Walter Berry (basketball)

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Walter Berry

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 8

| weight_lb = 215

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1964|05|14}}

| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| high_school = Benjamin Franklin
(New York City, New York)

| college =

San Jacinto (1983–1984)
St. John's (1984–1986)

| draft_year = 1986

| draft_round = 1

| draft_pick = 14

| draft_team = Portland Trail Blazers

| career_start = 1986

| career_end = 2002

| career_number = 21, 6, 15, 14, 12, 9, 8

| career_position = Power forward

| years1 = {{nbay|1986|start}}

| team1 = Portland Trail Blazers

| years2 = {{nbay|1986|start}}–{{nbay|1987|end}}

| team2 = San Antonio Spurs

| years3 = 1988–1989

| team3 = New Jersey Nets

| years4 = {{nbay|1989|start}}

| team4 = Houston Rockets

| years5 = 1989–1990

| team5 = Basket Napoli

| years6 = 1990–1991

| team6 = Atlético Madrid Villalba

| years7 = 1991

| team7 = Aris

| years8 = 1992

| team8 = Basket Napoli

| years9 = 1992–1993

| team9 = Olympiacos

| years10 = 1993–1994

| team10 = PAOK

| years11 = 1994–1995

| team11 = Iraklis

| years12 = 1995–1996

| team12 = Olympiacos

| years13 = 1997

| team13 = Aris

| years14 = 1997–1998

| team14 = Polti Cantù

| years15 = 1998–1999

| team15 = PAOK

| years16 = 1999–2000

| team16 = Union Olimpija

| years17 = 2000

| team17 = Makedonikos

| years18 = 2000–2001

| team18 = Aurora Basket Jesi

| years19 = 2001–2002

| team19 = Panteras de Miranda

| highlights =

FIBA Saporta Cup Top Scorer (1995)
FIBA Korać Cup champion (1994)
Liga ACB Top Scorer (1991)
2× Greek League champion (1993, 1996)
Greek Cup winner (1999)
Greek League Top Scorer (1995)
Greek Cup Finals MVP (1999)
Greek League Hall of Fame (2022)
John R. Wooden Award (1986)
Oscar Robertson Trophy (1986)
NABC Player of the Year (1986)
AP Player of the Year (1986)
UPI Player of the Year (1986)
Adolph Rupp Trophy (1986)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1986)
Consensus first-team All-American (1986)
Big East Player of the Year (1986)
First-team All-Big East (1986)
Second-team All-Big East (1985)

| stats_league = NBA

| stat1label = Points

| stat1value = 2,882

| stat2label = Rebounds

| stat2value = 971

| stat3label = Assists

| stat3value = 292

| bbr = berrywa01

| profile =

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalCountry|{{bk|USA}}}}

}}

Walter Berry (born May 14, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player. After spending three seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he had a very successful career in various leagues around Europe and the EuroLeague. Berry played the power forward position. Berry, who originated from New York City, New York, was nicknamed "The Truth", early in his playing career. He was inducted into the Greek Basket League Hall of Fame in 2022.[https://www.eurohoops.net/en/heba/1436169/heba-introduces-hall-of-fame-inducts-30-players-alphonso-ford-dino-radja-dejan-bodiroga-dominique-wilkins-roy-tarpley/ Greek League Hall of Fame welcomes Ford, Bodiroga, Radja, Wilkins, Tarpley.]

College career

File:St. John's retired numbers 21,21,21, and 24.jpg # 21 jersey.]]

Berry played college basketball for his hometown college, St. John's University, with the then called St. John's Redmen. At St. John's he won the John Wooden Award, the Big East Men's Basketball Player of the Year award, plus the USBWA College Player of the Year award in 1986, after averaging 23 points and 11.1 rebounds per game. Berry, nicknamed, "The Truth", was also the second leading scorer on St. John's 1985 Final Four team.

Professional career

=NBA=

Berry was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 14th overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft. He only played 7 games for the Blazers before he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Kevin Duckworth. He spent three seasons in the NBA, from 1986 to 1989, with the Trail Blazers, Spurs, New Jersey Nets, and Houston Rockets. However, he did not get along with some of his coaches, including Mike Schuler while with the Portland Trail Blazers, Larry Brown (San Antonio Spurs) and Willis Reed (Nets).[https://web.archive.org/web/20121110121539/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/31/sports/unhappy-berry-is-waived-by-nets.html Unhappy Berry Is Waived By Nets.]. He was released by the New Jersey Nets, after failure to conform to team policy.[https://web.archive.org/web/20121110121539/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/31/sports/unhappy-berry-is-waived-by-nets.html Unhappy Berry Is Waived By nets.] He holds NBA career averages of 14.1 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.

=Europe=

In 1989, Berry went to Italy, where he played for Italian LBA League club Paini Napoli. After that, he spent much of his career playing in Greece, in the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague, where he forged a reputation as one of the most savvy scorers, with a wide variety of shots and ways of scoring.

Later career

Berry would continue to play basketball for Jayson Williams' NBA Charity Team. He joined Jayson Williams at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where Williams' NBA charity team played exhibition games.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}

NBA career statistics

= Regular season =

| style="text-align:left;"| {{NBA Year|1986}}

| style="text-align:left;"|Portland

| 7 || 0 || 2.7 || .750 || – || 1.000 || 1.0 || 0.1 || 0.3 || 0.0 || 1.9

| style="text-align:left;"| {{NBA Year|1986}}

| style="text-align:left;"|San Antonio

| 56 || 45 || 28.0 || .529 || .000 || .648 || 5.4 || 1.9 || 0.6 || 0.7 || 17.6

| style="text-align:left;"| {{NBA Year|1987}}

| style="text-align:left;"|San Antonio

| 73 || 56 || 26.3 || .563 || – || .600 || 5.4 || 1.5 || 0.8 || 0.9 || 17.4

| style="text-align:left;"| {{NBA Year|1988}}

| style="text-align:left;"|New Jersey

| 29 || 17 || 19.2 || .468 || – || .683 || 4.0 || 0.7 || 0.3 || 0.4 || 8.9

| style="text-align:left;"| {{NBA Year|1988}}

| style="text-align:left;"|Houston

| 40 || 14 || 20.0 || .541 || .500 || .713 || 3.8 || 1.4 || 0.5 || 0.9 || 8.8

|- class="sortbottom"

| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career

| 205 || 132 || 23.7 || .539 || .200 || .638 || 4.7 || 1.4 || 0.6 || 0.7 || 14.1

= Playoffs =

|style="text-align:left;"|1988

|style="text-align:left;"|San Antonio

|3||0||31.3||.540||.000||.800||7.0||2.0||1.7||0.7||22.0

|style="text-align:left;"|1989

|style="text-align:left;"|Houston

|4||0||14.3||.500||–||.875||2.3||1.3||0.5||0.3||8.3

|- class="sortbottom"

| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career

| 7 || 0 || 21.6 || .526 || .000 || .826 || 4.3 || 1.6 || 1.0 || 0.4 || 14.1

References

External links

{{basketballstats}}
[http://www.fibaeurope.com/compID_,Uz02qBnJiADOq5VntEf53.season_2000.roundID_2571.playerID_7192.teamID_1184.html FIBA EuroLeague Profile]
[http://web.legabasket.it/player/?id=BER-WAL-64 Italian League Profile] {{in lang|it}}
[http://www.acb.com/jugador.php?id=AAG Spanish League Profile] {{in lang|es}}
[http://widgets.baskethotel.com/site/esake/player/5109783/ Greek League Profile] {{in lang|el}}
1986 [https://web.archive.org/web/20080611112656/http://www.oscarrobertsontrophy.org/content/view/14/17/ Oscar Robertson Trophy]
{{Sports links}}

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Category:1964 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century African-American sportsmen

Category:20th-century American sportsmen

Category:21st-century African-American sportsmen

Category:21st-century American sportsmen

Category:All-American college men's basketball players

Category:American expatriate basketball people in Greece

Category:American expatriate basketball people in Italy