Oliver Lafayette
Oliver Lafayette | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 6, 1984 United States |
| Occupation | Professional basketball player (former) |
| Known for | Two EuroCup championships; league titles in Greece and Lithuania; playing for Croatian national team at 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup |
Oliver Lafayette (born May 6, 1984) is a former professional basketball player, originally from the United States, who later acquired Croatian nationality. Measuring , he primarily occupied the positions of point guard and shooting guard. Lafayette boasts two EuroCup championships and has earned league titles in both the Greek and Lithuanian competitions.
Professional career
During the 2009–10 season of the NBA Development League, Lafayette competed with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, starting in 42 out of 48 games. He posted averages of 17.1 points, 6.5 assists, and 1.8 steals while playing 35.3 minutes per contest. On April 14, 2010, he inked a deal with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association, appearing in a single game where he scored 7 points, marking him as the 23rd former Houston Cougar to reach the NBA level.
Lafayette signed with Serbian club Partizan Belgrade on October 13, 2010; however, his contract was terminated the following month. He returned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in December 2010 before agreeing to a four-month contract with Turkish team Beşiktaş, which was subsequently canceled due to medical reasons.
In February 2011, he joined Israeli side Maccabi Ashdod. Later that year, on October 5, Lafayette secured a one-year contract with Polish outfit Asseco Prokom Gdynia.
January 2012 saw Lafayette sign for Turkish club Anadolu Efes Istanbul for the remainder of that season. Subsequently, he moved to Lithuanian team Žalgiris Kaunas. In 2013, he transferred to Spanish club Valencia Basket.
On June 22, 2014, Lafayette committed to a two-year contract with Greek powerhouse Olympiacos Piraeus, but their association ended on June 29, 2015.
He then signed with Italian team Emporio Armani Milano on July 9, 2015.
On July 18, 2016, Lafayette became part of Spanish club Unicaja. In April 2017, he celebrated his second EuroCup victory after Unicaja defeated Valencia BC in the finals.
Lafayette joined Italian side Virtus Bologna on July 31, 2017.
On November 13, 2018, he signed with Bosnian club Igokea.
International career
The Croatian Basketball Federation facilitated the acquisition of Croatian citizenship for Oliver Lafayette to advance national sports objectives, with authorization from the Croatian Olympic Committee. Following this, Lafayette competed for the Croatian national team during the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Overseas Elite
During the summer of 2017, Lafayette became a member of Overseas Elite, the team that had won The Basketball Tournament twice in a row. On August 3, 2017, Overseas Elite claimed their third straight The Basketball Tournament championship by defeating Team Challenge ALS 86–83 in a game broadcast on ESPN.
Regular season
|- | align="left" | | align="left" | Boston | 1 || 0 || 22.0 || .500 || .500 || .000 || 4.0 || 2.0 || .0 || .0 || 7.0 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:left;"| Career | style="text-align:left;"| | 1 || 0 || 22.0 || .500 || .500 || .000 || 4.0 || 2.0 || .0 || .0 || 7.0
Euroleague
|- | style="text-align:left;"| 2010–11 | style="text-align:left;"| Partizan Belgrade | 6 || 3 || 25.8 || .221 || .154 || .654 || 3.7 || 3.3 || 1.3 || .0 || 8.5 || 6.3 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2011–12 | style="text-align:left;"| Asseco Prokom | 10 || 0 || 24.5 || .411 || .381 || .708 || 2.5 || 3.3 || 1.4 || .0 || 10.7 || 11.0 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2011–12 | style="text-align:left;"| Anadolu Efes | 6 || 2 || 23.0 || .419 || .313 || .917 || 3.2 || 2.8 || 1.5 || .0 || 8.7 || 11.7 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2012–13 | style="text-align:left;"| Zalgiris | 23 || 11 || 21.2 || .361 || .323 || .900 || 2.1 || 2.8 || .9 || .0 || 7.9 || 7.3 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2014–15 | style="text-align:left;"| Olympiacos | 29 || 1 || 18.3 || .386 || .404|| .606||2.1||2.6|| .5|| .0||6.8||6.9 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 2015–16 | style="text-align:left;"| Milano |10||3||22.5|| .435|| .259|| .846||2.0||2.1||1|| .2||7.3||5.4 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:left;"| Career | style="text-align:left;"| |74||17||21.1|| .364|| .346|| .736||2.4||2.8|| .9|| .0||7.9||8.0
Domestic leagues
rowspan="3"|2010–11 rowspan= "2"|2011-12 rowspan= "2"|2012-13 2013-14 2014-15| Season | Team | League | GP | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007–08 | rowspan="2"| Correcaminos UAT Victoria | rowspan="2"| Mexico LNPB | 36 | 33.2 | .458 | .337 | .745 | 4.8 | 5.1 | 2.3 | .2 | 16.1 | |||||||||||
| 2008–09 | 8 | 39.1 | .622 | .362 | .738 | 6.0 | 6.3 | 3.3 | .0 | 23.3 | |||||||||||||
| Erie Bayhawks | D-League | 37 | 31.4 | .437 | .320 | .774 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 1.7 | .2 | 13.6 | ||||||||||||
| 2009–10 Fort Wayne Mad Ants | 48 | 35.3 | .471 | .381 | .798 | 4.6 | 6.5 | 1.8 | .1 | 17.1 | |||||||||||||
| KK Partizan | Basketball League of Serbia | 6 | 23..3 | ..433 | ..278 | ..769 | 4..0 | 4..2 | 2..2 | ..0 | 10..2 | ||||||||||||
| Fort Wayne Mad Ants | D-League | 21 | 33..6 | ..421 | ..302 | ..857 | 4..2 | 3..6 | 2..0 | ..1 | 16..4 | ||||||||||||
| Maccabi Ashdod | Ligat HaAl (Israel) | 11 | 22..4 | 407 | 447 | 630 | 2..1 | 2..9 | 1..5 | ..0 | 10..5 | ||||||||||||
| Asseco Prokom Gdynia | VTB United League | 10 | 22..6 | 370 | 161 | 652 | 2..8 | 3..3 | 1..0 | ..0 | 7..0 | ||||||||||||
| Anadolu Efes S.K. | Turkish Basketball Super League (TBL) | 24 | 21..5 | 462 | 250 | 938 | 2..5 | 2..5 | 1..0 | ..0 | 7..5 | ||||||||||||
| BC Žalgiris | Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) | 16 | 17..0 | 429 | 479 | 730 | 2..1 | 3..2 | 0..9 | 0..1 | 7..9 | ||||||||||||
| VTB United League | 26 | 22..8 | 424 | 311 | 814 | 2..5 | 3..5 | 1..3 | 0 | 8..3 | |||||||||||||
| Valencia BC | Liga ACB | 40 | 21..6 | 403 | 325 | 812 | 2..1 | 4..5 | 1..1 | 0 | 7..9 | ||||||||||||
| Olympiacos | Greek Basket League (Greek A1) | 31 | 17..6 | 508 | 357 | 760 | 1..6 | 2..8 | 0..8 | 0 | 6..5 |