Randolph Albert Morris, commonly known as Randolph Morris, is a former American professional basketball player who had a brief career in the NBA.
He began his NBA journey with the New York Knicks. However, he soon moved to the Chinese League (CBA) after appearing in four NBA seasons.
Before his professional league debut, Morris played his college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Even though he had gone in the NBA draft after his first year, he went undrafted. Consequently, he returned to the Wildcats again and played two more seasons with them until 2007.
Morris was an able basketball player who could play equally well in center and power forward positions. Moreover, his giant height of nearly seven feet was his plus point, due to which he had high scores and rebounds in the CBA.
Let’s discover more exciting information about this underrated American center, Randolph Morris. But, before we move forward, here are some quick facts about him.
Quick Facts
| Full Name | Randolph Albert Morris |
| Known As | Randolph Morris |
| Date of Birth | January 2, 1986 |
| Birth Place | Houston, Texas, the USA |
| Nick Name | Not available |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | African-American |
| Zodiac Sign | Capricorn |
| Age | 38 years old |
| Height | 2.11 m (6 feet 11 inches) |
| Weight | 275 lb (125 kg) |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Eye Color | Dark brown |
| Build | Athletic |
| Father’s Name | Ralph Morris |
| Mother’s Name | Patricia Morris |
| Siblings | Jonathan Morris, William Morris |
| Food Habit | Non-vegetarian |
| Education |
|
| Marital Status | Married |
| Sexual Orientation | Straight |
| Wife’s Name | Andrea Waletich Morris |
| Kids’ Names | Aarilyn, Gibbs, and Violet Morris |
| Profession | Basketball player |
| NBA Draft | 2005/Undrafted |
| Position | Center/Power forward |
| League |
|
| Active Years | (2007–2019) |
| Net Worth | $1-$5 million |
| Currently Plays For | None/retired |
| Jersey Numbers | 5, 33, 32 |
| Social Media | Twitter, Instagram |
| Merch of Atlanta Hawks | Jogger Pants |
| Last Update | January 2024 |
Early Life, Family & Education
Randolph Morris was born on January 2, 1986, in Houston, Texas, United States. He is the son of Ralph and Patricia Morris. Moreover, he had two brothers, Jonathan and William, in the family.
Born in Texas, he later moved to the Georgian state with his family. So, he attended the Landmark Christian Academy in Fairburn as a kid. His two brothers studied in the same school.
His brother, Jonathan, had become pretty good at playing basketball by that time. As he was rather tall and athletic, Randolph was interested in sports too.
So his elder brother had an early influence on him, and he began playing from a young age.
Jonathan studied Chemistry and also played college basketball for the University of Kentucky later.
In the meantime, Morris kept playing good basketball and learned to master basic basketball skills before high school.
Likewise, he joined the AAU team named Atlanta Celtics and started playing organized tournaments for them.
While with the Celtics, he teamed up with Josh Smith and Dwight Howard, who later played in the NBA. Unlike Morris, both Smith and Howard had successful NBA careers.
Morris eventually graduated high school in 2004 and joined the University of Kentucky for his higher studies.
Randolph Morris | Basketball Career
High School Career
Morris played his high school basketball for the Landmark Christian School in Fairburn, Georgia. He demonstrated excellent prospects right from his early games, and consequently, his high school coach, Bryan Bartley, highly praised him.
Despite his colossal weight, he had graceful movements and was his team’s point-scoring machine. In addition, his stats clearly show how good he was at rebounding.
He averaged 23.0 points and 12.0 rebounds per game as a junior in the 2002-03 season.
For his impressive games throughout, he was selected to the All-State team continuously for three last high school seasons.
Furthermore, Morris averaged massive 23.0 points and 16.0 rebounds per game in his senior season. As a result, the player was selected for the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2004.
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Likewise, various sports agencies, including Rivals.com, highly rated him at the time of his high school graduation. Many had speculated that he would directly go for the NBA draft, but he chose to play college basketball.
College Career
Randolph Morris had received scholarship offers from many basketball powerhouses, including Georgian Tech and Louisville. But he eventually decided to join the University of Kentucky for his college career.
As a freshman, Morris averaged 8.8 rebounds and 4.2 rebounds per game. After a fair start, he decided to go for the NBA draft in 2005, but it quickly misfired.
He went undrafted and soon returned to the Wildcats for the new college season. After his return to the college, Morris missed nearly half of the matches in his second season due to the NCAA rules.
However, he showed remarkable improvement since his first season and averaged 13.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game as a sophomore.
Likewise, as a junior, he displayed his peak performance averaging 16.1 rebounds and 7.8 rebounds per game, for which he received first-team All-SEC honors in 2007.
Professional Career
Unsuccessful NBA Journey
After he had gone undrafted in 2005, Morris had remained a free agent as per the NBA rules. Eventually, after two years of his failure, he signed a two-year contract with the New York Knicks on March 23, 2007.
Morris was doing well for the Wildcats in the NCAA, so the college administration had called him back, but he refused.
On the contrary, he was of little use for the Knicks, so they allowed him very little playtime in the year he signed with them.
He averaged 1.8 rebounds and 0.8 points in 8.8 minutes per game in his rookie season. Similarly, the club had him play around 18 matches in the second NBA season, in which he had very poor performance.
Eventually, he began playing for the Atlanta Hawks in the 2008 NBA Summer League, following which the club signed him on July 19, 2008.
Even though he spent two seasons with the Hawk, he did not get significant playtime there as well. No NBA clubs signed him after his deal with the Hawks expired after the 2009-10 season.
Chinese League Career
After finally realizing that his NBA career would take him nowhere, Randolph decided to play overseas and signed with the CBA club, the Beijing Ducks, before the 2011-12 season.
Morris received immediate recognition in the new league after making it to the CBA All-Star game in 2011. Moreover, he led the Ducks to their first-ever CBA title in 2012.
He became his team’s top performer as he finished his rookie season with an average of 23.1 points and 9.2 rebounds per game.
Randolph played five more CBA seasons with the Ducks and won two more league titles. He averaged over 20.0 points per game in every CBA season until he left the league in 2018.
Morris eventually announced his retirement from his professional career in 2019. At the time of his retirement, he was with the Lebanese club, Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut.
Awards & Achievements
Some of his awards and achievements include:
- CBA champion (2012, 2014, 2015)
- CBA Finals MVP (2014)
- Lebanese Basketball League Champion (2019)
- McDonald’s All-American (2004)
- CBA All-Star (2011, 2014)
- Third-team Parade All-American (2004)
Net Worth & Career Earnings
The exact net worth of Randolph remains undisclosed, but various sources on the internet have estimated it to be somewhere between $1 million to $5 million.
Morris spent nearly twelve years of his productive time playing professional basketball, so league games were his primary source of income.
He had started his playing career in 2007 with the New York Knicks, which had paid him around $810,000 in his rookie season, although he had appeared in very few games.
However, he did not have enough game exposure and received low payment even after spending three more seasons in the NBA. In 2011, he flew abroad to play in the CBA.
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He had earned around $2.5 million from his short NBA career.
Tax Evasion Case
In 2021, Randolph Morris faced a legal charge concerning wire fraud and tax evasion involvement.
According to sources, he was accused of deliberately submitting false income information to the revenue office in Kentucky. As per the indictment, he had earned around $13 million from his professional career in China.
But he allegedly showed no earnings, due to which the state of Kentucky lost revenue worth around $400,000. Even the FBI special agents got involved in the case and had interrogated him via FaceTime.
Fortunately, the court in Lexington acquitted him of all charges after a long legal battle in September 2021. Morris would have faced more than 80 years of prison time if convicted.
Randolph Morris | Personal Life
Randolph Morris is married to a beautiful woman named Andrea Waletich Morris. The two had officially tied knots back in 2012.
They already had a daughter named Aarilyn, born before their marriage. She is already a teenager now, and they call her Aari with love.
In addition, she gave birth to another child, Gibbs Morris (son), in 2014. Gibbs, too, goes to school now.
The couple was blessed with a lovely baby girl in 2020. They have named her Violet.
Andrea is naturally quite good at getting along with kids. Her social media posts contain a lot of photos of her having fun with them.
Moreover, she is a strong woman filled with much love and support for her husband. She has always stood beside him in times of both trouble and happiness.
She was together with him when he was playing basketball in China.
When Morris was facing tax evasion charges in 2021, she was confident that he would ultimately come out clean. After all, she is the one who knows him more than any other individual.
Now that he is already retired and out of legal troubles, the Morris family lives a comfortable life at their residence in Lexington, Kentucky.
Beijing Brawl
In 2018, Randolph Morris nearly got into a fight with his fans while he was in China. The American athlete had gone to a bar in the Sanlitun area in Beijing where that incident happened.
As per the media reports, a few of his drunk fans had offered him a drink which he politely refused. But, they got angry, and the tense situation soon escalated into a fight scene.
They tried punching him, but the player remained calm and tried to cool them down. Some even hurled racist remarks at him, but he avoided getting triggered to prevent the brawl.
However, the security guards took control of the situation, and he escaped from the bar unharmed.
Age, Weight & Height
As of 2024, Randolph Morris is 38 years old.
About his physical stats, he stands at a gigantic height of 2.11 meters (6 feet 11 inches) and weighs around 275 lb (125 kg).
Social Media
Randolph Morris uses social media handles, mainly Instagram and Twitter.
However, his Insta account is currently private and has significantly fewer followers, which is unusual for such a renowned player.
Moreover, he has a Twitter account with around 3k followers, but he rarely tweets there.
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FAQs
What happened to Randolph Morris?
Randolph Morris has already retired from his basketball career and living in the state of Kentucky. Furthermore, there is no information about his recent profession.
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