Efthimios Rentzias

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Efthimios Rentzias (Greek: Ευθύμιος Ρετζιάς; born January 11, 1976 in Trikala, Greece) is a professional basketball player most notably a former member of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers.

He began his professional career with PAOK Thessaloniki (Greece) in 1994-95 before transferring to FC Barcelona in 1997-98. He was a member of the Greek national team from 1994-2002 and competed in the 1996 Olympic Games, marking the first ever appearance by Greece's men's basketball team in a Summer Olympics averaged 5.0 points and 4.1 rebounds in 12 minutes per game over seven contests in the Olympic Games.He played in the European Championships in 1995, 1997, and 2001.

He was originally selected with the 23rd pick by the Denver Nuggets in the 1996 NBA Draft out of his Greek club, PAOK, with the 23rd overall selection, but did not play in the NBA that time.

His first season in the NBA was during the 2002-03 campaign with the 76ers in which he played in only 35 games, averaging 1.5 points per game.

In 2005-2006 he played for Forum Valladolid of the Spanish basketball league.

He played in the 1997 Greek All-Star Game, with FC Barcelona won the 1999 and 2001 Asociacion de Clubes de Baloncesto (ACB) Spanish title; the 1999 Korac Cup and the 2001 Spain's Cup. He helped PAOK Thessaloniki win the Korac Cup in 1994 and the Greece Cup in 1995. MVP of the 1995 Junior World Championships, helping Greece to a first place finish, including a 98-78 win over a U.S. team that featured Stephon Marbury and Samaki Walker, averaged 9.2 points and 3.5 rebounds in 17.3 minutes per contest in 51 games in both the Asociacion Clubes de Baloncesto (ACB) and Euroleagues (ULEB) in 2001-02, shot 61.6 percent from the field, 36.3 percent from three-point range and 71.4 percent from the foul line.

Rentzias had plans to come back to PAOK BC to finish his career. Regrettably, in August 2006, he announced that he will retire from basketball at the age of 30 because of injury problems.