Malcolm Griffin (basketball)

Malcolm Xavier Griffin (born August 10, 1991) is an American professional basketball player who last played for SLAC of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). Standing at 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in), he plays at the point guard and shooting guard positions. After two years at Toledo and two years at Fresno Pacific he played professional basketball in Morocco, Tunisia, Latvia, Greece, Russia and Israel.

Malcolm Griffin
Free agent
PositionPoint guard / shooting guard
Personal information
Born (1991-08-10) August 10, 1991
Chicago, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
Listed height6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Listed weight210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
High schoolHyde Park Career Academy
(Chicago, Illinois)
College
NBA draft2014: undrafted
Playing career2014–present
Career history
2014–2015Wydad Casablanca
2015Champaign Swarm
2015–2016FUS Rabat
2016AS Salé
2016–2017Liepājas Lauvas
2017–2018Kolossos Rodou
2018Zenit Saint Petersburg
2018–2019AEK Athens
2019Hapoel Jerusalem
2019Hapoel Tel Aviv
2019–2020Kolossos Rodou
2020–2022PAOK Thessaloniki
2022SLAC
Career highlights and awards

High school career

Griffin played high school basketball at Hyde Park Career Academy at Chicago, Illinois.[1] He led his team to a 27–5 mark as a senior and averaging 17 points, seven assists and five rebounds per game. Griffin also earned South MVP honors in the Chicago Classic All-Star Game, scoring 28 points in just 13 minutes of action.

College career

After graduating from high school, Griffin attended Toledo, where he stayed until 2011.[2] As a freshman, he averaged 7.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. As a sophomore, he started 28 games for the Rockets, averaging 12.0 points, 4.0 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game while scoring in double figures against two ranked opponents, Illinois and Temple. He scored a career-high 31 points against Northern Illinois and had back-to-back 25-point games against Ball State and Bowling Green. The next two years, Griffin played at Fresno Pacific.[3] As a Junior, he played in 30 games, making 29 starts for the Sunbirds, earning 1st team NCCAA All-American and 1st team All-PacWest honors. He finished fourth in the league in scoring and led the PacWest in assists. As a senior he was a 1st team All-American and All-Conference once again, leading the Pacific West Conference in points, assists and steals.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the 2014 NBA draft, Griffin joined Wydad Athletic Club Casablanca at Morocco.[4] The same season, he also played for Champaign Swarm of the Midwest Professional Basketball Association. The following season, he returned to Morocco and played with Fath US de Rabat.

The next year, Griffin joined AS Salé at Tunisia.[5] In December 2016, he left the team in order to join Liepājas Lauvas of the Latvian League.[6] He led the Latvian league in assists, and was also named the Latvian Import Player of the Year, and Baltic League Defensive Player of the Year by the Eurobasket.com website.

On August 3, 2017, Griffin signed with Kolossos Rodou of the Greek Basket League.[7] On October 16, 2017, he was voted as the Greek League MVP of the week after having 30 points and 4 assists against Panionios.[8] The player also had 20 points in a near victory against former Greek League Champion Panathinaikos Superfoods. After leading the Greek League in scoring, and being third in assist and sixth in steals on January 22, 2018, Griffin was bought out from his Greek team by the VTB United League club Zenit Saint Petersburg of Russia. He signed a contract with Zenit for the rest of the 2017–18 season.[9][10]

On July 17, 2018, Griffin returned to Greece and joined AEK Athens of the Greek Basket League.[11] On December 11, 2018, Griffin recorded a season-high 25 points, shooting 11-of-14 from the field, along with seven rebounds and four assists in a 83–70 win over Hapoel Jerusalem. He was named Basketball Champions League Game Day 8 MVP.[12] Griffin won the 2019 FIBA Intercontinental Cup with AEK.

On April 27, 2019, Griffin parted ways with AEK to join Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Premier League for the rest of the season.[13]

On August 1, 2019, Griffin signed a one-year deal with Hapoel Tel Aviv.[14] On October 31, 2019, he parted ways with Hapoel after appearing in three league games.[15]

On December 3, 2019, Griffin, in a surprise move, returned to Greece for Kolossos Rodou. On July 23, 2020, Griffin moved on to PAOK Thessaloniki, his third Greek club.[16] On July 15, 2021, he officially renewed his contract with PAOK. On January 26, 2022, Griffin mutually parted ways with the club, after suffering a season-ending injury.

In May 2022, he joined SLAC from Guinea to play in the playoffs of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).[17]

Career statistics
Legend
  GP Games played  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     Led the league

Regular season
Year Team League GP MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2017–18 Kolossos Rodou GBL 1327.3.506.325.8133.85.01.5015.9
2018–19 A.E.K. GBL 2520.4.487.313.6671.83.01.107.5

FIBA Champions League

[18]

Year Team GP MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2018–19 A.E.K. 1822.8.413.288.8752.62.01.108.3

References
  1. "Fenso Pacific Bio". Retrieved April 3, 2017.
  2. "Hyde Park basketball star Malcolm Griffin chooses Toledo over Central Florida". blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com. April 13, 2009. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  3. "FPU signs National JUCO Player of the Year, NCAA D1 transfer". fpuathletics.com. June 21, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  4. "Mireles To Morocco". bobbeedenise.com. October 19, 2014. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  5. "Malcolm Griffin joined A.S.S for the ACC in Tunisia". probasketballoverseas.com. November 20, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  6. "Liepaja/Triobet adds Griffin to their roster, ex ASS Sale". Sims-basketball.com. December 4, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  7. "Malcolm Griffin inks with Kolossos Rhodes". sportando.com. August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  8. "Greek A1 round 2 best performance: Malcolm Griffin". Eurobasket.com. October 17, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  9. "Malcolm Griffin signs with Zenit". Sportando.com. January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
  10. "Malcolm Griffin Finalizing Buyout With Kolossos". Sportando.com. January 22, 2018. Retrieved Jan 23, 2018.
  11. "Malcolm Griffin signs with AEK Athens". Sportando.com. July 17, 2018. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  12. "Griffin claims MVP of the Week honor". ChampionsLeague.basketball. December 14, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  13. "Hapoel Jerusalem sign Malcolm Griffin". Sportando.basketball. April 27, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  14. "Hapoel Tel Aviv signs Malcolm Griffin". Sportando.basketball. August 1, 2019. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  15. "כבר נפרדים: מלקולם גריפין שוחרר מהפועל ת"א". ONE.co.il (in Hebrew). October 31, 2019. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  16. "Malcolm Griffin joins PAOK Thessaloniki". Sportando. July 23, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  17. "S.L.A.C Basketball (GUINEA)". The BAL. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  18. "AEK at the Basketball Champions League 2018-19 2019 - FIBA.basketball".
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