking place with my ball club. So once again i had to come back to a place that was very secure which is Sweden. I have received all of my checks on time sometimes ahead of schedule. Which i really am thankful for because of what i have been through.
See the thing about the states you will never have to worry about any of this. Like lets take the NBA for example. They will receive all of their money without a question, but they have to pay taxes which is ridiculous i think. In Europe whatever you sign for in your contract you are supposed to get tax free, but the sad thing about that is that you may not receive it all. NBA players don't have this problem at all which is a great thing for them. Although there are some countries in Europe that you know for sure you can get all of your money, but not too many places you have to ask around to other players to see how the situation is in certain countries. I learned my lesson now before i go anywhere i will call the players who played on that team the previous year and ask them not only about the money situation, but about the city, organization, and how the people treat you as a player outside of basketball. I even had a few friends who signed to play some places and didn't stay longer than 48 hours once they arrived. Which is very insane to me because how can you have someone fly so many miles to get there for so little time and just send them home with no remorse. We have bills to pay and families to take care of so you would at least think that the teams here would acknowledge that, but now i have realized it doesn't work like that in all places. But the good thing is you could end up in a great situation to get all of your money, be on a winning team, in a great city, and enjoy life outside of basketball. There are a lot of good things as well, but its not all GOLDEN as it seems from the outside looking in. You can also get cut from a team at any given time if you don't perform up to their expectations. So then you might have to change to a whole new team in the middle of the season and get adjusted all over again. Its a constant grind, but what is life without struggle?? No one said it would be easy we all just 'HAVE TO TAKE THE GOOD WITH THE BAD'.
Now I'm currently living in Lulea Sweden. Where the population is 45,000 people. I'm from South Bend IN, which is also a small city, but it is bigger than Lulea. I have never lived in such a small city. Not only is it small, but the winters are very long, cold, and dark. For like 6-7 months i did not see any day light. Talking about someone who was getting depressed?!?!? The good thing is that I am playing for a very professional team who has taken great care of me and we also have had a great season. We finished second in the league and now we are one win away from playing for the championship. So I can't complain at all it could always be worse I lived in some nice cities, but the teams i played for haven't always been to professional. So i take living in a small city with nothing to do than to be in a big city with a lot to do but unhappy. Right now the weather is getting better As i look out my window the sun in shining and its about 50 degrees out right now. I know in some places the weather is a lot better trust me, but after the winter i been through I'm grateful for this. My teammates tell me that this has been the worst winter in 35 years. So I'm like perfect the year i come it would be like this. I will be home in less than a month and the weather is getting better each day. The only thing on my mind now is winning the championship this would be my second straight one in the 2 years i have been playing in Sweden. The name of my team is Plannja Basket. We have the most championships in the history of Swedish basketball with a total of 7. So this is just a little bit so you can get an understanding that yea life overseas for basketball players is good and a blessing, but there are also a lot of things we have to deal with.
I hope you enjoyed my second blog. Hopefully next time i write it will be about us going on our way to the Final round playing for the championship. Make sure you stay tuned as i share about more experiences overseas! God BLESS!!
Brandon McKnight
If It Was Easy Everyone Would Do It- Apr.8, 2010 (by Brandon)
Hello everyone! My name is Brandon Mcknight. i attended Purdue University from 2001-2005. I would like to thank God for the opportunity to be playing professional basketball overseas. Without him none of this is possible. Well where should i start?!?!?! I began my first season in Turkey in 2005-06 playing for a club by the name of Buyuk Kolej. I had a decent year, but not what i expected[read more]
Hello everyone! My name is Brandon Mcknight. i attended Purdue University from 2001-2005. I would like to thank God for the opportunity to be playing professional basketball overseas. Without him none of this is possible. Well where should i start?!?!?! I began my first season in Turkey in 2005-06 playing for a club by the name of Buyuk Kolej. I had a decent year, but not what i expected. So i was looking forward to coming back to play with the same team my second year, but guess what?? the team folded so now i am home depressed thinking of my next move. (my fellow hoopers know the feeling of sitting home and waiting). So i was home until November of 2006. After spending all of summer and most of fall working out i was so excited to have a job offer to go and play in Turkey again, this time it was a different team by the name of Tekel. This season was a spring board for me, had a good year. The thing i liked about Turkey the most was that not everybody spoke English which forced me to learn Turkish. YES!! i was speaking Turkish fluently, but now its been a few years so I'm kind of rusty. So after my first two years in Turkey i signed to go play in Stockholm Sweden for a team named Solna. This was weird for me going to Sweden because nobody i knew has ever been there before. All people could tell me was about the beautiful women there. LOL! So as i arrived i noticed that it was very diverse in race and it reminded me alot of the States. Just because the simple fact that everyone speak English and the country just seemed up to date. This was by far the best season of my career. We won the Swedish Championship that year which i think has really helped my career. The next year i ended up going to Israel, this was a great league a lot similar to Turkey on and off the court. Now i am back in Sweden playing for one of the top teams in the league by the name of Plannja. We are in the second round of the playoffs and it is very intense. There is only one thing on my mind and that is winning my second Championship here. We are up 1-0 in the second round against Uppsala. We finished second in the league this year and we are looking good right now playing very well as a team. Coming to Europe was a major adjustment for me especially with the style of play. I played college ball in the BIG TEN conference where its physical play every night. At Purdue we were big on 'DEFENSE' that won us a lot of ball games. But coming to Europe they don't allow you to play as physical as they do in the States. I was so angry getting called for hand checking time after time which caused me to get into early foul trouble. I also got called for traveling a lot. Here in Europe you have to put the ball down before you take your first step. Its nothing like that back home, but i didn't feel too bad because i seen a lot of rookies get called for the same thing. My coach my first year sat me down many of times to watch film to show me the things that i was doing wrong. Lord knows i didn't feel like sitting in there sometimes, but I'm glad i did because it all pays off. Now I'm the one schooling the rookies on the league rules. Another thing that i noticed that is different from Europe and the States is fundamentals. Europeans are drilled on fundamentals from an early age and is allowed to play professional ball earlier than we are in the States. Americans tend to have more athletic ability than Europeans, but that can only take you so far over here. I would say overseas basketball is more similar to college ball than to NBA. In the NBA is more about one on one, being physical, and having a lot of athletic ability, but in Europe its more about playing team ball and having good fundamentals. I have seen some great players struggle over here because they thought they're athletic ability would be all they need, but that is definitely not the case. I think as the years go European basketball is really getting the respect that it deserves. I have learned so much playing here and my game has elevated in so many ways, and the good thing about that is I'm still learning and i have more room to grow. You know people always ask me, 'what do you do in your free time' Well i do a lot of resting and putting in extra work in the gym. I was so homesick my first year over here. I was in Turkey from Aug 10 to May 10 with no Christmas vacation. I used to call home and whine to my mom all the time, but she told me to stick it out. She told me i came to far to give up now which was absolutely right. The foods are not the same and you know for us Americans we love McDonald's and in a lot of places that don't taste the same. When i was in Turkey and Israel we were not allowed to drink the water out of the faucet. The only water we could drink was bottled water. But here in Sweden the water is good to drink out of the faucet so no problems with that at all. I wasn't able to keep up with NCAA basketball this year because i didn't have ESPN America. I was highly upset because anyone who knows me know my favorite thing to watch is college hoops. So its nothing like being at home you have to adjust to your environment its all apart of growing up. I really believe that living here being away from home has helped me mature and become a man. I have learned that things won't always go my way and it can always be a lot worse. I can't complain about anything i have my MACBOOK PRO and SKYPE!!!!!!! I can keep in touch with my friends and family which helps time go by a lot faster. Well this was my first blog! Hoped you enjoyed it i will blog once a week so please keep up with me and my team. Thanks for taking the time out to see what my life in Europe is all about. GOD BLESS!!
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