Allison Sharlene Feaster-Strong (born February 11, 1976) is a retired American professional basketball player. Feaster played in the Women's National Basketball Association from 1998 through 2008 for the Los Angeles Sparks, Charlotte Sting, and Indiana Fever. She played professionally in Europe from 1998 through 2016 for teams in Portugal, France, Spain, and Italy. She retired from professional basketball on August 8, 2016.
Feaster attended Harvard College, graduating in 1998 with a degree in Economics, and setting multiple Ivy League women's basketball records along the way. She was selected as a first-team All-Ivy League player each of her four years, and was the first athlete in any sport to be honored as Ivy League Player of the Year three times, after also having been Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
Biography
Allison Sharlene Feaster was born February 11, 1976, in Chester, South Carolina to William Preston Feaster III and Sandra Feaster.
Feaster is married to Danny Strong, her high school sweetheart, who also played college basketball, at North Carolina State University, and has a daughter, Sarah, born in February, 2006. The couple both played in Europe during the WNBA's off-season, and after several years playing in France they were naturalized as French citizens.
In August 2012 Feaster traveled to Myanmar, and in August 2014 to the Philippines, as a Sports Diplomacy Sports Envoy for the U.S. Department of State. She worked with Derrick Alston, Erik Spoelstra, Richard Cho, Darvin Ham, and Marty Conlon to conduct basketball clinics and events for youth and women from underserved areas.
Basketball career
High School
- 1990–1994: Chester High School, South Carolina
Feaster graduated first in her class from Chester High School, in Chester, South Carolina, having won a state basketball championship (in 1993), two South Carolina Player of the Year awards (in 1993 and 1994), and multiple All-American Basketball Team honors (Parade, 1994; Street & Smith, 1993 & 1994). She began playing high school basketball in the seventh grade, and received her first All-State honors as an eighth grader.
College
- 1994–1998: Harvard University (NCAA)
Upon joining the Harvard team in 1994, Feaster was an immediate star, averaging 17.0 points and a league-leading 11.8 rebounds per game. She was selected to the All-Ivy first team and was unanimously voted the league's Rookie of the Year. With the championship, the team secured its first-ever berth in the NCAA tournament. Although they led 41–40 at the half, the 14th-seeded Crimson lost their first-round game to the Vanderbilt Commodores, 100–83.
Feaster led the Crimson in almost every statistical category in her junior season. She increased her scoring average to 21.8 points per game and her rebounding to 10.8 per game, while also leading the team in steals, blocks, three-point field goals, and shooting percentage. She was again Ivy League Player of the Year. The 1996-97 Crimson were the first women's basketball team ever to go undefeated in Ivy League play (14–0; 20–6 overall), but were a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and lost their opening round game at Carmichael Arena to the North Carolina Tar Heels.
In her senior year at Harvard, Feaster led the nation in scoring, at 28.5 points per game, was 14th in rebounding (10.8 per game), and 16th in steals (3.3 per game). She was again honored as Ivy League Player of the Year and was also selected to the Kodak Division I Women's All-America Basketball Team. Despite a 22–4 record, the Ivy League champion Crimson were again a No. 16 seed for the NCAA Tournament. No other team seeded lower than No. 13 has ever won a game in the women's NCAA Tournament. She has been identified by several sources as the greatest women's basketball player in the history of the league and was one of five players chosen for the Ivy League all-time women's basketball team in 2015. She remains, as of 2016, one of only two Ivy League players ever to score 2,000 points and record 1,000 rebounds in a career; the other is Bill Bradley. Feaster was the first Ivy League player ever selected in the WNBA draft (the second was Blake Dietrick, 16 years later), and until July 5, 2016, when Dietrick signed the first of two seven-day contracts with the San Antonio Stars, Feaster was the only Ivy League graduate to appear on a WNBA roster or play in the league.
Europe
- 1998–1999: Anadia Sanitana (Portugal)
- 1999–2001: ASPTT Aix-en-Provence
- 2001–2005: US Valenciennes Olympic
- 2006–2007: Ros Casares Valencia
- 2007–2008: C.B. San José León
- 2008–2009: Famila Wuber Schio
- 2009–2011: Mann Filter Zaragoza
- 2011–2012: Perfumerías Avenida Baloncesto
- 2012–2013: Uni Girona CB
- 2013–2016: C.B. Alcobendas
Like many WNBA players, Feaster has played in Europe from fall to spring. Her longest tours have been in France (with Aix-en-Provence and Valenciennes, from 1999 to 2005) and in Spain (with several teams, from 2006 to 2008 and 2011–2016).
Feaster's Valenciennes team won the French League title for four years straight from 2001 to 2002 through 2004-05 and won the EuroLeague Women title in 2001-02 and 2003–04. Her Ros Casares Valencia team was the EuroLeague runner-up in 2006–07.
C.B. Alcobendas announced on August 8, 2016, that Feaster had retired from professional basketball. She principally played off the bench during her three seasons for the Sparks, averaging between 12.8 and 14.7 minutes per game Feaster had a larger role with Charlotte, starting all but one game from 2001 through her maternity leave in 2005, and becoming a significant contributor in the Sting's run to the WNBA Finals in 2001. She was in the top five in the league in three-point field goals and attempts from 2001 through 2003, leading in three-pointers made in 2002 and in attempts in 2003. She was second in the league in offensive rating (118.3) and third in offensive win shares (4.1) in 2002. After sitting out the 2007 WNBA season Feaster signed with the Indiana Fever in March 2008. Feaster played 33 games for the Fever in 2008, all off the bench. On April 20, 2009, the Fever waived her.
Post-playing career
thumb|Feaster at a 2022 Boston Celtics game
After retiring from basketball in 2016, Feaster enrolled in the NBA's Basketball Operations Associate Program, completing the one-year program in 2017, and upon completion, took a job as Manager of Player Personnel & Coach Relations in the NBA G League. As of January 2020, she is the director of player development for the Boston Celtics.
Career statistics
{| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 92%; white-space: nowrap;"
|+ Legend
|-
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black;" | GP
| Games played
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | GS
| Games started
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | MPG
| Minutes per game
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black;" | FG%
| Field goal percentage
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | 3P%
| 3-point field goal percentage
|-
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | FT%
| Free throw percentage
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black;" | RPG
| Rebounds per game
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | APG
| Assists per game
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | SPG
| Steals per game
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black;" | BPG
| Blocks per game
|-
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | TO
| Turnovers per game
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | PPG
| Points per game
| style="background-color: #F2F2F2; border: 1px solid black" | Bold
| Career high
| style="background-color: #cfecec; border: 1px solid black" | *
| Led Division I
|}
College
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Team
!GP
!Points
!FG%
!3P%
!FT%
!RPG
!APG
!PPG
|-
|1994–95
|Harvard
|26
|443
|.530
|.312
|.779
|11.2
|1.9
|17.0
|-
|1995–96
|Harvard
|27
|490
|.474
|.357
|.753
|10.2
|2.3
|18.1
|-
|1996–97
|Harvard
|27
|582
|.478
|.324
|.763
|bgcolor=#cfecec|*10.7
|2.2
|bgcolor=#cfecec|*21.6
|-
|1997–98
|Harvard
|28
|797
|.519
|.406
|.796
|10.8
|2.6
|bgcolor=#cfecec|*28.5
|-
|style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|TOTAL
|108
|2,312
|.501
|.359
|.777
|10.7
|2.3
|21.4
|}
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1998
| style="text-align:left;"|Los Angeles
| 3 || 0 || 13.7 || .214 || .200 || 1.000 || 0.7 || 1.0 || 0.7 || 0.0 || 1.3 || 3.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999
| style="text-align:left;"|Los Angeles
| 32 || 4 || 12.8 || .495 || .368 || .684 || 1.8 || 1.0 || 0.5 || 0.2 || 0.9 || 5.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2000
| style="text-align:left;"|Los Angeles
| 32 || 0 || 14.7 || .359 || .259 || .833 || 2.7 || 1.0 || 0.7 || 0.1 || 1.1 || 6.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2001
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 32 || 32 || 31.5 || .375 || .327 || .921 || 4.8 || 1.4 || 0.9 || 0.3 || 1.8 || 11.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2002
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 32 || 32 || 29.9 || .394 || .418 || .824 || 3.7 || 1.9 || 1.2 || 0.4 || 1.3 || 11.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2003
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 34 || 34 || 32.2 || .376 || .351 || .846 || 3.3 || 2.1 || 1.5 || 0.3 || 2.1 || 12.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2004
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 33 || 32 || 31.9 || .398 || .315 || .868 || 2.5 || 1.8 || 0.8 || 0.2 || 2.1 || 11.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2005
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 21 || 21 || 31.7 || .377 || .430 || .846 || 1.8 || 2.4 || 0.7 || 0.1 || 1.8 || 9.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2006
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 32 || 1 || 9.7 || .235 || .250 || .500 || 0.6 || 0.7 || 0.4 || 0.1 || 0.4 || 1.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2008
| style="text-align:left;"|Indiana
| 33 || 0 || 9.1 || .337 || .307 || 1.000 || 0.7 || 0.8 || 0.2 || 0.1 || 0.4 || 2.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|Career
| style="text-align:left;"|10 years, 3 teams
| 284 || 156 || 22.2 || .378 || .344 || .835 || 2.4 || 1.4 || 0.8 || 0.1 || 1.3 || 8.0
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1999
| style="text-align:left;"|Los Angeles
| 4 || 0 || 8.0 || .267 || .200 || 1.000 || 0.5 || 0.3 || 0.2 || 0.0 || 0.3 || 3.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2000
| style="text-align:left;"|Los Angeles
| 4 || 0 || 11.0 || .313 || .231 || 1.000 || 2.3 || 0.8 || 0.5 || 0.2 || 1.3 || 3.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2001
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 8 || 8 || 31.0 || .351 || .314 || 1.000 || 4.3 || 1.8 || 1.1 || 0.5 || 1.1 || 8.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2002
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 2 || 2 || 32.5 || .300 || .231 || .000 || 7.5 || 3.5 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 2.0 || 7.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2003
| style="text-align:left;"|Charlotte
| 2 || 2 || 31.5 || .350 || .400 || .750 || 2.5 || 0.5 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 10.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|2006
| style="text-align:left;"|Indiana
| 2 || 0 || 4.0 || .500 || .500 || .000 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.5 || 1.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|Career
| style="text-align:left;"|6 years, 3 teams
| 22 || 12 || 20.9 || .333 || .295 || .917 || 3.0 || 1.2 || 0.7 || 0.2 || 0.9 || 6.0
Personal life
Feaster's daughter, Sarah Strong, plays basketball for the UConn Huskies.
References
External links
- WNBA Player Profile
- TopOfTheCircle.com profile (Archived 2009-10-25)
- FEB (Spanish Basketball Federation) player profile
- Harvard Varsity Club - Allison S. Feaster ‘98 - Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2013
- Allison Feaster: Life As A Pro Basketball Player...And Mom...Overseas
- Allison Feaster speaks about player development
- Beyond the Parquet | Allison Feaster | Boston Celtics - NBA.com
- Former WNBA players Allison Feaster and Stacey Lovelace make the most out of NBA post-career opportunities
- Harvard Crimson - Where Are They Now - Allison Feaster
- Allison Feaster appears on ‘Exceptional Women’ show on Boston’s WMJX-FM Magic 106.7
- From Zooms with rappers to talks with experts, Allison Feaster is keeping the Celtics educated and engaged
- Inside Allison Feaster’s pioneering role with the Celtics | RSN
- The Michael Holley Podcast with Allison Feaster | NBC Sports Boston
- 2023 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award
- YW Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers Award