Olaseni Abdul-Jelili "Shane" Lawal (born October 8, 1986) is a retired Nigerian-American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. He played the

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 eccentricity ...

position.

College career

Lawal played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for three years at Oakland University, with the

Oakland Golden Grizzlies The Oakland University Golden Grizzlies are the athletic teams that represent Oakland University (OU) in the Horizon League and Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The school fields 16 teams: baseball, men's and ...

, before moving to

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

, where he played with the

Wayne State Warriors The Wayne State Warriors are the athletic teams that represent Wayne State University, located in Detroit, Michigan, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sporting competitions. The Warriors compete as members of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate A ...

during the 2008–09 season.

Professional career

Lawal went undrafted at the 2009 NBA draft. For the 2009–10 season, he signed with Al Arabi Doha of the

Qatari Basketball League The Qatari Basketball League () is the top-tier men's basketball league operating in Qatar. The winning team obtains the participation right to the FIBA Asia Champions Cup. The first official season took place in 1981/82. There is a second divi ...

. For the 2010–11 season, he moved to Spain and signed with

CB Guadalajara Club Baloncesto Guadalajara was a professional Basketball team based in Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto ...

of the

LEB Plata The LEB Plata is the third basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system and the second basketball division organized by the Spanish Basketball Federation. Since 2019, three teams are promoted to LEB Oro and six teams are relegated to ...

. In April 2011, he moved to the Libyan League club Al-Ahli Benghazi for the rest of the season. In July 2011, he signed with

CB Clavijo Club Baloncesto Clavijo is a professional Basketball team based in Logroño, La Rioja. The team currently plays in league LEB Oro. History Founded in 1967, CB Clavijo started their first years playing in the provincial league and after achiev ...

of the

LEB Oro LEB or Leb may refer to: * Lausanne–Echallens–Bercher railway, Switzerland * Lebanon, UNDP country code * Lebanon Municipal Airport (New Hampshire) (FAA identifier) * Lexham English Bible * Life expectancy at birth * Liga Española de Balonc ...

. On August 5, 2012, he signed with

Tezenis Verona Scaligera Basket Verona, known for sponsorship reasons as Tezenis Verona, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Verona, Italy. It competes in the LBA. History 1951–1982: Decades within the minor leagues Scaligera Basket was foun ...

of the Italian

Legadue Basket Serie A2, known for sponsorship reasons as Serie A2 Old Wild West, is a men's basketball league in Italy. It constitutes the second-tier of the Italian league pyramid, below the first division LBA and above the third division Serie B, with pro ...

. He led the league in rebounding (13.6 rpg) and in blocking shots (1.8 bpg) during the 2012-13 campaign. On July 29, 2013, Lawal signed a one-year deal with

BC Astana Astana Basketball Club ( kk, Astana Basketbol Kluby), commonly referred to as BC Astana, is a Kazakh professional basketball club that is based in Astana, Kazakhstan. Founded in 2011, it has competed in the Kazakhstan Basketball Championship a ...

of Kazakhstan. With Astana, he won the Kazakh League and

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, c ...

in the 2013–14 season. On July 31, 2014, Lawal signed a one-year deal with the Italian club

Dinamo Sassari Polisportiva Dinamo, commonly known as Dinamo Sassari and currently known as Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari for sponsorship reasons, is an Italian professional basketball club that is based in Sassari, Sardinia. They are the current European Cu ...

. With the Italians, he won the season's League,

and

Supercup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the ' curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the pre ...

. In Euroleague play, Lawal averaged 9 points and 7,3 rebounds in ten games for Sassari that season. Lawal has also competed for

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), 2016 ...

The Basketball Tournament The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an open-application, single-elimination tournament played each summer in the United States. The 2022 edition features 64 teams with a $1 million winner-take-all prize, broadcast by ESPN. TBT was founded in 201 ...

. He was a

on the 2015 team that won TBT's $1 million prize. On July 20, 2015, Lawal signed a two-year deal with the Spanish club FC Barcelona Lassa. On May 12, 2017, he parted ways with Barcelona. On August 26, 2017, Lawal signed with Italian club

Sidigas Avellino S.S. Felice Scandone was an Italian professional basketball club based in Avellino, Campania. Founded in 1948, the team has been a regular in the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the first tier of basketball in Italy, for 19 years (2000/01 to 2018/19). ...

. His last stop in professional basketball was

Homenetmen Beirut Homenetmen Beirut may refer to: * Homenetmen Beirut (basketball), a Lebanese basketball club * Homenetmen Beirut (football), a Lebanese football club See also * Homenetmen (disambiguation) {{Disambig ...

in 2019.

National team

Lawal was Nigeria's top performer at the

AfroBasket 2015 AfroBasket 2015 was the 28th edition of the AfroBasket, a men's basketball continental championship of Africa. It also served as the qualifying tournament for FIBA Africa at the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball Tournament in Brazil. The tournament ...

, averaging 19.6 efficiency, and 9.0 rebounds per game, as the West Africans clinched their first-ever continental championship in Tunisia.

Coaching career

Before moving to Beirut for his last stint as a professional basketball player in February 2019, he had served as a volunteer assistant coach at John Glenn High School in

Westland, Michigan Westland is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located about west of downtown Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 84,094. It is the 10th largest city and 12th largest municipality in Mich ...

. In 2019, he was appointed as head coach of the girls' basketball team at

Renaissance High School Renaissance High School is a public high school in the city of Detroit, Michigan. Renaissance is one of four magnet school, magnet high schools in the Detroit Public Schools district; (the others being Cass Technical High School, Detroit School ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

Career statistics

EuroLeague

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Sassari Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, ...

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Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

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