Gary Neal
Gary Neal is an American former basketball professional player and coach. He played college basketball for the La Salle Explorers and Towson Tigers. Neal began his professional career abroad with teams in Turkey, Spain and Italy before signing with the San Antonio Spurs in 2010. He mostly played the shooting guard position.
High school career
Born in Baltimore, Neal attended Aberdeen High School for three years. At Aberdeen, he was teammates with future George Mason standout, forward-center Jai Lewis. As a junior, Neal led Aberdeen to a 21–4 record and won their state championship, while averaging a triple double per game. For his senior year, he enrolled at Calvert Hall College High School, to play in the Baltimore Catholic League. He played alongside Jack McClinton, who was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2009 [NBA draft].College career
As a freshman, Neal was the Atlantic Ten Rookie of the Year. He led the La Salle Explorers in scoring with an 18.6 average during his two seasons for the Explorers. Before the 2004–05 season, Neal was dismissed from the team due to a rape allegation by a University of New Haven women's basketball player who was working at La Salle camp. Neal was later acquitted after prosecutors failed to convince a jury that the woman was too drunk to consent to sex.Neal sat out the 2004–05 season to transfer to Towson University. He initially joined Towson with no athletic aspirations, but was given a walk-on spot on their basketball team in 2005–06 conditional on the result of his rape case. Neal was activated as soon as he was acquitted, and received a scholarship for his senior year in 2006–07. That year, he returned to high-scoring numbers averaging 25.3 points per game, 3.5 assists per game, 4.2 rebounds per game, and he led the Tigers to the second round of the 2007 CAA conference tournament, before losing to Old Dominion University. He became the fourth basketball player in NCAA history to score at least 1,000 points with two different schools.
Professional career
Pinar Karsiyaka (2007–2008)
Neal was eligible in the 2007 NBA draft in June and was projected to be on the bubble to get drafted. Neal went undrafted. When playing for Pınar Karşıyaka, Neal led the Turkish Basketball Super League in scoring, averaging 23.6 points per game.FC Barcelona, Benetton Treviso, and Unicaja Málaga (2008–2010)
Eventually, FC Barcelona bought out Neal's Pınar Karşıyaka contract. He was signed by FC Barcelona in January 2008. In Barcelona he averaged 2.3 points per game in the Euroleague and 3.3 points per game in the ACB with Barcelona during the 2007–08 season.In June 2008, Neal was signed by the Italian Serie A outfit Benetton Treviso. With Benetton, he was named to the EuroCup Basketball All-EuroCup Second Team during the 2008–09 season.
Neal then joined the Spanish club Unicaja Málaga, where he finished the 2009–10 season, averaging 12.6 points per game in Spanish League play.
San Antonio Spurs (2010–2013)
On July 22, 2010, the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA signed Neal to a three-year deal. In the 2010–11 NBA season, Neal played 80 games and started one and scored 45.1% of his field goal attempts, 41.9% of three-pointers, and 80.8% of free throws; he also averaged 9.8 points per game and 2.5 rebounds per game. On April 27, 2011, during game 5 of the first round of the NBA playoffs and the Spurs trailing the Memphis Grizzlies 97–94 and the series 3–1, Neal hit a three-pointer with 1.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Spurs beat the Grizzlies 110–103 in overtime and forced a sixth game in the series. However, the Spurs lost Game 6 to the Grizzlies 99–91 and were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round. In 22 minutes that game, Neal scored 8 points and made 5 rebounds, one assist, and one steal.On January 2, 2012, the Spurs assigned Neal to the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League as he recovered from an appendectomy. However, he was recalled on the next day without playing any games for the Toros.
On December 10, 2012, Neal scored an NBA career-high 29 points to go along with his career-high 7 3-pointers made in a win against the Houston Rockets in overtime.
On June 11, 2013, in Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals, Neal scored a career playoff-high of 24 points on 9 of 17 from the field, including 6 of 10 three-pointers to help lead the Spurs to a blowout 113–77 victory over the Miami Heat. The 6 made three-point shots was an NBA Finals single-game record for undrafted players that stood until Duncan Robinson achieved 7 in the 2020 NBA Finals. However, the Spurs lost the series in seven games.