Drew Nicholas

Drew Nicholas

Nicholas with Efes Pilsen
Personal information
Born (1981-05-17) May 17, 1981
Hempstead, New York
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Listed weight 180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High school Long Island Lutheran
(Brookville, New York)
College Maryland (1999–2003)
NBA draft 2003 / Undrafted
Playing career 2003–2013
Position Shooting guard
Career history
2003–2004 Fabriano Basket
2004–2005 Basket Livorno
2005 TAU Ceramica
2005–2006 Benetton Treviso
2006–2008 Efes Pilsen
2008–2011 Panathinaikos
2011–2012 Emporio Armani Milano
2012 CSKA Moscow
Career highlights and awards

Andrew Lawrence "Drew" Nicholas (born May 17, 1981) is an American retired professional basketball player. A 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) tall shooting guard, Nicholas led the Euroleague 2005–06 season in scoring, averaging 18.4 points per game and thus won the Alphonso Ford Trophy. He also won the EuroLeague twice in 2009 and 2011.

High school

Born in Hempstead, New York, Nicholas played high school basketball at Long Island Lutheran, in New York, from 1995 to 1999.

College career

Nicholas played college basketball at the University of Maryland, College Park with the Maryland Terrapins from 1999 to 2003.[1] In 2002, Nicholas helped Maryland win its first National Championship.[2] He made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference 2nd Team in his senior season in college.[3] His most memorable moment came in the 2003 NCAA Tournament when he hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to win a first round game against UNC-Wilmington.[4] He also hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give coach Gary Williams his 500th career coaching victory against NC State.[5]

Professional career

Nicholas was selected in the 2003 USBL Draft by the Texas Rim Rockers (59th overall).[6] He then moved to Italy for the 2003–04 season, signed by Fabriano Basket, in the Italian LegADue (Italy's 2nd-tier level league). He led Legadue in scoring with 27.1 points per game that season. He was signed for the 2004–05 season by Basket Livorno. He led Italy's top-tier level LBA in scoring with 22.8 points per game. At the end of the Italian League's regular season, he moved to Spain, signed for the remainder of the season by TAU Ceramica.[7] He then went back to Italy for the 2005–06 season, signed by Benetton Treviso.[8] He led the EuroLeague in scoring with 18.4 points per game. He moved to Turkey for the 2006–07 season, signed by Efes Pilsen. On June 24, 2008, he signed a two-year contract with Greek club Panathinaikos.[9] Nicholas helped Panathinaikos win the 2009 and 2011 EuroLeague championships. He also won the Greek Cup in 2009, as well as the Greek League championship in 2009, 2010, and 2011. In July 2011, he signed with Italian club Armani Jeans Milano.[10] In January 2012, Nicholas was waived by Armani Jeans Milano.[11]

In July 2012, after being a free agent for 7 months since his departure from AJ Milano, Nicholas signed a one-year contract with the Russian club CSKA Moscow.[12] However, on November 23, 2012, Nicholas reached an agreement to terminate his contract with the team, by mutual agreement.[13] In July 2013, he announced his retirement from playing professional basketball.[14]

EuroLeague career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

Note: The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season. He also played in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable.

† Denotes seasons in which Nicholas won the EuroLeague
Led the league
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2005–06 Benetton 20 17 33.8 .479 .457 .827 2.8 2.7 1.1 .1 18.4 16.6
2006–07 Efes Pilsen 20 20 34.3 .429 .400 .726 2.5 2.5 3.8 .2 13.9 13.1
2007–08 Efes Pilsen 14 12 32.5 .430 .353 .729 3.0 2.9 1.0 .1 16.5 14.1
2008–09† Panathinaikos 22 16 23.5 .429 .408 .615 1.3 1.2 1.0 .1 8.3 6.0
2009–10 Panathinaikos 16 15 27.6 .433 .410 .667 1.2 2.2 .9 .2 10.5 7.9
2010–11† Panathinaikos 20 6 23.0 .437 .415 .600 1.1 1.7 .4 .1 9.8 6.1
2011–12 Milano 14 8 26.4 .302 .297 .625 2.6 1.7 .5 .2 7.4 4.2
2012–13 CSKA Moscow 4 1 15.0 .067 .000 .000 .5 .8 .0 .0 .5 -3.5
Career 130 95 28.2 .422 .391 .737 2.1 2.3 .8 .1 11.8 9.4

Personal

In February 2008, Nicholas refused to travel with Efes Pilsen for the away match against Partizan Belgrade in Belgrade, due to an advice for U.S. citizens not to visit Serbia related to the tension after the declaration of independence of Kosovo.[15] He was then banned from the club and shortly after that he was released.[16] In March 2008, he shortly negotiated with Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv on a three-year contract offer, but came to no final contract agreement with the club.

References

  1. ↑ Player Bio: Drew Nicholas :: Men's Basketball - Maryland Terrapins
  2. ↑ Drew Nicholas: 10 years after Maryland's national title
  3. ↑ Bosh, Elder Earn All-ACC Honors
  4. ↑ Nicholas twists Maryland past UNC-Wilmington at buzzer
  5. ↑ COLLEGE BASKETBALL: MEN'S ROUNDUP; Williams's 500th Victory Is at Wolfpack's Expense
  6. ↑ USBL Completes 2003 Draft
  7. ↑ El Tau contrata a Drew Nicholas (Spanish)
  8. ↑ La Benetton conferma l'ingaggio di Drew Nicholas (Italian)
  9. ↑ Panathinaikos brings in Drew Nicholas
  10. ↑ Milano lands Drew Nicholas!
  11. ↑ Drew Nicholas and Olimpia Milano part ways
  12. ↑ "CSKA Moscow inks two-time champ Nicholas". Euroleague. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  13. ↑ "CSKA Moscow, Drew Nicholas part ways". Sportando. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  14. ↑ "Drew Nicholas retires at 32". Sportando.net. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  15. ↑ Efes Pilsen without four Americans
  16. ↑ Efes Pilsen releases Nicholas, Wright
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