Sam Young

At 38 years old, Sam Young has this physical status:

Samuel David Young (born June 1, 1985) is an American/Lebanese professional basketball player for Homenetmen Beirut of the Lebanese Basketball League and the Lebanese National Basketball Team.

He played college basketball at the University of Pittsburgh.

Early years

The eldest of five children, Young was born in Washington, D.C. to single mother Marquet Craig, then 14 years old. She supported her family by working as a cable TV installer for Comcast, and moved the family nine times. By the time Young was in high school, the family had found its way to Prince George's County, Maryland. At Friendly High School in Fort Washington, Young led the Patriots to Maryland state titles in 2003 and 2004, averaging 24.6 points, 14.0 rebounds, and six blocked shots per game as a senior.

After graduating from high school, Young attended Hargrave Military Academy for a year as his high school grades meant that he would have to spend a year at a prep school in order to qualify for a scholarship. He averaged 23 points and 11 rebounds for a team that went 28–1 and was ranked second nationally among prep school programs. The basketball recruiting site Scout.com named Young its National Prep School Player of the Year for 2005. He also received the recruiting attention he had largely missed out on in high school, receiving offers from programs such as Georgia, Maryland, Georgetown, Virginia Tech, and Miami. He would decide to sign with Pitt; Joe Lombardi, then a Pitt assistant and now head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, speculated that Young chose Pitt because "[w]e were there when a whole lot of other people weren't around. He just wanted someone to give him some love."

Considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Young was listed as the No. 17 small forward and the No. 71 player in the nation in 2005.

Personal life

Scott Cacciola of The Commercial Appeal, the daily newspaper of the Grizzlies' home city of Memphis, Tennessee, wrote:

Young's work ethic borders on the obsessive. While at Pitt, he practiced so much on his own that the coaching staff worried about his knees, and he would regularly play pick-up games at lunchtime during the season. During the summer before his senior year at Pitt, he went so far as to live for a month in a locker room at Pitt's home arena, the Petersen Events Center, sleeping on an air mattress he had carried to the locker room, so he could work out and practice whenever he chose. Young himself admitted that basketball was his "love" and his girlfriend was his "mistress", adding, "And she knows that."

One of Young's closest friends, former high school teammate and later South Florida player Chris Howard, noted that Young's work ethic was present long before he came to Pitt:

He also found inspiration in his family. During his year at Hargrave, he put a poster in his dorm room that read "I can't let my mother work harder than I do." He also drew from his brother Michael Spriggs, who was born with cataracts and glaucoma and completely lost his sight at age 13, but nonetheless reached the state championships in high school wrestling and won a gold medal in judo at an international blind sports competition. Young said about his brother, "It could have been me. And I know if he had my opportunities, he'd be doing something constructive with them."

Young's athleticism is not limited to basketball. Before his senior year at Friendly High, he promised to do backflips if the Patriots won the state title, and proceeded to do exactly that. He also reportedly stunned Pitt's diving coach one day by climbing up to the 7½-meter board and performing a nearly perfect 2½ somersault into the pool.

He also writes poetry; he has spoken with a publisher about compiling his works, and read some of his poems at an open-mic night at a Pittsburgh coffeehouse in 2008. He is also a skilled piano player.

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College career

Young was a member of the Pitt basketball team from 2005 to 2006. He was initially furious over his captaincy; he wanted to show his perimeter skills, but head coach Jamie Dixon wanted him to play on the inside. Young nearly joined Kansas State after his sophomore year (2006)–07, but Dixon, the Wildcats' head coach, convinced Young to stay, implying that he will play a larger role on the team in the upcoming season. Dixon's prediction was born out of the season; Young averaged 18 points per game; and was named the tournament's Most Improved Player.

Young averaged 19.2 points per game in his senior season at Pitt, earning the distinction of being a Third Team All-America. After his stellar success in the 2009 NCAA Tournament in which he averaged 23.5 points in four games, his 2009 NBA draft stock increased. He has also received accolades from his opponents; Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, who saw Young score 56 points in two games against his team in Young's senior season, including 31 on Pitt's 2009 Senior Day, says, "There hasn't ever been a player who gives us as many problems as he does."

Professional career

Young was drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies with the 36th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft.

Young was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Ricky Sánchez's rights.

Young signed with the Indiana Pacers on September 6, 2012. He was signed by the Pacers on January 6, 2013, but later resigned on January 28, 2013.

Young signed with the San Antonio Spurs on September 30, 2013. However, he was later waived by the Spurs after being suspended on October 10, 2013.

Young joined the Sydney Kings for the remainder of the 2013-14 NBL season on November 18, 2013. Young was named Player of the Month for January on February 4, 2014. Young averaged 21.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.0 steals per game in 21 games for the Kings.

Young signed with Valianto de Bayamón of Puerto Rico on January 19, 2014, during the 2014 BSN season.

He signed a one-year contract with Juvecaserta Basket of Italy on July 22, 2014. He left Juvecaserta on December 31, 2014.

He joined Halcones de Xalapa, a Mexican team, on January 14, 2015. He signed with Muratbey Uşak Sportif of the Turkish Basketball League on April 8.

Young signed with Homenetmen Beirut of the Lebanese Basketball League on September 21, 2017.

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