Omar Cook

Omar Cook

Cook with Unicaja Málaga
Nickname(s)	"El Marine" (The Marine)
Position	Point guard
Height	6 ft 1.25 in (1.86 m)
Weight	190 lb (86 kg)
League	Euroleague Lega Basket Serie A
Team	Olimpia Milano
Born	January 28, 1982 (1982-01-28) (age 29) Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	American Montenegrin
High school	Christ The King RHS, Queens, New York City
College	St. John's University
Draft	2nd round, 31st overall, 2001 Orlando Magic
Pro career	2001–present
Career history	Fayetteville Patriots (2001-04) Portland Trail Blazers (2004) Fayetteville Patriots (2004-05) Toronto Raptors (2005) Dexia Mons-Hainaut (2005-06) Samara (2006-07) Strasbourg IG (2007) Red Star Belgrade (2007-08) Unicaja Málaga (2008-10) Valencia BC (2010-11) Olimpia Milano (2011-?)

Omar Cook (born January 28, 1982 in Brooklyn, New York) is a naturalized Montenegrin^[1] professional basketball player and member of the Montenegro national basketball team who grew up in the United States. He is often referred to as a prime example of college basketball players who declared for the NBA Draft too early. He is 1.86 m (6 ft 1 ¼ in) tall. He plays at point guard position with the pro club Olimpia Milano.

Amateur career

Cook played high school basketball at Christ The King Regional High School, and then played college basketball at St. John's University. Cook ranked second in the nation and first in the Big East in assists during the one year he spent at St. John's. He also broke Mark Jackson's record for the most assists in a game for a St. John's player with 17, against Stony Brook University.

Pro career

Cook was drafted by the Orlando Magic of the NBA as the third pick in the second round (31st overall) of the 2001 NBA Draft. He was immediately traded to the Denver Nuggets, but failed to make the team, allegedly because of his inability to shoot the ball effectively. From 2001–2004, Cook made some pre-season appearances for teams in the league, also managing 22 regular season games played (17 with the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2003–04 season and five with the Toronto Raptors in the 2004–05 season). In July 2005, he was drafted by the AAPBL, but the league folded less than two weeks after the draft.

He also briefly led the NBA D-League in steals and assists in the 2004–05 season, while playing with the Fayetteville Patriots. During the 2005–06 season, Cook played in the Belgian league with Dexia Mons-Hainaut. The following year he played with two teams, the French Pro A club Strasbourg IG and the Russian Super League club Samara. In the 2007–08 season, he played with the Adriatic League club Red Star Belgrade. He had the best season of his career with Red Star Belgrade, where he was one of the team leaders.^[2]

On June 26, 2008, he joined the Spanish ACB league's Unicaja Málaga, signing with the club for two seasons.^[3] In 2010, he signed a two-year deal with Spanish basketball club Power Electronics Valencia.^[4]

In 2011, he signed a two-year deal with Italian team Olimpia Milano.^[5]

Montenegrin national team

In May 2008, Cook received Montenegrin citizenship, thus applying to represent Montenegro's national basketball team.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ Has the Montenegrin passport.
2. ^ Career moves at HoopsHype.com.
3. ^ Cook joins Málaga for two seasons. (Spanish)
4. ^ Power Electronics inks playmaker Cook .
5. ^ Olimpia Milano agreed to terms with Omar Cook
6. ^ Cook to play under Vujosevic.
7. ^ Cook officially a Montenegrin.

External links

• NBA.com Profile
• Euroleague.net Profile
• NBA Stats @ BasketballReference.com
• Basketpedya.com Profile
• Eurobasket.com Profile

Persondata
Name	Cook, Omar
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 28, 1982
Place of birth	Brooklyn, New York
Date of death
Place of death