Estra Pistoia: official signing of former Germani Brescia
Estra Pistoia: official signing of Semaj Christon
Estra Pistoia places an important blow in the backcourt a few weeks before the start of the championship. The Tuscan club, in fact, announced the signing of former Germani Brescia Semaj Christon for the 2024-2025 season.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Nov. 1° 1992, Christon began his path in basketball at Winton Woods High School in Cincinnati and then transferred in 2012 to Xavier College where he stayed for two championships. In his first season he already put himself on the map so much that he became the leader of the lineup in points, assists and recovered balls, also being named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the’Year. His second year in college è marked by an average of more than 17 points per game and, at the end of the season, he declares himself eligible for the NBA Draft. He is selected, as a 50° call-up to the 2014 Draft, by the Miami Heat, who trade him to the Oklahoma City Thunder and he makes his D-League debut with the satellite team, where he ends the season averaging 18.6 points and 5.7 assists per game.
In 2015/16 Christon faces his first adventure in Europe, right in Italy, and manages to lead VL Pesaro to salvation in the LBA by scoring over 14 points per game on average: numbers that bring him back to America and, on October 26, 2016, he debuts in the NBA, again with the Oklahoma City jersey, where he totals a total of 62 appearances.
In 2021/22 he goes to Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany and becomes, right from the start, one of the team’s leaders traveling at over 15 points average overall between league and EuroCup, where he turns out to be one of the best ever so much as to be included in the second quintet of the European season (in 32.7′ average usage).
In 2022/23 he returns to Italy called by Bertram Tortona and is confirmed at high levels: 16.4 points and 5 rebounds average with 49% from 2 and 36% from 3 that become just under 13 average in the six games played in the playoffs. With these numbers he earned a move to Germani Brescia where he produced 11.1 points and 4.4 assists per game, playing 26′ on average, shooting over 51% from 2 and è among the protagonists, for the biancazzurri, of the playoff quarterfinal series won against Estra Pistoia. In his career, Semaj Christon also wore the U.S. national team’s jersey in two matches in the 2019 World Cup qualifying window.
"Semaj will bring the necessary experience and leadership to our team. On his side there'è the advantage of having already played several times in the Italian league at high levels and therefore knows what it takes to win games" these are the words of Estra Pistoia coach Dante Calabria.
“We are very happy and excited to announce the’arrival in our team of Semaj Christon. He has a season in Brescia in the past championship behind him and è a very talented, and experienced, player in Italy. We continue to work together, both as a team and as a club, to ensure the city of Pistoia and our fans, supporters and sponsors a team that everyone can be proud of” this, instead, is the thought of the president of the biancorossi Ron Rowan.
