Former Gator and current Golden State center Marreese Speights was arrested late Monday night on a
DUI charge in Tampa.
Speights, who turned 27 on Monday, was pulled over at the corner of McDill Street and Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa at 3:31 a.m. late Monday night. He spent the night in Hillsborough County Jail and was released Tuesday morning on a $500 bond.
According to his Twitter account, Speights had returned to his native St. Petersburg last weekend to visit and help at some youth basketball camps. Two months ago, Speights was in Gainesville working out with current Gator basketball players Kasey Hill, Dorian Finney-Smith and Alex Murphy.
The 6-foot-10 Speights played two seasons for the Gators (2007, 2008), earning a national title ring in the second of UF’s back-to-back national seasons as a reserve center. He left UF after his sophomore season and was taken in the first round (16th overall) by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2008 NBA draft.
Speights and Florida coach Billy Donovan clashed throughout his sophomore season due to conditioning issues. But Speights saved his best career performance for his final college game, finishing with 16 points and 18 rebounds against UMass in UF’s 2008 NIT semifinal loss to the Minutemen in New York City.
In seven NBA seasons with the 76ers, Memphis Grizzlies, Cleveland Cavaliers and Warriors, Speights has a career average of 7.5 points and 4.3 rebounds.
