Gary Kristopher Wilkinson (born October 2, 1982) is an American retired professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

at Utah State and has played previously for professional teams in Greece, South Korea, New Zealand, Estonia and Puerto Rico.

Early life

Wilkinson was born in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

and grew up in

South Jordan, Utah South Jordan is a city in south central Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, south of Salt Lake City. Part of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, the city lies in the Salt Lake Valley along the banks of the Jordan River between the Oquirrh ...

. At Bingham High School, Wilkinson was cut from the basketball team and dropped out his senior year; he told ''

ESPN The Magazine ''ESPN The Magazine'' was an American monthly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut. The first issue, with the cover line "NEXT.," was published on March 11, 1998 (cover date March 23, 1998), and featured K ...

'': "I really didn't have any goals. I didn't have any ambition to play college basketball, didn't have any ambition to go to the Utah State university at all. I just sat around and partied with my friends." One of Wilkinson's friends committed suicide eight months after Wilkinson quit school; a friend of that friend recommended

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

for Wilkinson. Eventually, Wilkinson earned his

GED Ged or GED may refer to: Places * Ged, Louisiana, an unincorporated community in the United States * Ged, a village in Bichiwara Tehsil, Dungarpur District, Rajasthan, India * Delaware Coastal Airport, in Delaware, US, callsign GED People * Ged B ...

, went on a two-year

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada, and enrolled in

Salt Lake Community College Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) is a public community college in Salt Lake County, Utah. It is the state's largest two-year college with the most diverse student body. It serves almost 50,000 students on 8 campuses as well as through online ...

. Recalling his missionary work in Canada, Wilkinson said in an interview with the ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand ...

'': "Sometimes it was so cold I actually couldn't speak because my jaw was frozen. We had to write with pencils as the ink in the pens would freeze." Wilkinson now shares his life story with youth groups and schools.

College career

Salt Lake Community College

For two seasons (2005–2007), Wilkinson played for the

basketball team. He averaged 18.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per game and shot 60.2 percent from the field and 74.2 percent from the free throw line. Coach Norm Parrish was skeptical at first after Wilkinson called him for a tryout but was impressed enough to invite Wilkinson to the team. Wilkinson's awards during his time at SLCC include the Scenic West Athletic Conference First Team (2006, 2007) and

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is the governing association of community college, State college (disambiguation), state college, and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 sepa ...

All-American Third Team in 2006. With a 3.96 grade point average, he also was on the

Academic All-American Team after his first season.

Utah State

Wilkinson played for the

Utah State Aggies The Utah State Aggies are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Utah State University, located in Logan, Utah. Utah State fields 16 – seven men and nine women – National Collegiate Athletic ...

from 2007 to 2009. His first season, he scored an average 13.3 points per game and shot 58.4 percent from the field and made 81.5 percent of his

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

s along with 7.0 rebounds per game. As a senior, and the only senior in his team, Wilkinson averaged 17.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Utah State won the WAC men's basketball tournament in 2009 after beating

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

72–62. For that game, Wilkinson scored 21 points. However, in the first round of the

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the Division I level ...

, Utah State lost to Marquette 58–57. Wilkinson scored 15 points and made four rebounds and missed a three-pointer when Utah State was trailing 57–54. Wilkinson graduated from Utah State in 2009 with a ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' degree in sociology and was Sociology Outstanding Student of the Year. In August 2009, Wilkinson became the first Utah State student-athlete to win the Stan Bates Award for top academic achievement. He was also

Western Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

for 2009. Scott Powers, in a profile of Wilkinson for ''ESPN The Magazine'', commented: "...the fact he's 26-years-old, dropped out of high school after never playing basketball there, found God, spent two years in Canada on a mission, is married and is the lone senior on the 25–2 nationally ranked Aggies is what ''really'' separates him from every other elite college basketball player."

Professional career

In July 2009, Wilkinson signed with the

Korean Basketball League The Korean Basketball League () or simply KBL is a professional men's basketball league in South Korea which was established in 1997. The league consists of ten teams and each team plays a total of 54 games (27 home and 27 away) in the regular s ...

team

Wonju Dongbu Promy The Wonju DB Promy is a professional basketball club in the Korean Basketball League (KBL), located in the city of Wonju. From its founding in 1996, the team has always been based in its home province of Gangwon. It has the rare distinction of b ...

. He averaged 15.9 minutes, 9.2 points, and 4.1 rebounds per game, and Dongbu cut Wilkinson in November 2009. Wilkinson signed with the Greek team

Peristeri BC Peristeri B.C., or Peristeri Athens B.C. (Greek language, Greek: Περιστερίου K.A.E.) is a Greek professional basketball club that is located in Peristeri, Greece, which is both a city and a suburb in the western part of the Athens#Athen ...

; among his teammates at Peristeri was former Utah State player Spencer Nelson. The

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

n National Basketball League team

New Zealand Breakers The New Zealand Breakers (also known as the Bank of New Zealand, BNZ Breakers for sponsorship reasons) are a New Zealand professional basketball team based in Auckland. The Breakers are the only non-Australian side currently competing in Austral ...

signed Wilkinson in August 2010. With the Breakers, Wilkinson scored in double-digit figures for 13 straight games by February 2011 and played the most minutes overall. Wilkinson was named Player of the Month for January 2011, averaging 20.3 points per game, shooting the ball at 61% from the field and 42% from the perimeter. He also made 82% of his freethrows and averaged 8.0 rebounds per game, and was later named to the All-NBL First Team (alongside teammate

Kirk Penney Kirk Samuel Penney (born 23 November 1980) is a New Zealand former professional basketball player. He is the all-time leading scorer for New Zealand's national team and he ranks 12th all-time in points scored at the FIBA World Cup. In 2024, he ...

). With a 71–53 victory over the

Cairns Taipans The Cairns Taipans are an Australian professional basketball team based in Cairns, Queensland. The Taipans compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at the Cairns Convention Centre, known colloquially as "The S ...

in the third game of the

NBL Grand Final The NBL Championship is the annual championship series of the National Basketball League (NBL). The entrants are determined by the victors of the two Semifinals series, who engage in a best-of-five game series to determine the league champion. ...

on April 29, 2011, the Breakers became the NBL champions of the 2010–11 season. Wilkinson scored 13 points and made six rebounds. On August 2, 2011, Wilkinson re-signed with the Breakers on a one-year deal. On May 6, 2012, Wilkinson played his first game in Puerto Rico for the Vaqueros de Bayamón. Later that year, he signed with

BC Kalev/Cramo BC Kalev, also known as BC Kalev/Cramo for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Tallinn, Estonia. The team plays in the Korvpalli Meistriliiga (KML), the Estonian-Latvian Basketball League and the FIBA Europe Cup. Their ...

of Estonia for the 2012–13 season. He then joined

Indios de Mayagüez The Indios de Mayagüez (Mayagüez Indians) are a baseball team in Puerto Rico's Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League, in Spanish). Based in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, the ''Indios' ...

for the 2013 BSN season. On October 28, 2013, Wilkinson re-signed with the New Zealand Breakers for the remainder of the 2013–14 season after the Breakers started the season 1–3. Following the conclusion of the NBL season, he re-joined

for the 2014 BSN season.

Personal life

In June 2006, Wilkinson married Utah State volleyball player Jessica Petersen. They have two children, son Jordan (born 2011) and daughter Eva (born 2013). During his professional basketball career, Wilkinson lived in

Logan, Utah Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 United States Census, 2020 census recorded the population at 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Ca ...

for off-seasons. In 2014, Wilkinson retired from basketball and enrolled at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

. In 2016, he joined the Salt Lake City office of the law firm Snell & Wilmer as a summer associate and was also on the junior staff of the ''Utah Law Review''.

References

External links

Eurobasket.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Gary 1982 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Estonia American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in New Zealand American expatriate basketball people in South Korea American men's basketball players American Mormon missionaries in Canada Baloncesto Superior Nacional players Basketball players from Salt Lake City BC Kalev/Cramo players Centers (basketball) Converts to Mormonism Greek Basket League players Korean Basketball League players Latter Day Saints from Utah New Zealand Breakers players People from South Jordan, Utah Sportspeople from Salt Lake County, Utah Peristeri B.C. players Power forwards Salt Lake Bruins men's basketball players S.J. Quinney College of Law alumni Sportspeople from Logan, Utah Utah State Aggies men's basketball players Wonju DB Promy players Vaqueros de Bayamón basketball players Indios de Mayagüez basketball players