Charles Jenkins (basketball)
Charles T. Jenkins is an American-born naturalized Serbian professional basketball player for Olympiacos of the EuroLeague. He was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the 2011 NBA draft after finishing his four-year college career with the Hofstra Pride. He signed a contract with the Warriors on December 9, 2011. On February 21, 2013, he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers.
While attending Hempstead, New York's Hofstra University, Jenkins, a guard for the Hofstra Pride men's basketball team, had already amassed 1,767 points, 440 rebounds, 331 assists and 156 steals through his first three seasons. He is Hofstra's all-time leading scorer, breaking Antoine Agudio's record set in 2007–08, and graduated as the second leading scorer in Colonial Athletic Association history behind Hall of Famer David Robinson, who scored 2,669 points at Navy. Jenkins had his jersey retired by Hofstra prior to his final home game of his senior season, making him the fourth player in school history to be so honored, and the first to have it retired while still active.
In addition to being a citizen of the United States, Jenkins also has a Serbian citizenship.
Early life and high school
Jenkins was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he lived in the Brownsville section for six years until moving to Rosedale, Queens.He commuted to Holy Cross High School until transferring to Springfield Gardens High School, where he played high school basketball for three seasons. As a senior in 2005–06, he averaged 21.1 points, 7.2 assists and 5.1 rebounds en route to a New York Post selection to the All-New York City Team.
College career
Freshman
After redshirting his true freshman season of 2006–07, Jenkins began competing for the Hofstra University Pride in 2007–08. He played in 29 games and averaged 15.0 points and 4.6 rebounds, led his team in free throw percentage, and finished 10th in the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring. Jenkins was named the CAA Rookie of the Year, Metropolitan New York Rookie of the Year and to the Third Team All-Metropolitan New York.Sophomore
In 2008–09, Jenkins averaged 19.7 points and 4.8 rebounds in 32 games played. In the last game of the regular season against UNC Wilmington, he surpassed the 1,000-point milestone, joining Agudio as the only two sophomores to reach 1,000 points prior to their junior seasons. At the season's end, his 1,065 points stood 47 points more than Agudio's pace at the end of his respective sophomore season. Jenkins garnered numerous awards for his year. Among them was the coveted Haggerty Award, which is an award given annually to the greater New York Metropolitan area's best Division I men's basketball player. He became just the fifth sophomore overall to earn it in the 73-year history of the award to that point.Junior
As a junior in 2009–10, Jenkins once again increased most of his season averages. He scored 20.6 points, grabbed 4.5 rebounds, dished out 3.9 assists and shot 40.9% from three-point range. On November 30, 2009, in an 84–80 win versus Fairfield, he scored a career high 38 points on 12-for-17 shooting and went 9-for-9 in free throw attempts. Although the Pride would finish the year with a 19–15 overall record, Jenkins' personal play was good enough to make him the Colonial Athletic Association Men's Basketball Player of the Year. Additionally, he became just the ninth repeat winner of the Haggerty Award.Senior
Jenkins became just the third player all-time to win the Haggerty Award three times, joining Jim McMillian and Chris Mullin, both of whom later achieved great success at the NBA and/or Olympic levels of competition.Professional career
NBA
In the 2011 NBA draft, Jenkins was selected in the second round by the Golden State Warriors. Due to the 2011 NBA lockout, he signed on November 24, 2011, with the Italian team Teramo Basket of the Lega Basket Serie A. However, the lockout ended within two weeks and he left Teramo without playing any games for the club.On December 9, 2011, he officially signed with the Warriors. Twenty-two-year-old Jenkins made his NBA debut on December 25, 2011 in the Warriors' 2011–12 season opener against the Los Angeles Clippers. Jenkins came in the game and finished with one assist in 1 minute of play. Settling into the role of fighting for starting point guard Steph Curry's backup minutes, rookie Jenkins would end up getting unexpected opportunities in the second part the season due to Curry's persistent ankle injuries. Though the team brought in Nate Robinson early into the lockout-shortened season to take most of Curry's point guard minutes, Jenkins would often start in place of Curry. The rookie's minutes especially increased from March 2012, as Curry was ruled out for the rest of the season and Monta Ellis got traded. On March 24, 2012, Jenkins scored career-high 27 points in a 90-87 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers and continued posting improved numbers until the end of the season, finishing with an average of 5.8 points and 3.3 assists in 51 games, 28 of them starts.
Heading into his second season at Golden State, throughout July 2012, Jenkins participated in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Playing alongside Warriors teammates such as rookie Harrison Barnes and fellow second-year player Klay Thompson, Jenkins had a good showing as the team won each of its five games with Jenkins the top scorer in two of them. Just before the Summer League, in anticipation of Robinson leaving, the team had signed point guard Jarrett Jack with the question of who would be Curry's primary backup in the upcoming season, Jack or Jenkins, initially left open.
On February 21, 2013, Jenkins was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for a second round draft pick.
Europe
On July 30, 2013, Jenkins signed a one-year contract with the Serbian team Crvena zvezda Belgrade. In January 2014, he extended his contract with Crvena zvezda for one more season. In 2014–15 season, Crvena zvezda won the Adriatic League championship, the Serbian League championship and the Radivoj Korać Cup.On July 8, 2015, Jenkins signed with Italian club Emporio Armani Milano for the 2015–16 season.
On July 15, 2016, Jenkins returned to Crvena zvezda, signing a two-year deal. In 2016–17, he led the EuroLeague in steals, with 2.1 per game. Jenkins was also named 2017 ABA League Playoffs MVP, where he averaged 12.3 points, 5.3 assists, 3 rebounds, 1.5 steals and average PIR of 15.2.
On June 29, 2017, Jenkins signed a two-year deal with Russian club Khimki. Jenkins played for HBC Sicklerville in the 2018 edition of The Basketball Tournament. He scored 3 points and had 2 rebounds in the team's first-round loss to the Talladega Knights. In the 2018–19 EuroLeague season, he averaged 6.9 points on 42.0% three-point shooting, 2.8 rebounds and 1.0 steal per game over 29 games.
On July 5, 2019, Jenkins signed a two-year deal for Crvena zvezda. It is his third stint with the Zvezda.
On June 20, 2020, Jenkins signed a contract with Greek club Olympiacos of the EuroLeague.