Rodney McGruder

Rodney Christian McGruder was born in Landover, Maryland, to Rodney and Rudine McGruder. He has two brothers (Ricardo and Renaldo) and a sister (Rashaun). He attended Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., before transferring to Arlington Country Day High School in Jacksonville, Florida, for his senior year. McGruder has made numerous visits to the Baptist Hospital Miami Cancer Institute to spend time with pediatric cancer patients -- a cause inspired by the loss of his grandmother to cancer. In 2017, he started the Rodney McGruder Sports Initiative at Georgia Jones-Ayers Middle School in Miami to introduce students to different professionals and careers available in the sports industry. McGruder also participated in the 24th Annual Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp for Young Survivors during Memorial Day Weekend in 2018. Learn more about McGruder by following him on Twitter (@RodneyMcGruder) and on Instagram (@rodneymcgruder). McGruder was an AAU teammate of Michael Beasley, so he decided to head to Kansas State to play for coach Frank Martin. The 6-foot-4 guard did not play much as a freshman, but he moved into the starting lineup as a sophomore. He provided 11.1 points and a team-leading 5.9 rebounds per game for the Wildcats, including a 16-point, 15-rebound game in a win over Texas Tech. He was named to the All-Big 12 Third Team and moved up to the Second Team as a junior. He put up 15.8 points and 5.2 rebounds as the team advanced to the Big Dance again. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, McGruder scored 30 points against Southern Miss -- that was the third time he reached the 30-point mark in the season. }The guard averaged 15.6 points and 5.4 rebounds as a senior as the Wildcats tied Kansas for the Big 12 regular-season title. He had three straight 20-point games, including the regular-season finale and two Big 12 tournament wins. McGruder was named to the First Team All-Big 12 and the All-Big 12 Tournament teams. He went undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft but latched on with the Orlando Magic for that year's Orlando NBA Summer League, but things didn't work out, and he spent the 2013-14 season playing for Atomeromu in Hungary, where he averaged 14.4 points per game. He would made his NBA debut in 2016 playing for the Miami Heat.