Rudy Gay

Rudy Carlton Gay Jr. (born August 17, 1986) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

He began his junior year with Eastern Tech, but in September 2002, he transferred to Archbishop Spalding in Severn.

This prompted the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association to review its transfer rules.

He began playing basketball for Spalding as a junior in 2002–03, earning first-team All-Baltimore Catholic League honors as a junior and senior, and was also honored as the Baltimore Sun's co-player of the year as a senior.

He was the Washington Post All-Met Basketball Player of the Year, a McDonald's All-American, and a Parade first-team All-American in his senior year after averaging 21.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game.

Considered a five-star recruit by Rivals.com, Gay was listed as the No. 2 small forward and the No. 5 player in the nation in 2004.

Gay's college recruitment and decision to attend the University of Connecticut over the University of Maryland were controversial.

Gay had expressed a desire to attend Maryland and said that he grew up rooting for the team, but he ultimately chose UConn.

Because of the heavy involvement of an AAU coach and a high school coach, there was the appearance of impropriety, although no NCAA recruiting violations were discovered.

The NCAA adopted a new scheduling rule after UConn paid $25,000 to schedule a game against the Beltway Ballers, an ad hoc AAU team that consisted of Gay's former teammates.

Although it violated no standing rule at the time, media observers and Connecticut staff considered it directly connected to the recruitment.

According to individuals close to Maryland head coach Gary Williams, the recruitment demonstrated that rule-bending is often necessary to secure highly touted players, which Williams said he was unwilling to do, even at the expense of recruiting.

As a freshman at Connecticut in 2004–05, Gay was a co-winner (with Jeff Green of Georgetown) of the Big East Conference Rookie of the Year award after averaging 11.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists on .462 shooting in 28.8 minutes in 31 games.

He was a unanimous Big East All-Rookie Team selection, was named National Freshman of the Year by The Sporting News, and earned Big East Rookie of the Week honors five times.

In the summer of 2005, Gay played for United States' Men's Under-21 World Championship Team.

He averaged 10.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game over the tournament.

Before his sophomore season began, Gay was nominated as Big East Preseason Player of the Year, along with Syracuse guard Gerry McNamara.

After the season concluded, Gay was one of four division one college players nominated for the Naismith College Player of the Year Award (along with JJ Redick, Adam Morrison and Allan Ray).

Also, he was a unanimous selection to the First-team All-Big East.

He led the Huskies in scoring (15.2 points) while averaging 6.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 30.8 minutes in 33 games as a sophomore.

He scored a career-high 28 points on November 21, 2005, against Arkansas.

Gay led the Huskies to a 30–3 record and finished his college career with 20 points and six rebounds in a career-high 42 minutes in an NCAA Elite Eight loss to George Mason on March 26.

The forward played college basketball for the UConn Huskies before being selected eighth overall in the 2006 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets; he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies days later.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Rae Gay and Rudy Gay Sr., former lead singer of the R&B group Ace Spectrum and band director for The Stylistics, Gay began playing competitive recreational basketball at the age of 12 in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.

At the age of 14, Gay began playing for the nationally known Cecil-Kirk AAU program under coach Anthony Lewis.

Gay played his first two years of high school basketball at Baltimore County's Eastern Technical High School, a magnet school in Essex.

He played varsity basketball both years.

In his sophomore season at Eastern Tech, the Mavericks earned their first and only trip to College Park for the state semi-finals.

Although Eastern Tech was a Blue Ribbon academic institution, Gay's parents were concerned about his college preparation.

He was named first-team All-America by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and was named to the 2006 Washington, D.C. Regional All-Tournament Team.

On April 24, 2006, Gay declared for the 2006 NBA draft.

Gay was selected with the eighth overall pick in the 2006 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets, who then traded him and Stromile Swift to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Shane Battier on July 12.

Gay immediately signed his rookie scale contract with the Grizzlies upon being acquired by the team.

Gay averaged 10.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 27.0 minutes in 78 games (43 starts) as a rookie.

He earned NBA Rookie of the Month honors for November 2006, and went on to be selected to the 2006–07 All-Rookie First Team after placing fourth among first-year players in scoring, sixth in rebounding, fifth in steals (0.91), third in blocks (0.95), and fourth in minutes.

He also finished third in the balloting for the 2006–07 Rookie of the Year Award behind winner Brandon Roy and runner-up Andrea Bargnani.

In 2007–08, Gay's second season, he set a Grizzlies' franchise record for points in a single season (1,632) and established a career-high for scoring average (20.1 points), becoming just the third player in franchise history to average 20 points per game (behind only Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Pau Gasol).

He participated in the 2008 Rising Stars Slam Dunk Contest, and finished runner-up to Hedo Türkoğlu for the 2007–08 NBA Most Improved Player Award.

After his invitation to the 2008 Slam Dunk Contest, Gay and YouTube teamed up for the Rudy Gay Slam Dunk Contest promotion, in which he asked fans to upload footage of their best dunks for him to attempt during the contest.

In February 2012, Gay was inducted into the "Huskies of Honor".