Ryan Earl Richards (born 24 April 1991) is a British-Jamaican basketball player who last played for the Terrafirma Dyip of the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

(PBA). He began playing in England and has played for short spells for numerous teams in several countries. He was drafted by the

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

with the 49th overall pick in the

2010 NBA draft The 2010 NBA draft was held on June 24, 2010, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The draft, which started at 7:00 pm Eastern Time Zone, Eastern Daylight Time (2300 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC), was broadcast in the ...

, but never played a regular season game for the team.

Junior career

In 2005–06, Richards played for the Medway Park Crusaders, making regular appearances with the senior team aged only 14, in the

English Basketball League The National Basketball League, or NBL for short, is a league competition representing semi-professional and amateur basketball clubs from England and Wales. It forms levels 2 to 5 on the British basketball pyramid, in line with the Scottish B ...

's third division. He averaged four points and four rebounds per game and helped the Crusaders finish runner-up in the 2006 National Shield. He also competed for England at the 2006 U16 European Championship (Division B) as an U15 player. Furthermore, he finished second on the team in scoring (9.7 ppg) and third in rebounding (5.6 rpg). In 2006–07, Richards played for

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spain, Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa. the island had a population of that constitut ...

's U16 cadet team at the Spanish Academy level. He also competed for its U18 junior squad. He posted a 33-point performance in leading his club to a championship. In April 2007, he played for the World Select team at the Nike Hoop Summit at just 15 years old, going 0-2 from the field in three minutes. He later represented England at the 2007 U16 European Championship (Division B), where he averaged 18.6 points and 11.6 rebounds over seven appearances in helping his squad to a fourth-place finish. In 2007–08, Richards played for C.B. Agüimes of the Junior League of Canaria. He also played in three games for Real Madrid's junior team at the Nike Junior International Tournament, averaging 15.3 points and 6.7 rebounds in 22.4 minutes.

Professional career

Early years (2008–2011)

In 2008, Richards joined the junior program of Belgian club Belfius Mons-Hainaut. In Belgium's third division, he helped the squad go 16–8 in Group B. In March 2009, Richards made his debut in the Ethias League. During the 2008–09 season, he also played two games in the Nike Junior International Tournament for German club

Brose Baskets Bamberg Baskets is a German professional basketball team from Bamberg, Franconia/North Bavaria. The club has won the German Championship title nine times and the German Cup six times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketball ...

, averaging 16.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 29.3 minutes. Richards later played two games at the 2009 U-18 European Championship for England, averaging 29.0 points and 13.0 rebounds. For the 2009–10 season, Richards joined

and started the season with the team's junior squad, La Caja Gran Canaria, in the Spanish EBA. He averaged 10.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 18.4 minutes per game over three appearances. Following this three-game stint, he began suiting up for the senior squad, but never made it onto the court with Gran Canaria. In January 2010, he was loaned to Swiss club BBC Monthey for the rest of the 2009–10 season. He played six games for Monthey before separating his shoulder. He averaged 13.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 20.3 minutes. On 24 June 2010, Richards was selected by the

with the 49th overall pick in the

. He did not join the Spurs for the 2010–11 season; instead, he spent the season recovering from two shoulder surgeries.

Europe and Asia (2011–present)

On 9 September 2011, Richards signed with Swiss club Lugano Tigers. He left the team in February 2012. Two months later, he signed with BC Sokhumi of the Georgian Superleague. In July 2012, Richards joined the

for the 2012 NBA Summer League. On 6 November 2012, he signed with Polish club Asseco Prokom Gdynia. On 29 January 2013, he parted ways with Gdynia. Two weeks later, he signed with BC Zepter Vienna for the rest of the season. With Zepter Vienna, he won an Austrian League championship. In July 2013, Richards re-joined the San Antonio Spurs for the 2013 NBA Summer League. He started the 2013–14 season with Dubai-based club Al Nasr, but returned to Europe in December 2013 and joined Greek club Ikaros Chalkidas for the rest of the season. On 19 July 2014, Richards signed with Zepter Vienna, returning to the club for a second stint. His second stint lasted just five games, as he parted ways with the club on 21 October 2014. Three days later, he signed with Hungarian club BC Körmend for the rest of the season. In April 2015, Richards moved to Iran where he joined Azad University Tehran. In June 2015, he signed with Chinese NBL side Guangxi Rhinos. For the 2015–16 season, Richards returned to Iran to play for Shahrdari Gorgan. Following the Iranian season, he joined Lebanese club Sagesse. He then had a short stint with Al-Ahli in May 2016. On 26 September 2016, Richards signed with the

for training camp. Three days later, he was waived by the Spurs. On 20 October 2016, Richards signed with Karpoš Sokoli in Macedonia. On 22 November 2016, he parted ways with Sokoli after appearing in four games. On 3 December 2016, he signed with Sanat Naft Abadan of the Iranian Super League. On 9 March 2018, Richards signed with Hallmann Vienna of the

Österreichische Basketball Bundesliga The Austrian Basketball Bundesliga (in German: Österreichische Basketball Bundesliga) was the top men's professional basketball league in Austria. Until the 2004–05 season, the league was known as the A-Liga (A-League) and then until the 2008� ...

. On 26 April 2018, Richards was reported to have parted way with the team without playing a game due to shoulder injury. On 12 February 2020, Richards signed for the

Plymouth Raiders Plymouth Raiders are a basketball team based in Plymouth, England, currently competing in Division 3 of the National Basketball League (England), National Basketball League. Founded in 1983 through a merger between two local basketball clubs, ...

. On 6 July 2020, Richards signed with the Phoenix Brussels of the Pro Basketball League. On 28 November 2020, Richards signed with the Surrey Scorchers for the 2020–21 BBL season. This will be Richards second stint with the club in Great Britain. In April 2021, Richards signed with Angolan club Petro de Luanda to play in the 2021 BAL season. Since September 2021, Richards plays for Aomori Wat's in the Japanese B.League. On 29 June 2022, Richards signed with Yamaguchi Patriots in the Japanese B.League. In April 2023, it was announced Richards had joined Guinean club SLAC for the 2023 BAL season. However, he did not appear in any game for SLAC and was not on the opening day roster. On 16 February 2024, Richards signed with the Shinagawa City of the B.League. On 9 November 2024, Richards signed with the Terrafirma Dyip of the

(PBA) as the team's import for the 2024–25 PBA Commissioner's Cup. On 3 December 2024, he was replaced by Brandon Edwards.

International career

Born in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, Richards featured in 7 senior games for the Great Britain national team, before attempting to switch his allegiance to the Jamaica national team in 2012. Richards later featured for Great Britain in senior international games from 2017 to 2019.

The Basketball Tournament

In summer 2016, Richards joined

Overseas Elite Overseas Elite was an American basketball team that participated in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), an annual winner-take-all single-elimination tournament. The team won the tournament four consecutive times: 2015 (prize money $1 million), 201 ...

to participate in

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

The Basketball Tournament The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an open-invitation, single-elimination tournament, single-elimination tournament played each summer in the United States, with the stakes being a cash prize (the most recent tournament in The Basketball Tournam ...

. The team repeated as champions of the South region, and eventually went on to defend their title defeating Team Colorado and bringing home an increased $2 million prize. He joined Ram Nation (VCU Alumni) for the 2018

BAL career statistics

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, style="text-align:left;", Petro de Luanda , 6 , , 0 , , 17.4 , , .438 , , .500 , , .714 , , 4.0 , , .8 , , 1.2 , , .0 , , 8.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 6 , , 0 , , 17.4 , , .438 , , .500 , , .714 , , 4.0 , , .8 , , 1.2 , , .0 , , 8.5

References

External links