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Luke Theodore Walton (born March 28, 1980 in San Diego, California) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. His position is small forward.
Growing up as the son of former NBA great Bill Walton, Luke was certainly no stranger to the sport of basketball. His three brothers: Adam, Nathan (who also unsuccessfully ran for governor during the 2003 California recall), and Chris also play or have played basketball for their schools. He has a tattoo on his arm representing himself and his brothers playing basketball.
After graduating from University of San Diego High School in 1998, he enrolled at the University of Arizona and majored in Family Studies. There, he played for the Wildcats under coach Lute Olson. He was selected in the 2003 NBA Draft with the third pick of the second round (32nd overall) by the Lakers. As a 5th year Senior he averaged 10.8 Points 5.6 Rebounds
5.1 Assists and 0.9 Steals. As a Junior he was even better when he averaged 15.7 Points 7.3 Rebounds 6.3 Assists 1.6 Steals and 0.6 Blocks a game. Standing at
6 ft 8 in tall and 235 lb, Walton has been with the Lakers his entire NBA career. As of December 1st, 2006 Luke leads the league in 3 point shooting percentage, just over 57%.
Walton enjoys great popularity among the Staples Center crowd. Fans are known to yell "Luuuuuuuke" when he gets the ball for the first time in a game. As he shares a name with the Luke Skywalker character from Star Wars, whenever he scores the beginning of the "Throne Room/End Credit" music from the Star Wars original soundtrack plays over the public address system. Walton, however, is not named after the Star Wars character; instead, he is named after his father Bill's close friend and former Portland Trailblazer teammate Maurice Lucas.
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Jefferson played college basketball at the University of Arizona. He was drafted as the 13th overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets, but was traded to New Jersey along with the draft rights to Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong in exchange for the draft rights to Eddie Griffin. The trade ultimately favored the Nets. Jefferson is currently in his fifth season with the Nets and was a key element of their back-to-back Eastern Conference Championship teams of 2002 and 2003. In addition, Jefferson was a member of the USA Olympic basketball team in during the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Jefferson began his career as a substitute small forward for Keith Van Horn and showed great defensive skills and all-around ability. He is especially effective at finishing at the rim, which complements Jason Kidd's fastbreak and alley oop passes. Because of his potential, and Van Horn's conflict with power forward Kenyon Martin, the Nets traded Van Horn to the Philadelphia 76ers and trusted Jefferson as a starter.
Jefferson blossomed in the role, becoming a good mid- and long-range shooter in addition to his slashing ability. On August 13, 2004, Jefferson signed a six-year, $78,000,000 contract extension with the Nets.
Jefferson missed the majority of the 2004-05 regular season after rupturing a ligament in his left wrist, an injury he claimed occurred when Detroit Pistons guard Chauncey Billups purposely undercut him on a layup attempt during a game on December 27, 2004.
Jefferson ended up missing 49 games, but returned to action for the first round of the playoffs against the Miami Heat. Prior to suffering the injury, Jefferson had missed only five games in his three NBA seasons.
Jefferson had been enjoying his best professional season, averaging 22.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game. Completely healthy now, Jefferson remains an integral part of the Nets and one of the "Fantastic 4" along with teammates Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Nenad Krstic. Through the 2005-06 season, Jefferson has continued to perform at a high level and has established himself as one of the NBA's most versatile players.
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