Where Are They Now? Samuel Dalembert

Samuel Dalembert is one of the most successful players to ever come through the Seton Hall Pirates program. In his two short years with The Hall, he averaged seven points, six rebounds, and almost three blocks per game.

He came originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti to Montreal, Quebec, Canada at age 14 and from there he moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey where he played basketball at St. Patrick High School. After making the natural choice to stay in The Garden State and attend Seton Hall for college in 1999, Dalembert quickly became one of the best centers in the Big East Conference. Under head coach Tommy Amaker, Seton Hall went 22-10 and advanced to the NCAA tournament during Dalembert's freshman season in 1999 and then followed that up with a 16-15 record and a trip to the NIT in 2000.

Dalembert then decided to take his talents to the big leagues.  He was drafted 26th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2001 and became the first Haitian-born player in the NBA. After playing in Philadelphia for eight years, alongside players like Allen Iverson and Andre Igoudala, Dalembert was traded to the Sacramento Kings in June 2010. Since 2010 he's been a journeyman of sorts in the league.

Dalembert stayed with the Sacramento Kings for a season and then signed a multi-year contract with the Houston Rockets in December 2011. Six months later the Rockets traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks. After one season with the Bucks, he signed with the Dallas Mavericks in July 2013. And most recently he was part of a large deal between the New York Knicks and the Mavericks that sent Dalembert to New York in exchange for Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton.

Over the course of his 13 years in the league, one of which he missed due to injury, Dalembert has averaged 7.8 points, 1.8 blocks, and 7.9 rebounds per game. He has consistently been on the premier big men in the NBA and even at age 32, he still averaged 6.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game for the Mavericks during the 2013 season. In total, he has scored 6,686 points, grabbed 6,774 rebounds, and blocked 1,505 shots in his career.

Aside from the NBA, Dalembert became a citizen of Canada in 2007 and joined the country's Olympic basketball team. He attended training camps and took part in international games with the team in 2008 but he was later dismissed after a dispute with coach Leo Rautin.

Off the basketball court, Dalembert has been a prolific philanthropist, helping with many different causes but most notably he gave $100,000 to UNICEF to help with relief efforts in his home country of Haiti when it was ravaged by a massive earthquake in 2010. He was given the 2009-10 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for his efforts and he's continued to be heavily involved with Haitian recovery efforts.