Walter Berry (basketball)
Walter Berry (born May 14, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player. After spending three seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he had a very successful career in various leagues around Europe and the EuroLeague. Berry played the power forward position. Out of New York, Berry was originally nicknamed "The Truth." College career. Berry played college basketball for his hometown college, St. John's University, with the then called St. John's Redmen. At St. John's he won the John Wooden Award, the Big East Men's Basketball Player of the Year award, plus  the USBWA College Player of the Year award in 1986, after averaging 23 points and 11.1 rebounds per game. Berry, nicknamed, "The Truth", was also the second leading scorer on St. John's 1985 Final Four team. Professional career. NBA. Berry was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 14th overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft. However, he did not want to play for the Blazers, and soon after being drafted, he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Kevin Duckworth. He spent three seasons in the NBA, from 1986 to 1989, with the Trail  Blazers, Spurs, New Jersey Nets, and Houston Rockets. However, he did not get along with some of his coaches, including Larry Brown, while with the San Antonio Spurs. He was released by the New Jersey Nets, after failure to conform to team policy. He holds NBA career averages of 14.1 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Europe. In 1989, Berry went to Italy, where he played for Italian LBA League club Paini Napoli. After that, he spent much of his career playing in Greece, in the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague, where he forged a reputation as one of  the most savvy scorers, with a wide variety of shots and ways of scoring. Later career. Berry would continue to play basketball for Jayson Williams' NBA Charity Team. He joined Jayson Williams at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where Williams' NBA charity team played exhibition games.