Eric Piatkowski

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Eric Piatkowski
Position	Guard, Forward
Height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Weight	215 lb (98 kg)
Team	Phoenix Suns
Nationality	United States
Born	September 30, 1970 Stuebenville, Ohio
College	Nebraska
Draft	1^st Round, 15^th overall, 1994 Indiana Pacers
Pro career	1994 – present
Former teams	Los Angeles Clippers 1994-2003 Houston Rockets 2003-04 Chicago Bulls 2004-06

Eric Todd Piatkowski (born September 30, 1970 in Steubenville, Ohio) is an NBA basketball player recently signed with the Phoenix Suns. ^[1] He is the son of former ABA player, Walt Piatkowski.

1 Career history
2 Career highlights
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Career history

After completing his eligibility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Piatkowski was drafted by the Indiana Pacers with the 15th pick of the 1994 NBA Draft. The Pacers immediately dealt his draft rights, along with those of Pooh Richardson and Malik Sealy, to the Los Angeles Clippers for Mark Jackson and the draft rights to Greg Minor.

Piatkowski averaged 7.0 points per game in his rookie year of 1994-95 while shooting .374 from the three-point line.

He played his first nine seasons with the Clippers, then was signed as an unrestricted free agent by the Houston Rockets before the 2003-04 season. Piatkowski became a Bull on September 8, 2004, when Houston sent him, Adrian Griffin and Mike Wilks to Chicago in exchange for Dikembe Mutombo.

On July 3, 2006, Piatkowski agreed to sign with the Phoenix Suns for a two year, $2.4 million deal, which was officially signed on July 13.

In the NBA video game, NBA Live 2007 by EA Sports, Piatkowski possesses the unusual ability to completely dominate the game despite his relitively low ability scores.

[edit] Career highlights

As of 2004, with a .399 percentage, he holds 22nd place in NBA history and 9th place among active players for career three-point percentage.
With 616 games played as a Clipper, he ranks 2nd in total games played in Clippers franchise history.
He set the Clippers individual season record for three-point percentage at .466, and is ranked third in the NBA. (2001-02)
On February 16, 2002, he set a career high of 36 points against the Dallas Mavericks.
In 1997-98, he established a career high 11.3 PPG average, .452 FG%, .724 FT%, 3.5 rpg, 1.3 apg, and three-pointers made and attempted.
In 1996-97 he made his NBA Playoffs debut, with an average of 5.3 PPG, in 12.7 mpg in three games.
Nicknamed "Pike" for his surname, and "The Polish Rifle" for both his ancestry and three-point shooting accuracy.
His jersey at Nebraska (No. 52) was retired in 2006.^[2]
During his time with the Chicago Bulls, affectionate Bulls fans began referring to Piatkowski's enthusiastic courtside fist-pumps after big plays for the team as "The Pike Punch" and would often say that they couldn't declare a close game truly over until Piatkowski had executed a "Punch".