Journey to Jadwin - T.J. Bray

4/30/2020

Since assists began being counted in the 1974-75 season, there is only one member of the Princeton University men’s basketball team to have three seasons of at least 100 assists.

That is T.J. Bray, who now plays for Bayern Munich in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and sits third all-time on Princeton’s assists list with 347. His abilities as a floor general were harnessed at every stop on his Journey to Jadwin.

Bray’s excellence as a facilitator along with his love of the game was heavily influenced by his father, Tom Bray. Tom was a coach for grade school teams when T.J. was growing up, which meant T.J. was a regular in gyms in the Milwaukee area throughout his youth.

From when I was four, five, six on I was just a gym rat. Always following him around to practices and being around the game. That’s how I learned it and picked it up.

T.J. Bray

Bray’s love of moving the ball and playing unselfish, team-first basketball was developed at an early age and has paid dividends throughout his career.

A hoop junkie from day one, Bray was constantly looking for people to play with and nobody was off limits.

His passing skills, along with his passion for the game and competitive nature, were also developed playing on a mini-hoop in his basement throughout his younger years.

“Every New Year’s eve my cousin (Andrew Bray), who was a couple of years older than me, and his sister would come over and hang out with my siblings and I, it was kind of our thing,” said Bray. “We’d have a basketball game every single year. Probably four, five years straight it was that basketball game and my dad would keep stats and do everything."

His early lessons on moving the ball around and not focusing on the individual translated to team success at an early age and Bray became hooked on the feeling of succeeding as part of a group.

“I was always kind of one of the better players in my area because I always wanted to play and was always playing,” said Bray.

I just put in hours and won the city championship when I was in third grade…That was kind of the first time I won something real in a competition.

T.J. Bray

Growing up in the Milwaukee area, Bray was also able to witness tremendous team basketball at an early age.

“My family is a big Marquette University family,” said Bray. “I was going to their games all the time and loved watching Dwyane Wade, Travis Diener and Steve Novak. I never really tried to model my game on one specific guy, it was always taking team concepts to be the best we can.”

While Bray’s father had coached him during his youth, the coaching staff at Catholic Memorial would take over when Bray entered high school. Despite an injury-plagued freshman year, Bray continued to improve his passing skills along with the other areas of his game.

In the early stages of his high school career, Bray experienced the swing offense which is synonymous with basketball in the state of Wisconsin.

“It was one of the tools in our toolbox, we weren’t a strict swing team,” said Bray. “We were pretty up-and-down, open. It wasn’t like hey we have to run the swing this exact way. My junior and senior year we had a different coach. That was much more read and react basketball.”

It was during Bray’s senior year of high school where everything truly came together on the court. He stuffed the stat sheet, averaging 17.9 points per game, 8.4 rebounds per game and 6.6 assists per game.

As well as his with his Catholic Memorial team, Bray’s pass-first mentality fit right in with his AAU squad, the Wisconsin Playground Warriors. The team’s playing style benefitted from Bray, and Bray was further able to develop his ability to find teammates for open looks.

“There were two seven-footers then I was the third at 6’5, I was the third tallest guy on the team,” explained Bray. “We played pretty modern basketball honestly, pace and space. We’d have one tall guy in the middle then try to run up and down and shoot threes, beat teams using basketball smarts. We had an absolute blast doing that.”

When Princeton started recruiting Bray, it did not take long for him to realize it was exactly where he wanted to be.

“It really did happen quickly, Princeton started calling me the summer after my junior year,” said Bray. “By August 1, I was committed. It wasn’t a long song and dance.”

The campus blew Bray away, as did the program’s all-around commitment to excellence.

“The campus was beautiful, Jadwin, you walk in and think wow, this is awesome and see all those banners hanging up there,” explained Bray. “At the time the team room was pretty new."

Princeton’s playing style also appealed to Bray as it gave him freedom on the court and allowed him to maximize his creativity.

“The Princeton offense was perfect for me because the way Coach Henderson and Coach Johnson ran it, it wasn’t super strict in what you had to do,” proclaimed Bray. “It’s not pass here, cut here; it’s pass here then read and then read.”

There was another factor, far beyond basketball, that influenced Bray’s decision to attend Princeton.

“My mom was a very, very smart woman,” said Bray. “She graduated from Marquette in three years with a degree in chemistry then got her MBA immediately following that, she was really, really smart. She passed away when I was 14-years-old in eighth grade. Once the Ivy League schools started calling, some of these really, really good academic schools started calling, my dad and I were like I have to do this. Academics are really important. With the way my mom valued it and the way my whole family values academics, basketball wasn’t necessarily supposed to last this long.”

Bray would experience the highest of highs his freshman year at Princeton, earning a share of the Ivy League Championship and earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament where the Tigers faced Kentucky in the opening round.

“There’s 42 seconds left and they run a set, they bring the ball up and I’m guarding Brandon Knight,” said Bray. “Oh man, I’m guarding Brandon Knight right now to win a game in the NCAA Tournament. What’s going on? They run a screen and roll and we switched it, it was 10 seconds of him dribbling the clock out waiting and I was like holy cow, this is crazy. I had time to think about it, my mind was blown. DeAndre Liggins came and set a screen, he got the switch and iso’d from there.”

Along with the Tigers’ trip to the NCAA Tournament, Bray also looks back on the team’s 75-73 triple overtime victory at Florida State his freshman year as one of his most treasured memories.

We just beat a power-five school on their home court. That was the year Florida State won the ACC.

T.J. Bray

By the end of his time at Princeton, Bray added two All-Ivy League selections to his resume and his ability as a floor general had become legendary. His 133 assists in the 2013-14 season are the third-most assists in a season by a Princeton player and his 374 career assists rank fourth all-time in school history. In Princeton’s win over George Mason on Tuesday, November 26, 2014, he became the first Tiger in 10 years to record 10 assists in a game, and the first Tiger in 22 years to do so against a Division I opponent.

Post-graduation, Bray would work out with five different NBA teams and play summer league for the Toronto Raptors. He has since played professionally in Europe and currently plays for Bayern Munich.

I absolutely would not be here if I did not go to Princeton. The skill development; every single player has to dribble, has to pass, has to shoot. On top of that you’ve got to know how to play basketball, you can’t just rely on going one-on-one. You’ve got to play basketball, pass and move as five guys. How to read and react. Every day for four years that’s what instilled in you and that’s what you work on.

T.J. Bray

Of his post-Princeton accomplishments, Bray is most proud of helping his Rasta Vechta squad defeat Brose Bamberg, who had won nine out of the 12 most recent titles, in last season’s Basketball Bundesliga semifinals, 3-1. Bray finished second in Bundesliga MVP voting and led the league in assists with 7.9 per game.

“Bamberg’s mayor was saying we’re ready for Munich in the semifinals, I knew it would be a great series before the series even started,” explained Bray. “We came out and scrapped, fought and clawed and ended up winning the series in four games. We made history, that was something that hadn’t been done in a long time.”

Bray, who has reached the pinnacle of overseas basketball, played in the NCAA Tournament and etched himself into the Princeton record books, is thankful for the impact Princeton and it's people have made on his life.

The people I met along the way. My best friends are all Princeton guys. My girlfriend, who I’m living with now is a Princeton girl. Princeton affects me in my everyday life through the people I’ve met. The academic advisors I’ve had who I’m still in contact with. Everybody there made me think, made me work, showed me what it’s like to be a well-rounded person. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the people.

T.J. Bray