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
2× Euroleague champion (2009, 2011) Alphonso Ford Trophy (2006) 3× Greek League champion (2009–2011) Greek Cup winner (2009) Turkish Cup winner (2007) Serie A champion (2006) Serie A scoring leader (2005) Serie A2 scoring leader (2004) Greek League Best Five Team (2010) 3× Greek All Star (2009–2011) NCAA champion (2002) Second-team All-ACC (2003)

Andrew Lawrence "Drew" Nicholas (born May 17, 1981) is an American retired professional basketball player. A 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 and college career

Born in Hempstead, New York, Nicholas played high school basketball at Long Island Lutheran, New York from 1995 to 1999. He played college basketball at the University of Maryland, College Park with the Maryland Terrapins from 1999 to 2003. In 2002, Nicholas helped Maryland win its first National Championship. He made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference 2nd Team in his senior season in college. 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. He also hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give coach Gary Williams his 500th career coaching victory against NC State.

Professional career

Nicholas was selected in the 2003 USBL Draft by the Texas Rim Rockers (59th overall). He then moved to Italy for the 2003–04 season, signed by Fabriano Basket, in the Italian LegADue. 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 the Lega in scoring with 22.8 points per game. At the end of the Italian regular season, he moved to Spain, signed for the remainder of the season by TAU Ceramica. He then went back to Italy for the 2005–06 season, signed by Benetton Treviso. 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. Nicholas helped Panathinaikos win the 2009 and 2011 Euroleague championships. He also won the Greek cup in 2009 as well as the Greek championship in 2009, 2010, and 2011. In July 2011 he signed with Armani Jeans Milano. In January 2012, Nicholas was waived by Armani Jeans Milano.

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. However, on November 23, 2012, Nicholas has reached an agreement to terminate his contract with the team by mutual agreement. In July 2013, he announced retirement.

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. He was then banned from the club and shortly after that he was released. 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.

External links

• Euroleague.net profile
• FIBA.com profile
• Italian League profile
• Turkish League profile