Chelsea Gray

Chelsea Gray
Gray at the WNBA Finals 2016
No. 12 – Los Angeles Sparks
Position Point guard
League WNBA
Personal information
Born (1992-10-08) October 8, 1992
Hayward, California
Nationality American
Listed height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Listed weight 170 lb (77 kg)
Career information
High school St. Mary's (Stockton, California)
College Duke (2010–2014)
WNBA draft 2014 / Round: 1 / Pick: 11th overall
Selected by the Connecticut Sun
Playing career 2014–present
Career history
2014–2015 Hapoel Rishon Le-Zion
2015 Connecticut Sun
2015 Uni Girona CB
2015–2017 Abdullah Gul University Kayseri
2016–present Los Angeles Sparks
2017–2018 Botaş SK
Career highlights and awards
Stats at WNBA.com

Chelsea Nichelle Gray (born October 8, 1992) is a professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).[1] She was the eleventh pick in the 2014 WNBA Draft. She missed the 2014 WNBA season due to injury, but she made her debut with the Sun in the 2015 WNBA season.

College career

Joanne P. McCallie coached Duke's women's basketball team during the time Gray played for the Duke Blue Devils. In Gray's junior year at Duke (February 2013), she fractured her knee which caused her to be sidelined the rest of her junior year and her whole senior year. Despite this she was drafted to the Connecticut Sun in 2014.[2]

College statistics

Source[3]

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
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2010-11 Duke 34 297 43.2 39.8 80.5 3.3 2.5 1.9 0.2 8.7
2011-12 Duke 33 413 45.8 37.7 82.1 4.9 6.1 2.8 0.4 12.5
2012-13 Duke 25 316 42.1 40.7 85.1 5.3 5.4 3.6 0.1 12.6
2013-14 Duke 17 184 50.4 33.3 74.5 4.2 7.2 2.9 0.2 10.8
Career Duke 109 1210 44.9 38.5 81.4 4.4 5.0 2.7 0.2 11.1

WNBA career

Gray was drafted 11th overall by the Connecticut Sun in the 2014 WNBA draft. She sat out the 2014 season while recovering from a right knee injury that she sustained in January of her senior year while playing at Duke.[4]

Gray would come back healthy in time for the 2015 season. Coming off the bench for the Sun, she averaged 6.9 ppg.

Gray guarding Seimone Augustus in game 5 of the 2017 WNBA Finals

Prior to the 2016 season, Gray was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks along with two first round picks in the 2016 WNBA draft and a first round pick in the 2017 WNBA draft in exchange for draft rights to Jonquel Jones and the 17th pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft.[5] Joining forces with Candace Parker, Kristi Toliver and Nneka Ogwumike, Gray would come off the bench as the back-up point guard on the Sparks roster, playing 33 games with 1 start and averaging 5.9 ppg. The Sparks were a championship contender in the league, finishing 26-8. The Sparks were the number 2 seed in the league with a double-bye to the semi-finals (the last round before the WNBA Finals) facing the Chicago Sky due to the WNBA's new playoff format. The Sparks defeated the Sky 3-1 in the series, advancing to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2003. In the Finals, the Sparks were up against the championship-defending Minnesota Lynx. Gray's playing time would be slightly increased in the Finals and was able to provide an offensive spark off the bench for the Sparks. In Game 4 with the Sparks up 2-1, Gray scored a team-high 20 points off the bench in 24 minutes of play, but the Sparks still lost the game. In the decisive Game 5, Gray scored 11 consecutive points for the Sparks in the second half. The Sparks would win Game 5 and the 2016 WNBA Championship.[6]

Young woman wearing yellow basketball uniform smiling broadly
Gray in 2018

With Toliver leaving the Sparks in free agency to join the Washington Mystics, Gray would be moved to starting point guard, following her heroic off-the-bench performance in the Finals. Gray would have a breakout season in 2017 as she scored a career-high 25 points on May 27, 2017, in a 75-73 loss to the Atlanta Dream.[7] Gray would also be voted into the 2017 WNBA All-Star Game, making it her first career all-star game appearance.[8] She finished off the season leading the league in three-point field goal percentage and averaged career-highs in scoring, rebounds, assists and minutes as the Sparks finished second place in the league with a 26-8 record, receiving a double-bye to the semi-finals. The Sparks would go on to advance to the Finals for the second season in a row, after defeating the Phoenix Mercury in a 3-game sweep, setting up a rematch with the Lynx. In Game 1 of the 2017 WNBA Finals, Gray scored a new career-high 27 points and hit the game-winning shot with 2 seconds left, sealing a 85-84 victory to give the Sparks a 1-0 series lead.[9] However, the Sparks would lose in five games, failing to win back-to-back championships.

On May 20, 2018, in the Sparks' season opener against the Lynx, Gray scored 18 points along with a game-winning layup at the buzzer in a 77-76 victory.[10] Later on in the season, Gray would be voted into the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game, for her second career all-star appearance. Gray finished off the season averaging a new career-highs in scoring, steals, assists and rebounds. The Sparks finished as the number 6 seed in the league with a 19-15 record. In the first round elimination game they would defeat the Lynx 75-68 in which Gray Gray scored a season-high 26 points. The Sparks would advance to the secound round elimination game where they would lose 96-64 to the Washington Mystics.

WNBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career high League leader
† Denotes seasons in which Gray won a WNBA championship

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2015 Connecticut 34016.0.424.348.8162.32.70.60.11.76.9
2016† Los Angeles 33116.4.452.304.7801.82.80.40.11.25.9
2017 Los Angeles 343433.1.507.482.8273.34.41.00.21.914.8
2018 Los Angeles 343432.7.484.392.8353.45.11.40.12.314.9
Career 4 years, 2 teams 1356924.6.476.401.8202.73.60.90.11.810.6

Postseason

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2016† Los Angeles 9022.1.406.391.8331.72.81.10.02.49.0
2017 Los Angeles 8835.6.461.333.7783.46.81.30.22.715.1
2018 Los Angeles 2231.7.393.429.8334.04.50.00.52.016.5
Career 3 years, 1 team 191028.8.433.368.8132.64.61.10.22.512.4

Overseas career

Prior to her first WNBA season, Gray played in Israel for Hapoel Rishon Le-Zion in the 2014-15 off-season. In the 2015-16 off-season, Gray played in Spain for Uni Girona CB for the first portion of the off-season and spent the second portion of the off-season playing in Turkey for Abdullah Gul University.[11][12] In June 2016, Gray re-signed with Abdullah Gul University for the 2016-17 off-season.[13] In July 2017, Gray signed with Botaş SK for the 2017-18 off-season.[14]

Personal life

Gray has participated in Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). In her free time, she has helped work out and train younger kids in AAU to become better athletes.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Chelsea Gray - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  2. ↑ "Gray, Liston selected in first round of WNBA Draft - The Herald-Sun".
  3. ↑ "NCAA® Career Statistics". web1.ncaa.org. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
  4. ↑ "Chelsea Gray - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA".
  5. ↑ Los Angeles and Connecticut also trade second round positions in the 2016 WNBA Draft/
  6. ↑ Press, The Associated (4 January 2017). "Los Angeles Sparks win WNBA title".
  7. ↑ "05/27/17: Los Angeles Sparks @ Atlanta Dream - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA".
  8. ↑ Record, The. "Local Roundup: Chelsea Gray selected as all-star reserve".
  9. ↑ Behind career-high 27 points, Chelsea Gray guides Sparks to Game 1 win
  10. ↑ Chelsea Gray's buzzer beater lifts Sparks past Lynx 77-76 in finals rematch
  11. ↑ "WNBA Players Playing Overseas - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA".
  12. ↑ "Abdullah Gul University Signs Chelsea Gray - Women's Basketball 24.7". 27 November 2015.
  13. ↑ "EUROBASKET NEWS".
  14. ↑ Chelsea Gray agreed terms with Botas
  15. ↑ "Gray Matters".
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