Jeremy Sochan

Jeremy Juliusz Sochan (born May 20, 2003) is a Polish-American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Born in the United States to a Polish mother and an American father, he was raised in England, where he played youth basketball. Sochan moved to the United States to attend La Lumiere School, then started his professional career in Germany with OrangeAcademy of the ProB in 2020. He played college basketball for the Baylor Bears during the 2021–22 season and was selected ninth overall by the Spurs in the 2022 NBA draft.

Sochan plays for the Poland national basketball team after playing for both the England and Poland teams as a junior.

Early life and career
Sochan was born in Guymon, Oklahoma. His mother Aneta was a Polish basketball player for Polonia Warsaw who played Division II college basketball at Panhandle State. While there, she met Sochan's father, Ryan Williams, who played for the men's basketball team. Williams lost his life in an auto crash in 2017. Sochan has a younger brother and stepfather.

Sochan's maternal grandfather Juliusz Sochan, after whom he received his middle name, was a director of the basketball section of AZS AWF Warsaw and the president of the Warsaw Regional Basketball Association, his great-grandfather Zygmunt Sochan was an association football player for Warszawianka, making 94 appearances in the Ekstraklasa (Polish top division) before World War II, when he joined the Polish resistance against the German occupiers and was a Stutthof concentration camp survivor.

Sochan took his first steps in basketball while living in England, first as a youth for the MK Trojans in Milton Keynes before moving to Southampton and playing for the Solent Kestrels youth team and Itchen College.

Sochan began his high school career at La Lumiere School in Indiana, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he left the United States.

Sochan committed to playing college basketball for Baylor in July 2020.

College career
On January 8, 2022, Sochan sprained his ankle during a game against TCU and missed several games. Following the season, he earned the Big 12 Sixth Man Award and was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team. His team would later get a #1 seed in the 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, but lose in the second round. As a freshman, he averaged 9.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. On April 15, 2022, Sochan declared for the 2022 NBA draft, forgoing his remaining college eligibility.

OrangeAcademy (2020–2021)
In 2020, Sochan joined the German club OrangeAcademy of the ProB.

San Antonio Spurs (2022–present)
Sochan was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the ninth overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft. Sochan joined the Spurs' roster in the 2022 NBA Summer League, but later was ruled out after being placed in the NBA's Health and Safety Protocol after testing positive for coronavirus.

On July 8, 2022, Sochan signed a rookie-scale contract with the Spurs. On December 22, Sochan scored a then-career-high 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds in a 126–117 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. For the 2023-24 NBA season, Sochan was named as the Spurs starting point guard, a position previously held by teammate Tre Jones. Dubbed as an "experiment", this decision to play him as a point-forward for the first time was made due to Sochan displaying playmaking abilities the prior season. He resumed playing as power forward again after 17 games. On January 28, 2023, Sochan scored a then-career-high 30 points in a 128–118 loss to the Phoenix Suns. On November 30, 2023, he recorded a career high of 33 points in a 137-135 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Sochan has gained attention for his unorthodox technique of shooting free throws with one hand, an approach he began using in December 2022 after Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich suggested it as an experiment to increase Sochan's free throw percentage. The technique proved to increase his average free throw percentage by roughly 30% during the 2022–23 season. After an October 2023 game, Sochan said, "Yeah, I think I will be sticking with the one-hand free throw."

National team career
Sochan had represented both Poland and England nationally at the junior level. As part of Poland's under-16 national basketball team, he led his team to the title at the 2019 FIBA U16 European Championship Division B in Montenegro. There, he became tournament MVP.

Sochan has been a member of the Polish national basketball team. In his first game at the EuroBasket 2022 qualification, he led Poland over Romania 88–81 when he became the youngest player to ever play for Poland. He played 29 minutes in which he scored 18 points, including a four-point play (three-pointer plus foul and free throw) at the end and a game-deciding block.