Sofoklis Schortsanitis

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Sofoklis Schortsanitis
File:Schortsanitis warming up in 2011.jpg
Schortsanitis in 2011
No. 15 – PAOK Thessaloniki
Position Center
League Greek League
Eurocup
Personal information
Born (1985-06-22) 22 June 1985 (age 38)
Tiko, Cameroon
Nationality Greek / Cameroonian
Listed height 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight 287 lb (130 kg)
Career information
NBA draft 2003 / Round: 2 / Pick: 34th overall
Selected by the Los Angeles Clippers
Playing career 2000–present
Career history
2000–2003 Iraklis
2003–2004 Pallacanestro Cantù
2004–2005 Aris Thessaloniki
2005–2010 Olympiacos
2010–2012 Maccabi Tel Aviv
2012–2013 Panathinaikos
2013–2015 Maccabi Tel Aviv
2015 Crvena zvezda
2015–present PAOK
Career highlights and awards
Medals
Representing  Greece
Men's Basketball
Albert Schweitzer Tournament
Gold medal – first place 2002 Germany National Team
FIBA Europe U-18 Championship
Bronze medal – third place 2002 Böblingen National Team
FIBA U-19 World Championship
Bronze medal – third place 2003 Thessaloniki National Team
FIBA World Cup
Silver medal – second place 2006 Japan National Team
FIBA EuroBasket
Bronze medal – third place 2009 Poland National Team

Sofoklis Schortsanitis (Greek: Σοφοκλής Σχορτσανίτης) (born 22 June 1985) is a Greek-Cameroonian professional basketball player who plays for PAOK of the Greek Basket League. Listed at 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) and 130 kg (287 lb),[1] he was born in Tiko, Cameroon to a Greek father and a Cameroonian mother.[2]

An All-Euroleague First Team selection in 2011, "Sofo" won the Euroleague title in 2014 with Maccabi Tel Aviv and reached the Euroleague Final twice in 2010 and 2011, while playing for Olympiacos and Maccabi respectively. He was a member of the Greek national team as they captured silver medal honours in the 2006 FIBA World Championship, and bronze in the FIBA EuroBasket 2009.

Professional career

Early years

Born in his native port town of Tiko, Cameroon, Sofoklis moved to his other country, Greece with his parents when he was very young. He has a brother called Alexandros.[citation needed] Sofoklis first took up basketball in his city of Kavala. It was there where his parents advised him to play basketball and Sofoklis at first didn't like the sport. But eventually the game grew on him and he was always practising and then slowly, slowly, he began to like it which led to him playing it every day. Eventually a scout/coach discovered his talent and pushed him into the sport. Schortsanitis began playing basketball at a professional level with Iraklis in the Greek League when he was a teenager, starting the 2000–01 season. In the 2002–03 season, he averaged 11.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in the Greek league at the age of 17. He then went on to play in the Italian League with Cantù during the 2003–04 season, but his stay was a failure due to a lack of maturity and experience. Following that, he returned to Greece and spent the 2004–05 season with Aris.

Olympiacos

In the 2005–06 season, "Sofo" was transferred to Olympiacos. He became a vital member of the team that reached the Euroleague quarter finals and his performances impressed Panagiotis Giannakis, who picked him for the senior Greek national basketball team at the end of the season.

During the following two years, Schortsanitis failed to reach consistency and his chronic weight issues re-emerged, to the point he spent almost the entire 2007–08 season dealing with them.[3] He came back in shape in the 2008–09 season, helping Olympiacos reach the Euroleague Final Four. In the 2009–10 season, he made another step towards consistency, displaying his most mature performances on the "Reds'" way to the Euroleague Final, which they lost to Navarro's and Rubio's Barcelona by 86–68.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

On 5 August 2010, Schortsanitis signed a two-year deal with five-time Euroleague champions Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Super League.[4] His presence alongside Jeremy Pargo, Chuck Eidson, and Doron Perkins helped the team reach the 2011 Euroleague Final, where they eventually lost to Diamantidis' Panathinaikos, by a score of 78–70. Sofo averaged 12 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1 assist per game throughout the Euroleague 2010-11 season, earning an All-Euroleague First Team selection.[5]

In the 2011–12 season, Schortsanitis fought a chronic knee injury which had an impact on his performance during the season and left him unable to participate with the Greek national team that summer. Nevertheless, he helped Maccabi reach the Euroleague quarter finals, where they were topped by Panathinaikos, losing the series, 3–2.

Panathinaikos

On 4 July 2012, Schortsanitis signed a three-year contract with Panathinaikos,[6] worth €1.5 million euros net income.[7] He reportedly turned down significantly more lucrative offers from Baskonia Vitoria and Galatasaray, among others, to return to Greece and fulfill his desire to play for the Greens. In July 2013, Panathinaikos announced that Schortsanitis would not continue play for Panathinaikos.[8]

Second stint with Maccabi

On 10 July 2013, Schortsanitis returned to Maccabi after one season in Panathinaikos and signed a three-year contract with the Israeli champion.[9] Following his comeback, Maccabi won the Euroleague, the first in his career. Over 29 games in the Euroleague, he averaged 9.6 points and 2.6 rebounds in 14.2 minutes of play.

Crvena zvezda

On August 2, 2015, Schortsanitis signed a one-year contract with the Serbian club Crvena zvezda.[10][11] On October 28, 2015, he parted ways with Zvezda. In 6 games of ABA League, he averaged 4,8 points and 2,5 rebounds per match.[12]

PAOK

On November 2, 2015, Schortsanitis signed with PAOK for the rest of the season.[13]

NBA

Schortsanitis drew interest from the Los Angeles Clippers in the summer of 2006, after having been selected in the 2nd round (34th overall) of the 2003 NBA Draft; however, because he was still under contract with Olympiacos at the time, he did not make the leap to the NBA.[14] In 2010, his contract with Olympiacos expired and he elected to participate in the NBA Summer League with the Clippers, with an eye towards joining the team; this time, however, the Clippers were unimpressed, and he failed to secure a contract with the team. On 30 July 2012, the Los Angeles Clippers traded the rights of Schortsanitis, to the Atlanta Hawks, in a sign-and-trade deal for Willie Green.[15]

On 15 July 2014, his draft rights were traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, in exchange for Thabo Sefolosha, the rights to Giorgos Printezis, and cash considerations.[16]

Greek national team

File:Sofoklis Schortsanitis naional team (cropped).jpg
Schortsanitis playing for the Greek national team

After some friendly games and qualifiers, Schortsanitis' first appearance at a major FIBA competition with the senior men's Greek national basketball team was at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan. He helped Greece to win the silver medal after defeating Team USA by a score of 101–95 in the semi-final game. Schortsanitis scored 14 points in 17 minutes in the latter contest.

At the FIBA EuroBasket 2009 held in Poland, Schortsanitis' performance was decisive in Greece winning the bronze medal game against Slovenia, as he scored 23 points on 78% field goal percentage, while grabbing six rebounds, blocking two shots, and managing to draw 12 fouls.

Player profile

Schortsanitis is a classic, "old school" style center that plays in the low post on offence and defends the rim and painted lane area of the court on defence. Schortsanitis was measured at the 2003 NBA pre-draft camp at a height of Lua error in Module:Convert at line 452: attempt to index field 'titles' (a nil value). tall barefoot, 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) tall with shoes on, and with a 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) wingspan.[17][18]

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 season in which Schortsanitis' team won the Euroleague

Domestic leagues

Season Team League GP MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2000-01 Iraklis Greek A1 2 4.0 1.000 -- .333 .5 .0 .0 .0 2.5
2001-02 11 6.7 .750 -- .438 1.4 .4 .1 .2 2.8
2002-03 26 21.5 .604 -- .510 6.2 .9 .7 .3 11.5
2003-04 Oregon Scientific Cantù Lega A 33 16.1 .620 .000 .421 3.6 .2 .8 .3 6.4
2004-05 Aris B.C. Greek A1 21 11.7 .712 -- .483 2.9 .4 .4 .4 5.8
2005-06 Olympiacos B.C. 26 16.7 .664 1.000 .661 3.8 .6 .9 .7 9.3
2006-07 15 12.2 .568 -- .585 2.7 .7 .4 .2 8.1
2007-08 3 13.3 .750 -- .385 3.3 1.0 .7 .0 7.7
2008-09 21 8.5 .593 -- .479 1.4 .5 .2 .0 4.4
2009-10 31 13.9 .686 -- .523 3.4 .7 .7 .5 9.0
2010-11 Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. Ligat HaAl 30 17.8 .707 -- .559 4.9 .9 .6 .7 11.8
2011-12 Adriatic League 24 16.5 .604 -- .629 4.2 1.1 .5 .5 9.8
Ligat HaAl 10 18.3 .608 .630 .796 4.3 1.0 .4 .7 9.1
2012-13 Panathinaikos B.C. Greek A1 29 12.1 .653 -- .571 2.3 .8 .3 .1 8.1
2013-14 Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. Ligat HaAl 23 14.4 .701 -- .574 3.2 1.5 .8 .3 8.9
2014-15 23 12.8 .620 .000 .563 2.6 .9 .4 .3 7.8

Euroleague

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2005–06 Olympiacos 22 1 19.1 .618 .000 .632 4.9 .5 1.2 .6 10.7 12.0
2006–07 Olympiacos 17 1 11.0 .655 .000 .507 1.8 .7 .4 .4 6.6 5.4
2008–09 Olympiacos 13 1 8.3 .568 .000 .625 1.8 .3 .2 .1 4.4 2.8
2009–10 Olympiacos 19 18 13.3 .614 .000 .486 2.5 .6 .5 .2 7.2 6.6
2010–11 Maccabi 22 20 19.2 .585 .000 .625 4.1 1.0 .8 .6 12.0 13.0
2011–12 Maccabi 21 14 16.0 .595 .000 .625 3.0 1.0 .6 .4 8.7 8.6
2012–13 Panathinaikos 26 9 12.1 .576 .000 .604 2.3 .9 .3 .1 7.8 6.4
2013–14† Maccabi 29 20 14.2 .613 .000 .577 2.6 1.1 .8 .3 9.6 8.3
2014–15 Maccabi 26 20 14.7 .528 .000 .549 2.3 1.0 .3 .4 6.7 5.9
Career 195 104 14.5 .593 .000 .584 2.9 .8 .6 .3 8.4 7.9

Awards and accomplishments

Pro career

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Greek national team

References

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  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Article on sport24.gr about Schortsanitis' transfer.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ CLIPPERS ACQUIRE GUARD WILLIE GREEN FROM ATLANTA
  16. ↑ Thunder Acquires Schortsanitis and Trade Exception
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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