Retired - Retired after 2011 season
- Birthdate: 03/22/1982
- Drafted (NBA): Undrafted, 2005
- Pre-draft team: Fairfield
- Country: South Sudan
- Hand: Right
- Agent: -
| Date | League | Transaction |
|---|---|---|
| 5th August, 2005 | NBA | Signed an unguaranteed one year minimum salary contract with Philadelphia. |
| 22nd September, 2005 | CBA | Drafted 10th overall in the 2005 CBA Draft by Dodge City Legend. |
| 8th December, 2005 | NBA | Waived by Philadelphia. |
| April 2006 | USBL | Signed a one season contract with Dodge City Legend. |
| December 2006 | ABA | Signed a one season contract with Wilington Sea Dawgs. |
| 30th April, 2007 | USBL | Signed for the remainder of the season with Albany Patroons. |
| 22nd August, 2007 | Poland | Signed a one year contract with Slask Wroclaw. |
| 9th February, 2011 | Lithuania | Signed for the remainder of the season with Naglis. |
| 2001 - 2005 | Fairfield (NCAA) |
| August 2005 - December 2005 | Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) |
| April 2006 - June 2006 | Dodge City Legend (USBL) |
| July 2006 | Seattle Supersonics (Summer League) |
| December 2006 - April 2007 | Wilmington Sea Dawgs (ABA) |
| April 2007 - June 2007 | Albany Patroons (CBA) |
| August 2007 - June 2008 | Slask Wroclaw (Poland) |
| February 2011 - June 2011 | Naglis (Lithuania) |
February 24, 2010
- Deng Gai
Deng Gai is a tough one to find. Between 2001 and 2005 he played for Fairfield in the MAAC, and averaged 13.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.5 blocks per game as a senior. He went undrafted but caught on with the Philadelphia 76ers in training camp and made the regular season roster. Gai survived five weeks being being waived, appearing in two games and posting 5 trillion. That was his only NBA soirée.
Gai then moved to the USBL for the rest of that season with the Dodge City Legend, and spent the 2006-07 season with the Wilmington Sea Dawgs in the ABA. (Spelling it wrong will make it appeal to youngsters!) He spent another summer in the USBL in 2007 with the Albany Patroons, then moved to Poland for the 2007-08 season, where he averaged 4.8 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in the Polish league for ASCO Slask Wroclaw.
All four of those teams have now moved on or gone under. Slask Wroclaw went bankrupt; their second team became their first team, and they play in a faraway Polish lower league, out of sight and mind. The Sea Doggies moved to the ABA to the PBL in 2007, and have moved again this year to the Continental Basketball League, an upstart league born out of the ashes of the old Continental Basketball Association that currently features four teams and will begin its first ever season shortly. The Patroons returned to the CBA in time for its final season, but died when the CBA did. And the entire USBL no longer exists, although there are small whispers of a rebirth after two years out of the rotation. Nothing to reinforce it, though.
Similarly, since leaving Poland, Deng Gai has disppaeared from the basketball map. The only thing I can find about him is his Facebook page. And his name is more common than you might think, which makes Googling info on him harder than you might think.
Deng Gai fact: The aforementioned Ajou Deng is Luol Deng's brother, and Deng Gai is Luol's cousin. The clue was in the name, I think.