Patrick Richard (born January 25, 1990) is an American-born naturalised Romanian 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 for

U-BT Cluj-Napoca U-Banca Transilvania Cluj-Napoca, commonly known as U-BT Cluj-Napoca, is a professional basketball club based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania that competes domestically in the Liga Națională (men's basketball), Liga Națională de Baschet and internatio ...

of the Romanian Liga Națională. He played collegiately with the McNeese State Cowboys for four seasons before playing professionally in Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Israel, Spain and New Zealand.

College career

Richard played four years for the McNeese State Cowboys. In his senior year, Richard was named the Southland Conference Player of the Year after averaging 17.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest. He led the Cowboys to a second consecutive conference tournament final appearance and a national postseason tournament for the second straight year. He completed his career with 1,625 points – 12th best on the McNeese all-time career scoring list. He became just the seventh Cowboy basketball player in school history to earn an all-American honor after he was named an Associated Press All-American honorable mention. He was also named the Louisiana Player of the Year.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

2012 NBA draft The 2012 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2012, at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The draft started at 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (2300 UTC), and was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, National Basketball A ...

, Richard joined the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...

for the 2012 NBA Summer League. On November 2, 2012, he was selected by the

Iowa Energy Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

in the seventh round of the 2012 NBA D-League draft. He was waived by Iowa on November 21 prior to playing in a game for them. In March 2013, Richard signed with the Sandringham Sabres in Australia for the 2013 SEABL season. In 24 games, he averaged 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. In August 2013, Richard signed with Matrixx Magixx of the

Dutch Basketball League The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). Since 2021, the league has been replaced by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT Le ...

. In April 2014, he was named in the All-DBL Team. In 38 games, he averaged 15.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game. In June 2014, Richard signed with

Mitteldeutscher BC Mitteldeutscher Basketball Club (), for sponsorship reasons named SYNTAINICS MBC, and commonly known as simply MBC, is a professional basketball club based in Weißenfels, Germany. The club currently plays in the Basketball Bundesliga, the first ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

. In 32 games, he averaged 13.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. In June 2015, Richard signed with

Champagne Châlons-Reims Basket Champagne Basket is a French professional basketball club that is based in both the cities of Reims and Châlons-en-Champagne. The club was established in 2010 as part of the union between the old clubs of and the . Since 2022, the team plays in t ...

of the

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 ...

. In 34 games, he averaged 9.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. In July 2016, Richard signed with Maccabi Rishon LeZion of the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl (, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is a professional basketball league in Israel and the highest level of basketball in the country. The league's name is abbreviated as either BSL ...

. In 31 league games, he averaged 11.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.1 steals per game. He also averaged 12.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.3 steals in 16 BCL games. On July 25, 2017, Richard signed with

Joventut Badalona Club Joventut Badalona, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional basketball club based in Badalona, Catalonia, Spain, playing in the Liga ACB and the EuroCup. Known to their fans as ''La Penya'' (in English, ''The Club''), it is one of only two team ...

of the

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 ...

. In 32 league games, he averaged 11.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He also averaged 10.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.3 steals in four BCL games. On June 18, 2018, Richard signed with the

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 ...

for the 2018–19 NBL season. In 26 games, he averaged 11.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. On February 21, 2019, Richard signed with Italian team

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia (; ), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until Unification of Italy, 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 172,51 ...

. On July 22, 2019, he has signed with

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

in the Romanian League. On April 8, 2024, Richard was named to the

All-EuroCup Second Team The EuroCup Basketball All-EuroCup Team is an annual award of the secondary level European-wide professional club basketball league, the EuroCup. The EuroCup is the European-wide professional basketball league that is one tier level below the ...

for the 2023–24 season.

Personal

In February 2021, Richard received Romanian citizenship, making him eligible to play for the

Romania national basketball team The Romania men's national basketball team () represents Romania in international basketball competition. The team is administered by the Romanian Basketball Federation (FRB). Romania has qualified for the EuroBasket 18 times throughout their ...

. Responding to his new nationality, he stated: "It is a blessing, I am really happy that I was taken into account to receive Romanian citizenship. I feel really good here, as everyone knows. I can't wait to play for the national team."

Awards and accomplishments

Club

;U-BT Cluj-Napoca * Liga Națională: (2021)(2022)(2023)(2024) *

Romanian Cup Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

: (2020)(2022)(2023) *

Romanian Basketball Supercup The Romanian Basketball Cup is an annual supercup game for Romanian basketball teams. The last winner was U-BT Cluj-Napoca in 2022. The game is played between the winners of the last Liga Națională and the National Cup The English National Cup ...

:(2021)(2022)

Individual

* 2023–24 EuroCup Basketball Second Team (2024) * BBL All-Star: (

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

) * All-DBL Team: (

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

) *

DBL All-Star The Dutch Basketball League All-Star Gala was a yearly basketball event in the Netherlands, organised by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). During the event the yearly All-Star Game was played, which included the best players of a given DB ...

: (2014) * Southland Player of the Year: (2012) * 2× First-team All- Southland: (2011, 2012) * Third-team All-Southland: (2010)

References

External links