Earnest Ross

Earnest Lee Ross Jr. (born January 27, 1991) is an American professional basketball player for Toyoda Gosei Scorpions of the Japanese B.League.

His mother, Toy, left the military in 1996 after 15 years due to 12-hour shifts keeping her way from her two children.

Ross' brother Jamel is two years younger than him.

Toy moved her sons to Washington, but she struggled to find work, sending her kids during the summers to live in Texas and Maryland with their father, who was still traveling from base to base in the military and made enough money to support the kids.

When Ross was 8 years old, his mother moved the family to Chicago.

They first moved in with Toy's sister for a year and a half before the trio got their own apartment.

In addition to Toy working long hours and maintaining multiple jobs, they lived in a rough neighborhood, and were eventually evicted from their apartment and had to move in with Toy's mother.

Ross and his brother attended separate schools in the south side of Chicago.

Ross was his brother's guardian, often having to cook for both of them while also having to walk him to and from school.

When Ross was 12 years old, he and his brother moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C. The brothers moved to live with their father when their mother was unable to support them.

She went to court and made an agreement with her ex-husband that the children would be returned after a year and a half, enough time to get back on her feet.

She lived and worked by herself in Chicago and then moved to North Carolina where her two sons would soon join her and attend high school.

Ross attended Panther Creek High School in Cary, North Carolina.

He also started eight of 32 games, including the first seven games of the season in place of the injured Tay Waller, becoming the first Auburn freshman to start a season opener since Quantez Robertson, Josh Dollard and Joey Cameron started the 2005–06 season opener.

As a junior in 2007–08, he earned All-State Class 4A honors after averaging 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists per game.

On November 13, 2008, Ross signed a National Letter of Intent to play college basketball for Auburn University.

As a senior at Panther Creek in 2008–09, Ross earned All-State Class 4A honors for the second straight year and was named the Tri-Eight Conference Player of the Year after averaging 21 points, six rebounds and five assists.

He was also the leading scorer in the North Carolina vs. South Carolina All-Star Game with 16 points and had a team-high 10 rebounds.

As a freshman at Auburn in 2009–10, Ross averaged 2.8 points and 3.0 rebounds in 13.4 minutes per game.

He shot 28 percent from the field, 22 percent from three-point range and 64 percent from the foul line.

As a sophomore in 2010–11, Ross was the SEC's most-improved scorer, elevating his point production from 2.8 per game to 13.1 per game.

He led the Tigers in scoring 13 times, including a career-high 30 points on 5-of-7 three-point shooting in an overtime loss to Georgia.

He was subsequently named Auburn's Most Valuable Player for the 2010–11 season.

In 31 games (27 starts), he also averaged 6.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals in 31.8 minutes per game.

He also led Auburn in rebounding 14 times, including a career-high 13 boards against Alabama on January 22, 2011.

On May 25, 2011, it was announced that Ross was leaving Auburn.

On June 21, 2011, he signed a grant-in-aid agreement with the University of Missouri and subsequently redshirted the 2011–12 season due to NCAA transfer regulations.

As a redshirted junior at Missouri in 2012–13, Ross averaged 10.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.2 steals in 34 games with 10 starts.

He was the top scorer in the Southeastern Conference off the bench, averaging 11.0 points on 44 percent shooting from the floor and 41.7 percent shooting from three-point range in 24 contests off the pine.

As a senior in 2013–14, Ross made starts in all 35 contests and averaged 14.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.3 steals.

He played college basketball for Auburn and Missouri before beginning his professional career in Australia in 2014.

He played half a season with the Perth Wildcats before an Achilles injury ended his rookie year.

He continued on in Australia in 2016 with the Ballarat Miners.

Born in the U.S. territory of Guam, he represented the Guam national team for the first time in 2018.

He then played in Denmark, New Zealand and Qatar before returning to Australia to play for the Geraldton Buccaneers in 2018.

In 2019, he helped the Joondalup Wolves reach the SBL Grand Final.

He later had a stint in the NBA G League for the South Bay Lakers.

Ross was born in Guam, a United States territory in Micronesia.

His parents were both in the military at the time and moved around a lot early in Ross' life.

He moved to Hawaii and then Japan before his parents split when Ross was 5 years old.