Travis James Peterson (born May 18, 1985) is an American former 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 who last played for

Lietuvos rytas ''Lietuvos rytas'' (lit. 'Morning of Lithuania') is a Lithuanian daily newspaper. History and profile "Lietuvos rytas" was established in 1990 on a basis of newspaper "Komjaunimo tiesa". The paper is printed in Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is ...

of the Lithuanian League. The 6 foot 10 inch tall center/power forward is a former

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division 1 collegiate athlete. He played five seasons (2003–2008) at

Samford University Samford University is a Private university, private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded by Baptist Church, Baptists in 1841 as Howard College and located until 1887 in Marion, Alabama. It is governed by an in ...

under head coach,

Jimmy Tillette Jimmy Tillette (born April 8, 1950) is an American college basketball coach and the former head coach of the men's basketball team at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tillette was the head coach of the ...

, mostly playing the center position. He graduated from Samford in 2008. He attended Mountain Ridge High School in Glendale, Arizona which is where he was born and raised.

High school career

Born in

Glendale, Arizona Glendale () is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. Located about nine miles northwest of the state capital Phoenix, Glendale is known for State Farm Stadium, which is the home of the Arizona Cardinals football team. The city al ...

, Peterson averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds per game under head coach Drew Tutt at Mountain Ridge High School. He began his career playing the point guard position until he underwent a six-inch growth spurt late in his career. He shot 55 percent from the floor and 80 percent from the charity stripe throughout his prep career. He was awarded All-State Team member and First-Team All-Northwest Region as well as the MVP of the Region as a senior and was selected to play in the Arizona Prep Showcase that featured the top-40 high school players in the state.

College career

Peterson earned a full athletic scholarship to play basketball at

under head coach

. As a sophomore (2005–06), Peterson averaged 29 minutes per game and finished 3rd on the team in 3-point percentage at .409. He was named to the 2009 OVC All-Tournament Team. He also led the OVC in assist/turnover ratio (2.88) and was ranked fourth in the conference in blocks per game with 1.1. He averaged 11.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. His Junior season (2006–07) he led his team in rebounds with 159 at an average of 5.0 per game. He was named to the Preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference team. He averaged 32.4 minutes per game and 11.3 points per game that season. He also had 78 assists and a team-high 36 blocks. He was ranked second in the OVC in blocks with 1.1 per game. He averaged 12.2 points and 4.9 rebounds during OVC play. He ended this season as Samford's career leader in points (723), rebounds (286), and assists (179). He was also named to the OVC All-Tournament team.

Professional career

Peterson entered his rookie season in 2008 with

Rilski Sportist FC Rilski Sportist (ФК Рилски спортист Самоков) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Samokov founded in 1947 and currently playing in the South-West Third League. Their home stadium is Iskar Stadium. Throughout ...

who plays in the International

Balkan League The League of the Balkans was a quadruple alliance formed by a series of bilateral treaties concluded in 1912 between the Eastern Orthodox kingdoms of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, and directed against the Ottoman Empire, which still ...

as well as the Bulgarian National League. He was awarded Most Valuable Player of the Balkan League in 2009 and was listed on Eurobasket.com as the Balkan League Import player of the year, Center of the year and Player of the year. He also led Rilski to the 2009 Balkan League Championship. He played with Rilski Sportist for two consecutive seasons (2008–2010), where he continued to dominate the league as the leading rebounder and finished 3rd in scoring. He was awarded MVP of the Balkan league for the second season in a row and led his team to a 2nd-place finish for the National Cup. For the 2010–11 season he signed with

Lukoil Academic BC Academic Metropol Region () is a reestablished Bulgarian professional basketball club based in the capital Sofia. In April 2022, Academic has been reborn and rebranded by the new owners, the German-Bulgarian ex-professional basketball players ...

, who was a EuroCup qualifying team. They competed in the

EuroChallenge FIBA EuroChallenge (called the FIBA Europe League in 2003–05, and FIBA EuroCup in 2005–08) was the 3rd-tier continental club basketball competition in Europe, from 2003 to 2015. It was organized and run by FIBA Europe. It is not to be confus ...

finishing in the top 8 in 2011. They were also National Bulgarian Champions and Bulgarian National Cup Champions this year. Peterson signed with

Prostějov Prostějov (; ) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 43,000 inhabitants. The city is historically known for its fashion industry. The historic city centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zo ...

in the Czech Republic for the 2011–12 season. He was selected for the Czech All-Star team in 2012 and helped his team to a 2nd-place finish in the Czech league. Peterson played for

BC Hoverla BC Prykarpattia-Hoverla (), known also as Hoverla, is a professional basketball club based in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. The team plays in the Higher League, the Ukrainian's second division. The team colours are green and yellow. History The club ...

in Ivanov-Frankovsk, Ukraine, until 2014, when he signed for Spanish team Río Natura Monbús. In May 2016, he signed with

Valencia Basket Valencia Basket Club Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., commonly known as Valencia Basket (), is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroCup Basketball, EuroCup, and his Valencia Basket ...

for the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. In July 2016, he signed a one-year deal with

Hapoel Jerusalem Hapoel Jerusalem is a sport organization in Jerusalem as a local branch of the Hapoel movement. The branch was established in the 1920s and represents the city in more sports than any other sport organization in Jerusalem. Today, the club's lead ...

of the

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

. Peterson helped Jerusalem to win the Israeli League and League Cup titles, as well as reaching the EuroCup semifinals. On July 20, 2017, Peterson signed with Lithuanian club

for the 2017–18 season. In 46 LKL games played for rytas, Peterson averaged 10.2 points and 4.4 rebounds, shooting 40.7 percent from 3-point range. On September 29, 2018, Peterson announced his retirement from basketball.

Personal life

Travis graduated from Samford University with a degree in Economics and Business management. In June 2009, he married his wife, Jackie Peterson. They reside in

Peoria, Arizona Peoria ( ) is a city in Maricopa and Yavapai counties in the U.S. state of Arizona. Most of the city is located in Maricopa County, while a portion of it in the north is in Yavapai County. It is a major suburb of Phoenix. As of the 2020 cens ...

High school career

College career

Professional career

Personal life

References

External links