Shane Battier

Shane Battier

Battier with the Rockets
No. 31   Miami Heat
Small forward / Shooting guard
Personal information
Date of birth	September 9, 1978 (1978-09-09)
Place of birth	Birmingham, Michigan
Nationality	American
High school	Detroit Country Day School (Beverly Hills, MI)
Listed height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Listed weight	220 lb (100 kg)
Career information
College	Duke
NBA Draft	2001 / Round: 1 / Pick: 6th overall
Selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies
Pro career	2001–present
Career history
2001–2006	Memphis Grizzlies
2006–2011	Houston Rockets
2011	Memphis Grizzlies
2011–present	Miami Heat
Career highlights and awards
2× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (2008–2009) NBA All-Rookie First Team (2002) NCAA Champion (2001) NCAA Basketball Tournament MOP (2001) John R. Wooden Award (2001) Naismith College Player of the Year (2001) Consensus NCAA All-American First Team (2000) Consensus NCAA All-American Second Team (2001)
Stats at NBA.com
Medals Men’s basketball Competitor for United States FIBA World Championship Bronze 2006 Japan National team Goodwill Games Gold 2001 Brisbane National team

Shane Courtney Battier (born September 9, 1978) is an American professional basketball player. He currently plays with the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association. He has also been a member of the U.S. national team.

Battier was born and raised in Birmingham, Michigan, and attended Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan, where he won many awards including 1997 "Mr. Basketball of Michigan." He went on to play four years of college basketball at Duke, where he captured the 2001 National Championship and swept the major National Player of the Year awards. Battier was selected with the sixth overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft by the Memphis Grizzlies and was traded five years later to the Houston Rockets. He was then traded back to the Memphis Grizzles during the 2010-2011 NBA season. His number has been retired by both Detroit Country Day School and Duke University.

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 ft 4 in (1.93 m), and was 6 ft 7 in (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." 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." Battier also noted that his cerebral approach to the game was forged from that time:

“

Everything I’ve done since then is because of what I went through with this. What I did is alienate myself from everybody. I’d eat lunch by myself. I’d study by myself. And I sort of lost myself in the game.

”

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." However, his apparent deference was not a sign of lack of ambition; an exchange between Battier and Lewis made this clear:

“

Battier: "Chris Webber won three state championships, the Mr. Basketball Award and the Naismith Award. I won three state championships, Mr. Basketball and the Naismith Awards. All the things they said I wasn’t able to do, when I was in the eighth grade." Lewis: “Who’s they?” Battier: “Pretty much everyone.” Lewis: “White people?” Battier: “No. The street."

”

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, went on to attend Duke, where he played four years under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. While at Duke, Battier was often the best defender on the court. He frequently 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 (778) and Jason Williams on the 2001 national championship team were one of only two Duke duos to each score over 700 points in a season, the other duo being Jon Scheyer (728) and Kyle Singler (707) in the 2009–10 season. Battier graduated from Duke with a major in religion.

After the conclusion of his college career, Battier was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team. Battier was a two-time Academic All-American and Academic All-American of the year in 2001.

He was second behind Jon Scheyer in the Duke record book for minutes played in a single season as of March 28, 2010, and had 36 double-figure scoring games in a single season (tied for 5th-most in Duke history, with Scheyer, Jason Williams, and J.J. Redick.

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, British Columbia, 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.

Battier defending Kobe Bryant.

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.

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. 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." The Rockets made him the team's only player with access to its highly sophisticated statistical data that they compiled on all opposing players; he used this data to familiarize himself with the tendencies of the players he would guard in each game. In a game between the Rockets and San Antonio Spurs in the 2007–08 season in which he was assigned to guard Manu Ginóbili, because Ginóbili was playing off the bench and his minutes were not in sync with those of typical NBA starters, Battier went to Rockets coach Rick Adelman before the game 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, “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.”

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

On February 17, 2010, in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Battier scored 20 points, shooting 6-6 from 3-point territory, to go along with his 10 rebounds. During the latter part of the season, Battier lost his starting spot to the returning Trevor Ariza. Battier, however, made it perfectly clear that starting a game or hearing his name prior to a game was not important to him. On March 21, 2010 in a game against the New York Knicks, Battier would suffer a season-ending knee injury. However, no surgery was needed.

On August 12, 2010, the Rockets traded swingman Trevor Ariza to the New Orleans Hornets for Courtney Lee from the New Jersey Nets. On December 17, Battier recorded his first double-double of the season, finishing with 17 points (including 5 three-pointers) and 10 rebounds to go with 5 assists, 3 blocks, and a steal. On January 24, 2011, Battier scored a season-high 19 points (including 5 three pointers) in a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. On February 5, Battier recorded a season-high 13 rebounds in an overtime win over the Utah Jazz. On February 14, Battier went a perfect 7-7 from the field (including 3-3 on three-pointers), finishing with 17 points, in a 121-102 win over the Denver Nuggets. On February 24, Battier was traded by the Houston Rockets back to the Memphis Grizzlies, where Battier was originally drafted and played the first years of his career, in exchange for center Hasheem Thabeet, DeMarre Carroll, and a 1st round draft pick. On April 17, with Memphis down by two, Battier made the game-winning three to bring, helping Memphis to its first playoff win in franchise history, following losses in its first 12 playoff games.

On December 8, 2011, Battier announced through his Twitter account that he planned to sign with the Miami Heat when free agency opened the following day. He had met with Heat officials in the first hours of December 5, the first day that teams were allowed to speak with players. Battier officially signed on as a member of the Heat on December 9, 2011.

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.

Personal life

In summer 2004, Battier married Heidi Ufer, his high school sweetheart. They had their first son, Zeke Edward Battier, on June 2, 2008. On April 17, 2011, Heidi had their second child.

Battier is a co-owner of D1 Sports Training in Memphis. Battier was recently chosen as the seventh smartest professional athlete by the Sporting News.

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2001–02	Memphis	78	78	39.7	.429	.373	.700	5.4	2.8	1.5	1.0	14.4
2002–03	Memphis	78	47	30.6	.483	.398	.828	4.4	1.3	1.3	1.1	9.7
2003–04	Memphis	79	1	24.6	.446	.349	.732	3.8	1.3	1.3	.7	8.5
2004–05	Memphis	80	72	31.5	.442	.395	.789	5.2	1.6	1.1	1.0	9.9
2005–06	Memphis	81	81	35.0	.488	.394	.707	5.3	1.7	1.1	1.4	10.1
2006–07	Houston	82	82	36.4	.446	.421	.779	4.1	2.1	1.0	.7	10.1
2007–08	Houston	80	78	36.3	.428	.377	.743	5.1	1.9	1.0	1.1	9.3
2008–09	Houston	60	59	33.9	.410	.384	.821	4.8	2.3	.8	.9	7.3
2009–10	Houston	67	62	32.4	.398	.362	.726	4.7	2.4	.8	1.1	8.0
2010–11	Houston	59	59	30.8	.456	.391	.645	4.8	2.6	.9	1.2	8.6
2010–11	Memphis	23	0	24.2	.426	.333	.882	4.0	1.4	.7	.4	5.0
Career		767	619	32.9	.443	.385	.745	4.7	2.0	1.1	1.0	9.6

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2004	Memphis	4	0	17.3	.400	.429	.667	3.0	.3	.0	.2	4.8
2005	Memphis	4	4	29.8	.419	.143	.400	6.8	1.5	.5	1.0	7.3
2006	Memphis	4	4	32.3	.500	.286	.333	5.8	.5	1.0	.5	6.0
2007	Houston	7	7	38.9	.451	.442	.875	2.6	2.1	1.7	1.0	10.3
2008	Houston	6	6	41.0	.444	.480	.727	3.8	.5	1.0	.8	10.0
2009	Houston	13	13	38.2	.407	.315	.957	4.9	2.4	1.1	.7	8.1
2011	Memphis	13	0	26.1	.439	.276	.667	4.0	1.2	.5	.5	5.5
Career		51	34	32.7	.434	.360	.750	4.3	1.4	.9	.7	7.5

See also

• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 145 games played
• 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. 

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
• The No-Stats All-Star at New York Times