Ray McCallum, Jr. – Where is he now?

0
753
Photo: Sakhalinio, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Before we talk about who Ray McCallum, Jr., the former Horizon League player is, let’s talk about his accomplishments, his time in the NBA, and where he is playing now. After leading the Horizon League in scoring with 18.7 points per game, he was named the 2013 Horizon League Player of the Year. After leading the Detroit Mercy Titans to a berth in the 2013 National Invitation Tournament, he was selected the 36th overall pick in the second round of the 2013 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings.

After averaging 12.6 points in the 2013 NBA Summer League, he officially signed with the Kings who selected him in the second round of the draft in June. He started off playing in the NBA Development League but got his first playing time for the Kings on December 6th. He had his breakout game on March 6th of that season when he scored 15 points in a win against Milwaukee. In late March going into early April, he averaged 17.6 points per game in five games and ended the season scoring in double digits three out of the last four games of the season.

After his first season in the NBA, he re-joined the Kings for the 2014 NBA Summer League, as he helped the team win the championship and was named MVP of the Championship Game. However, in his second season with the Kings, he did not play in 13 of the first 26 games of the season. He was inactive or did not play in a good portion of the first half of the season and did score in double digits only three times entering the month of January. He did have a better and more productive second half of the season.

He did have his playing time and production increase in January and beginning on February 10th and ending on March 9th he averaged 11.3 points per game. He ended the season scoring in double digits 13 out of the last 18 games of the season.

In the offseason he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for a second-round draft pick. He did not play in 20 of the first 34 games of the 2015-16 regular season for the Spurs. However, he did see regular playing time beginning on January 21st and he had his moments that season scoring 11 on the road against Phoenix, 13 against Atlanta away from home, and putting up 14 points on the Clippers.  He was waived by the Spurs in late February and was signed and played in nine games for the Memphis Grizzlies and scored 10 points and had four assists against the Spurs on March 28th.

The next season he played for the Grand Rapids Drive of the NBA Development League as an affiliate of the Detroit Pistons. Finally, who is the former Horizon League legend? None other than Ray McCallum Jr.

McCallum Jr., after playing in the NBA has played overseas, primarily with Spanish club Unicaja Málaga (which has on its current roster former Youngstown State star Kendrick Perry), Turkish team Darüşşafaka, Shanghai Sharks, Hamburg Towers of the Basketball Bundesliga, and Legia Warszawa of the Polish Basketball League for example. Who is he playing for now?

He is currently playing for Greek club Karditsa and is a starter for them. He is averaging 11.8 points as well as 4.2 assists and three rebounds a game. He scored 22 points against AEK Athens leading his team to an 81-79 victory. He helped guide ASK Karditsas to winning four of their last six games as well.

He has a YouTube channel and in episode four of Ray’s World it shows him living in Greece:

And in a video prior to that, he talks about his journey beginning as a high schooler and what it takes to end up making it and playing professional basketball.

Finally, in episode 5 of Ray’s World, it shows him going through practice and him playing in a game for his current team ASK Karditsas

Going back to his playing days at Detroit Mercy where it all began in terms of him developing into an NBA and professional basketball player, he played well as a freshman and played against tough competition in league play. Back in 2010-2011, he in conference play went against teams that were in the Horizon League like Valparaiso, Loyola Chicago, and Butler. He averaged 13.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game as a freshman.

In his sophomore year for the Titans, he led Detroit Mercy to a victory against St. Johns in a non-conference game and in conference play, he helped the Titans defeat Butler twice and Detroit Mercy finished in third place in the regular season standings. In the Horizon League championship game, he helped the Titans defeat Valparaiso by 20 to make the NCAA Tournament. As a No. 15 seed, they lost to No. 2 seed Kansas who would end up making it to the championship game.

McCallum Jr. in his junior season and his final year playing in college, he led UDM to a second-place finish in the Horizon League. He played very well his last season in a Titans uniform averaging 18.7 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 4.5 Ast per game. He helped UDM to a NIT bid where they lost to Arizona State. McCallum was chosen as the Horizon League Player of the Year by the coaches, sports media and information directors. Since 2001, McCallum has been the first player to receive recognition for both the preseason and the postseason up to that time.

He was also mentioned on various finalist list for prestigious college basketball end of the season awards. McCallum was also named a finalist for the 2013 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award. That year made it the second straight year that McCallum had been named to the final 20 of the Bob Cousy Award. McCallum was named one of 25 finalists for the Lou Henson Award, which honored the top mid-major player in college basketball. Finally, McCallum was named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 list. The list recognized the top-returning players in all of college basketball.

To this day, Ray McCallum Jr. still is fondly remembered for all that he gave to the university as a student-athlete for the three seasons he wore the Titans jersey.

Leave a Reply