Radoslav Nesterović

Rasho Nesterović

Nesterović with the Toronto Raptors.
Position	Center
Height	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Weight	255 lb (116 kg)
Born	May 30, 1976 (1976-05-30) (age 35) Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Slovenian / Greek
Draft	17th overall, 1998 Minnesota Timberwolves
Pro career	1992–2011
Career history	Partizan Belgrade (Serbia) (1992-93) PAOK (Greece) (1993-95) Olimpija Ljubljana (Slovenia) (1995-97) Kinder Bologna (Italy) (1997-99) Minnesota Timberwolves (1999-03) San Antonio Spurs (2003–06) Toronto Raptors (2006-08; 2009-10) Indiana Pacers (2008-09) Olympiacos (Greece) (2010-11)
Awards	FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship MVP 1996 1× NBA Champion 2005

Radoslav "Rašo" Nesterović (Serbian Cyrillic: Радослав »Рашо« Нестеровић, Slovene: Radoslav »Rašo« Nesterovič), usually referred to in English as Rasho Nesterovic (born May 30, 1976), is a retired Slovenian professional basketball player. He holds citizenship in both Slovenia and Greece.^[1] In the NBA he played for the Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, and Toronto Raptors. Nesterović retired in 2011.^[2]

Early life and career in Europe

Nesterović was born in Ljubljana, Socialist Republic of Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia. He started playing basketball with the KD Slovan youth team. Later, he played with the junior club of Partizan Belgrade and made his debut during the 1992–93 season.

PAOK Thessaloniki

Because of the Yugoslav wars, he moved to PAOK Thessaloniki of the Greek League. While playing there, he obtained a second citizenship (Greek) in order to avoid EU restrictions. In order to obtain Greek citizenship he had to administratively change his name in the eyes of Greek law. While in Greece and other EU countries, he thus competed as a domestic player under the name Radoslav Makris.^[3]

Olimpija Ljubljana

Ahead of the 1995–96 season, he returned to his hometown to play for Union Olimpija. Competing in the Slovenian domestic league, his averages were 30 minutes, 17 points and 14 rebounds per game. The summer of 1996 off season brought another significant feat for Nesterović— while playing for Slovenia's youth national team he was named the MVP at the 1996 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. The next season, 1996–97, he was part of that legendary Olimpija team that reached the Euroleague Final Four in Rome, thanks in no small part to Nesterović's efforts. In that season, he played an average of 24 minutes, scoring 14 points, and grabbing 8 rebounds per game in the Euroleague.

Virtus Bologna

The exposure on the biggest European stage led to a big time move for Nesterović to the Italian League power Virtus (Kinder) Bologna during the summer of 1997. In the first season with his new club, he scored an average of 9 points and grabbed an average of 12 rebounds per game in the Italian domestic league, but he was much more successful in the Euroleague, where he scored 11.2 points and grabbed 8.4 rebounds per game. He helped Virtus win the Euroleague title, playing alongside legendary players such as Predrag Danilović, Zoran Savić, and Antoine Rigaudeau. In the Euroleague final, Nesterović scored 16 points and grabbed 9 rebounds.

NBA

Minnesota Timberwolves

Nesterović was a first-round draft pick (17th overall) of the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1998 NBA Draft. He joined the Timberwolves just before the end of the 1998–99 season and played there through the 2002–03 season.

Nesterović stayed in Minnesota for four full seasons because he played only the last two regular-season games, plus all of his team's games in the playoffs, in his first season. His best season with the Timberwolves was 2002–03, when he averaged 11.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, earning himself a 6-year contract with the San Antonio Spurs in 2004.

San Antonio Spurs

In his first season with San Antonio, he scored 8.7 points per game and grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game. In his second season with the Spurs, 2004–05, he suffered an ankle injury, and was limited to 70 games. Nevertheless, he remained the starting center for the majority of the season, and, along with his colleague from the Slovenian national basketball team, Beno Udrih, he ultimately won an NBA title with the Spurs that year.

Nesterović with the Toronto Raptors.

Toronto Raptors

On June 21, 2006, Nesterović was traded to the Toronto Raptors along with cash in exchange for Matt Bonner, Eric Williams and a second round pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.^[4] In his first season with the Raptors, he averaged 6.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks per game.

On April 2, 2008, at 7:34 pm EST, Nesterović hit his first three-point shot ever in the regular season, with a pump fake, for a buzzer beater against the Atlanta Hawks, in Atlanta.

Indiana Pacers

On July 9, 2008, Nesterović was traded along with the Raptors' T.J. Ford, Maceo Baston and the 17th pick in the draft (Roy Hibbert) to the Indiana Pacers, in exchange for Jermaine O'Neal and the 41st pick in the draft (Nathan Jawai).^[5]

Return to the Toronto Raptors

On July 30, 2009, Nesterović officially was signed by the Raptors, reportedly with the biannual exception of $1.9 million for one season.^[6]

Return to Europe

Olympiacos Piraeus

For the 2010-11 season Nesterović returned to Europe when he signed a two-year contract with the Greek League powerhouse Olympiacos Piraeus.^[7] He was released by Olympiacos in July 2011.^[8]

Slovenian national team

Nesterović was the captain of the senior men's Slovenian national basketball team until his retirement from the national team in 2008. He helped his national team finish in 6th place at the EuroBasket 2005 in Belgrade, and to thus secure a place at the 2006 FIBA World Championship. At the 2005 EuroBasket 2005, he played an average of 21 minutes, where he scored an average of 16 points and grabbed an average of 7 rebounds per game.

NBA 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	Bold	Career high

Correct as of 10 May 2010^[9]

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1998–99	Minnesota	2	0	15.0	.250	.000	1.000	4.0	.5	.0	.0	4.0
1999–00	Minnesota	82	55	21.0	.476	.000	.573	4.6	1.1	.3	1.0	5.7
2000–01	Minnesota	73	39	16.9	.461	.000	.523	3.9	.6	.3	.9	4.5
2001–02	Minnesota	82	82	27.0	.493	.000	.549	6.5	.9	.6	1.3	8.4
2002–03	Minnesota	77	77	30.4	.525	.000	.642	6.5	1.5	.5	1.5	11.2
2003–04	San Antonio	82	82	28.7	.469	.000	.474	7.7	1.4	.6	2.0	8.7
2004–05	San Antonio	70	70	25.5	.460	.000	.467	6.6	1.0	.4	1.7	5.9
2005–06	San Antonio	80	51	18.9	.515	.000	.600	3.9	.4	.3	1.1	4.5
2006–07	Toronto	80	73	21.0	.546	.000	.680	4.5	.9	.5	1.0	6.2
2007–08	Toronto	71	39	20.9	.550	.333	.755	4.8	1.2	.3	.7	7.8
2008–09	Indiana	70	19	17.3	.513	.000	.781	3.4	1.6	.4	.5	6.8
2009-10	Toronto	42	8	9.8	.544	.000	.200	2.1	.6	.2	.4	3.9
Career		811	595	22.2	.502	.077	.585	5.1	1.0	.4	1.2	6.8

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1998–99	Minnesota	3	0	9.7	.500	.000	.000	2.3	1.0	.0	.0	2.7
1999–00	Minnesota	4	4	31.5	.440	.000	.500	3.3	1.5	.8	1.8	6.3
2000–01	Minnesota	4	2	12.3	.385	.000	.000	3.0	.8	.2	.8	2.5
2001–02	Minnesota	3	3	30.7	.484	.000	.444	6.7	1.0	.3	.0	11.3
2002–03	Minnesota	6	6	28.2	.500	.000	.667	5.0	.7	.2	.7	7.0
2003–04	San Antonio	10	10	26.1	.433	.000	.167	5.5	1.0	.3	1.1	5.9
2004–05	San Antonio	15	0	7.6	.417	.000	.000	1.7	.1	.1	.3	.7
2005–06	San Antonio	9	1	12.7	.579	1.000	1.000	3.3	.1	.2	.6	2.8
2006–07	Toronto	5	4	14.2	.467	.000	1.000	4.6	.6	.0	.4	3.4
2007–08	Toronto	5	2	15.4	.500	.000	.500	2.6	.6	.2	.4	4.6
Career		64	32	17.2	.468	.500	.500	3.6	.6	.2	.6	4.0

References

1. ^ Talkbasket.net - Nesterovic agrees with Olympiacos.
2. ^ Nesterovic ready to begin next chapter in basketball life
3. ^ Nesterovic playing history page on the official Italian league website.
4. ^ "Raptors Acquire Rasho Nesterovic In Exchange for Matt Bonner, Eric Williams & a Future Second Round Pick". NBA.com. 2006-06-21. http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/pressrelease_062106.html. Retrieved 2009-07-25. 
5. ^ "Pacers announce two trades; acquire seven players". NBA.com. 2008-07-09. http://www.nba.com/pacers/news/pacers_trades_release_080709.html. Retrieved 2009-07-25. 
6. ^ "Raptors Sign Rasho Nesterovic". NBA.com. 2009-07-30. http://www.nba.com/raptors/news/nesterovic_signing073009.html. Retrieved 2009-07-30. 
7. ^ Olympiakos signs Rasho Nesterovic to a two-year contract
8. ^ Olympiakos releases Nesterovic
9. ^ Rasho Nesterovic Career Stats and Totals, nba.com, accessed 6 December 2007.

External links

• NBA.com Profile
• It's Rasho's World

Awards and achievements
Preceded by	FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship MVP 1996	Succeeded by Igor Rakočević

Persondata
Name	Nesterovic, Radoslav
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1976-05-30
Place of birth	Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia
Date of death
Place of death