The Juventus roster is completed: Kenny Gaines Jr is a new Lion
The signature on the contract that will bind Bertram Derthona to arrived during the night Kenneth James Gaines Jr., American guard born in '94 who played for BC Juventus Utena in the last two seasons.
CAREER – Born in Riverdale (Georgia, USA) on 28/01/1994, Gaines played high school at Whitefield Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. He then attended college at the University of Georgia, completing his four-year undergraduate degree. Kenneth wore the jersey of the Georgia Bulldogs, one of the most prestigious teams on the American university scene: in his senior year he recorded 12.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
He took part in the Summer League in 2016 (not selected in the NBA Draft) wearing the Houston Rockets shirt: in the five games played with the Texan team he scored 7.4 points and 2 rebounds on average. Gaines then arrived in Europe at the beginning of the 2016/17 season, signing for the Antibes Sharks, a team in the LNB Pro A championship: in the twenty matches played in that season Gaines scored 8 points on average.
After the year spent in France, Kenneth moved to Lithuania, to BC Juventus Utena, the team with which he played on the court in the last two seasons. During the first year he showed off first in the FIBA Basketball Champions League, in which he averaged 10.4 points in five matches, also playing against Dinamo Sassari, then in the FIBA Europe Cup, finishing with 19 points per game and with the elimination at the hands of Avellino in the quarter-finals. In the LKL the Club finished the regular season in seventh place and was eliminated 3-0 by Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius in the playoff quarter-finals. That year he also won the LKL Slam Dunk Contest.
In 2018/19 Kenny contributed to the Lithuanian team reaching sixth place in the regular season, which was then eliminated again by Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius 2-1 in the playoff quarter-finals. Now Gaines comes to Bertram Derthona to begin a new chapter in his career.
The words of Ferencz Bartocci, General Director of Bertram Derthona: ʺKenny comes from a very competitive championship and has embraced our project with enthusiasm. He can count on great athleticism and explosiveness that allow him to compete with any type of physicality. He is a powerful guard who can be useful both by involving his teammates, because he knows how to pass the ball well, and in 1-on-1 play. Kavaliauaskas, a player I had in Veroli, described him to me as an athlete with great power; Furthermore, he has also grown a lot from a defensive point of view over the course of his career.
