Jonathan David Garavaglia (born April 8, 1974) is an American former professional basketball player. A strong player who could be used both as a

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers and are typi ...

and a

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

, he was one of the top ranked recruits of the high school class of 1993. After a 4-year college career at Michigan State, he went undrafted in the

1997 NBA draft The 1997 NBA draft took place on June 25, 1997, at Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Vancouver Grizzlies had the highest probability to win the NBA draft lottery, but since they were an expansion team along with the Toronto R ...

and played professionally for 7 years, mostly in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

High school career

Garavaglia was born in Dearborn, Michigan and attended Aquinas High School in the

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

suburb of Southgate. He started playing varsity basketball in his sophomore year at Aquinas, wearing jersey number 54 and immediately showed good performances, averaging 19.8 points per game in his first season of high school basketball. In his junior year he averaged 19.2 points. Garavaglia's senior year saw all-around success for him and his team. He was the team captain and averaged 16 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists: his personal scoring numbers decreased because he focused more on team play, involving his teammates and becoming less of a selfish player. He ended the season a Catholic League and Class C champion, and was ranked among the top high school players in the nation. He was named Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year,

Mr. Basketball of Michigan Each year the Hal Schram Mr. Basketball award is given to the person chosen as the best Secondary education, high school senior boys basketball player in the U.S. state of Michigan. The award is named in honor of the late Hal Schram, a sports wri ...

with 426 votes and ended his career at Aquinas with 1,358 points, a school record. He also earned a selection in the

McDonald's All-American team The McDonald's All-American Game is an American all-star basketball game played each year for boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the conclusion of the hi ...

: in the

1993 McDonald's All-American Boys Game The 1993 McDonald's All-American Boys Game was an all-star basketball game played on Friday, April 2, 1993 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee. The game's rosters featured the best and most highly recruited high school boys graduati ...

he scored 2 points, going 1/2 from the field and 0/2 from the free throw line. 1993 game and rosters at page 75.

College career

During his high school career Garavaglia was recruited by many Division I college programs, including

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the largest ...

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, but he ultimately restricted his choice between

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

; he finally chose the latter, feeling that he would have more chances finding playing time in a roster that in his opinion was less talented overall (the Michigan Wolverines were in the Fab Five years). He chose to wear jersey number 21. Garavaglia's freshman season saw him play only 11.3 minutes per game, but he appeared in all 32 games played by the Spartans, averaging 2.7 points, 2.0 rebounds and 0.5 assists while shooting 51% from the field. In his sophomore season with the Spartans coach

Jud Heathcote George Melvin "Jud" Heathcote (May 27, 1927 – August 28, 2017) was an American basketball player and coach. He was a college basketball head coach for 24 seasons: five at the Montana Grizzlies basketball, University of Montana and nineteen ...

promoted Garavaglia to a starter role, and he gained more playing time. He started 23 of the 28 games he played, scoring 7.6 points per game, along with 5.1 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 0.3 blocks in almost 25 minutes per game. He scored a game-winning shot with 7 seconds left on the shot clock on January 25, 1995 against

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. He switched to jersey number 25 in his junior season and in this season he had a career-high 8 offensive rebounds on November 28, 1995 vs.

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. However, Garavaglia's averages declined both in scoring (5.1) and rebounding (4.5), as his minutes dropped to 20.7 per game and he started only 13 games with newly appointed coach

Tom Izzo Thomas Michael Izzo (, ; born January 30, 1955) is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach at Michigan State University since 1995. On April 4, 2016, Izzo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Izzo has le ...

. His final year of college basketball saw him recording career-best numbers in all major statistical categories, and he averaged 10.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.0 steal per game, while shooting 50% from the field. He scored a career high of 20 points on December 3, 1996 in an 83–78 win against

Cleveland State Cleveland State University (CSU) is a Public university, public research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school th ...

. Throughout his college career he showed inconsistent play, and coach Tom Izzo said that he thought Garavaglia could have been a better player had he been more focused, especially during his first years at Michigan State. Garavaglia ended his college career with 120 games played with career averages of 6.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.8 assists. He scored a total of 761 points for the Spartans.

College statistics

, - , align="left" , 1993–94 , align="left" ,

, 32 , , , , 11.3 , , .512 , , .000 , , .167 , , 2.0 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 0.0 , , 2.7 , - , align="left" , 1994–95 , align="left" ,

, 28 , , 23 , , 24.8 , , .484 , , .323 , , .595 , , 5.1 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 7.6 , - , align="left" , 1995–96 , align="left" ,

, 31 , , 13 , , 20.7 , , .354 , , .281 , , .765 , , 4.5 , , 1.1 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 5.1 , - , align="left" , 1996–97 , align="left" ,

, 29 , , , , , , .500 , , .375 , , .684 , , 5.9 , , 1.1 , , 1.0 , , 0.2 , , 10.4 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , , 120 , , , , , , .460 , , .301 , , .660 , , 4.3 , , 0.8 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 6.3 , -

Professional career

After his senior year of college basketball Garavaglia was automatically eligible for the

, but he was not selected. He then transferred to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, signing for Oliveirense, in the

Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol The Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol (), also known as Liga Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's professional club basketball league in Portugal. History From the 2008–09 season onward, the competition has been again organised by ...

, the first level of Portuguese basketball. With Oliveirense he also appeared in the

1997–98 FIBA EuroCup The 1997–98 FIBA EuroCup was the thirty-second edition of FIBA's 2nd-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition. it occurred between September 16, 1997, and April 14, 1998. The final was held at Pionir Hall, Belgrade, Y ...

. After two seasons with Oliveirense he was cut in January 1999 and joined the Grand Rapids Hoops in the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association, was a men's professional basketball m ...

: he played 27 regular season games, averaging 8.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 22.9 minutes per game; in postseason play he averaged 4.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in 13.0 minutes per game. In 1999 he transferred to French club Cholet Basket, and in 12

LNB Pro A LNB may refer to: Sport * Liga Nacional de Baloncesto, a professional basketball league in the Dominican Republic * Liga Nacional de Básquetbol, an Argentine basketball league * Liga Nacional de Básquetbol (Paraguay), Liga Nacional de Básquetb ...

games he recorded averages of 9.9 points and 5.3 rebounds in 25.9 minutes per game. He then joined

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

club León Caja España in March 2000, replacing Saša Radunović, and he briefly played in the Spanish

Liga ACB The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system. Administered by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, w ...

, starting all of his 6 games and averaged 6.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 30 minutes per game. After Spain he moved to another European top-level championship, the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, joining Adecco Milano. In 31 games he averaged 3.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 0.1 blocks while playing 14.3 minutes per game; he had a season high of 15 points on November 19, 2000 against Snaidero Udine. He then transferred to Dafni, a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

club based in

Dafni, Athens Dafni () is a suburban town in the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Dafni-Ymittos, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. Geography Dafni is an inner suburb of Athens, 2& ...

, and played in the 2001–02 Greek Basket League season. After 4 games he was cut and in February 2002 he joined STB Le Havre, another French team. In 14 games he averaged 11.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in 25.1 minutes. He stayed in France also for the following season, in which he played for SIG Strasbourg: in 27 games he recorded 5.7 points and 3.2 rebounds in 18.8 minutes. After a brief stint at Rockford Lightning in the CBA, where he played only 2 games, he ended his career after one season at Benfica, in Portugal.

References

External links

Career stats at ProBallers.comProfile at RealGM.com

Cholet Basket stats

French league stats

Italian league stats

Spanish league stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garavaglia, Jon 1974 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Portugal American expatriate basketball people in Spain Baloncesto León players Centers (basketball) Cholet Basket players Grand Rapids Hoops players Michigan State Spartans men's basketball players McDonald's High School All-Americans Olimpia Milano players Power forwards Rockford Lightning players S.L. Benfica basketball players SIG Strasbourg players Sportspeople from Dearborn, Michigan Basketball players from Wayne County, Michigan STB Le Havre players American men's basketball players 20th-century American sportsmen