James Lang

James Lang (born October 17, 1983 in Mobile) is a professional basketball player.

Lang, at 6 foot 11 and weighing 350 pounds, played basketball for Shaw High School in Mobile before transferring to Central Park Christian High School, where he trimmed down to around 300 pounds. He averaged 21 points, 14 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 assists per game as a senior and led the team to the championship of the National Association of Christian Schools.

Lang was named to the USA Today All-USA second team. He played in the McDonald's High School All-American Game and the EA Sports Roundball Classic that year. In the McDonald's game he scored 15 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in 17 minutes. In the EA Sports game he had 7 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in 24 minutes. Though he had signed a letter of intent with the University of Louisville, Lang declared for the 2003 NBA Draft straight out of high school, and was picked 48th overall by the New Orleans Hornets. He was waived by the team in December.

In February 2004, Lang signed with the Asheville Attitude in the National Basketball Development League. The following summer he played with the Oklahoma Storm of the United States Basketball League, averaging 8.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in 28 games. He started the 2004 fall season with the Portland Reign of the American Basketball Association, averaging 9.7 points and 9.1 rebounds in 7 games before going overseas to play for the Drac Inca Mallorca in the Liga Española de Basquetbol (Spanish Basketball League), where he averaged 8.9 points and 7.3 rebounds in ten games.

In Fall 2005, Lang participated in training camp for the NBA's Utah Jazz, scoring 11 points over the course of 6 preseason games in which he played a total of 58 minutes. He was left off the team's regular season roster and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to play with the NBDL's RimRockers, who selected him as the 12th overall pick in the 2005 NBADL draft. With Little Rock he averaged 8.3 points and 5.0 rebounds in 32 games, including five double-doubles in January. His best game saw him deliver 30 points and 14 rebounds. He received an honorable mention in the 2005-06 All-NBADL list. In March he signed two 10-day contracts with the Atlanta Hawks and one 10-day contract with the Toronto Raptors, but did not appear in any games.

Lang, who has a daughter in Mobile, has also started taking online classes from Howard University to make a start toward a college degree. He was scheduled to play in the Jazz' "Rocky Mountain Revue" summer league in July 2006, but was sent home early with high blood pressure.

References

• Scarbinsky, Kevin (June 29, 2006) "Lang's dream of NBA career remains alive." Birmingham News.