Kieron Achara

Kieron Achara Robert ( born July 3, 1983 in Stirling, Scotland ) is a British professional basketball player of Nigerian descent. After studying in the United States Achara played in the highest leagues of Italy and Spain. For the British National Basketball Team, he participated in the European Championship finals in 2009 and at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Career

Achara debuted at age 16 for the Fury of Falkirk at senior level. In the summer of 2002 he was also appointed to the Scottish national team, which took in the " Promotions Cup for Small Countries", also known as Division C of the FIBA Europe. After a defeat against the British competitors from Wales in the semi-finals they reached the third place in the tournament in Malta. He then went to study in the USA, where he qualified at the Prep School Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield for a higher education. This school was previously visited by later NBA pros like Sam Cassell, Brad Miller and Cuttino Mobley. After a year he was picked up by the Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In their high school basketball team Dukes he played in the Atlantic 10 Conference of the NCAA. The Dukes were last qualified in 1970 for a national basketball finals of the NCAA and were also Acharas active until 2008 without significant success. Achara completed during the 2005 /06 only three games and was then due to injury " redshirted ", that is, the game time has not been credited to his maximum four-year college career and is considered exposed. In 2008 he was was first appointed to the Executive of the newly formed British National Basketball Team, which had been re-formed on the occasion of the awarding of the 2012 Olympics to London two years and brought together the best players in the previously separate national teams of England, Scotland and Wales. At the invitation of his British team-mate Luol Deng he was me exercising then the NBA club Chicago Bulls, but had no prospect of a commitment by a team of the most highly doped U.S. professional league.

For the 2008/ 09 season, Achara then also returned to Europe and got a contract as a professional in Fortitude from Bologna in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A. The former top European club, in 2004 still a finalist in the highest European club competition ULEB Euro League, was in a financial crisis, rising from last but one at the end of the season. After the British national team had qualified for the first time a European Championship finals, Achara was also in the squad, as the British selection was eliminated at the championships in Poland after three defeats to the eventual semi-finalists Slovenia, Spain and Serbia in the first round. While his former club Fortitude tried a fresh start in the highest amateur league in Italy, Achara moved to the former league rivals from Biella. The participants in the play-offs the previous season at the Italian Championship took part in the European club competition Eurocup part of 2009/10, where you eliminated in the first group stage only because of the poorer direct comparison against the eventual German champions Brose Baskets. In the national championship but it was only slightly more successful than Fortitude a previous season and reached as Third to last barely avoid relegation, which was already established before the season ends by the license revocation for Sebastiani Rieti the table last.

At the beginning of the 2010/11 season Achara was first runner-up at the only Scottish club and the British Basketball League, the Rocks from Glasgow under contract before he took advantage of an opt-out clause after only one game to go back to Italy. There he played in the second Italian league Legadue for the novice from the Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Sicily. In the play-offs for promotion to the Serie A one failed in the semifinal series at the main round first and subsequent play-off winners from Casale Monferrato. From the final squad of the British team at the European Championship finals in 2011 Achara has been deleted just before the tournament starts. In the season 2011/12 he played in the Spanish ACB League for the club from Manresa. With this club he reached a secure mid-table in the league game strong. In the end he was again represented in the tournament squad of the British national team, which took part in London as host of the 2012 Olympics, but where you left early after only one win in five games of the preliminary round.

After Achara the season 2012/13 first re- started at the Rocks in Glasgow in the British Basketball League, he moved to the middle of December Enosi Kalathosfairisis in Kavala in the Greek A1 Ethniki. After only five wins this season as the club rose after five years as Erstligazugehörigkeit Table again. In the European Championship finals in 2013 was a newly formed British National Team, in which Acharas application time compared to the 2012 Olympics tripled, surprise and failed after victories over Israel and Germany in a triple comparison just wide of the way into the second round. In the 2013/14 season Achara played for the dominant champion Lukoil Akademik series in Bulgaria from Sofia. This difference internationally in the Eurocup 2013/14, however, already after the first round, so that Achara the club in mid- February 2014 left again. A month later, Achara again got a contract in the highest Italian league at the Association of Air Avellino, who is still fighting for a place in the Championship play-offs.

Family

While Acharas mother Marion to have been a former Scottish player selection in basketball, allegedly participated in the basketball competitions of the Paralympic Summer Games 2000 for the British selection his older brother Idris.