Andrew Lawrence "Drew" Nicholas (born May 17, 1981) is a retired American professional basketball player. A 1.93 m (6'4") tall shooting guard-small forward, Nicholas led the Euroleague 2005-06 season in scoring, averaging 18.4 points per game and thus won the Alphonso Ford Trophy. He also won the Euroleague for two times, in 2009 and in 2011.
High school and college career
Born in Hempstead, New York, Nicholas played high school basketball at Long Island Lutheran, New York from 1995 to 1999. He played college basketball at the University of Maryland, College Park with the Maryland Terrapins from 1999 to 2003. In 2002, Nicholas helped Maryland win its first National Championship. He made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference 2nd Team in his senior season in college. His most memorable moment came in the 2003 NCAA Tournament when he hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to win a first round game against UNC-Wilmington. He also hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Coach Gary Williams his 500th career coaching victory against NC State.
Professional career
Nicholas was selected in the 2003 USBL Draft by the Texas Rim Rockers (59th overall). He then moved to Italy for the 2003-04 season, signed by Fabriano Basket, in the Italian LegADue. He led Legadue in scoring with 27.1 points per game that season. He was signed for the 2004-05 season by Basket Livorno. He led the Lega in scoring with 22.8 points per game. At the end of the Italian regular season, he moved to Spain, signed for the remainder of the season by Saski Baskonia Vitoria. He then went back to Italy for the 2005-06 season, signed by Benetton Treviso. He led the Euroleague in scoring with 18.4 points per game. He moved to Turkey for the 2006-07 season, signed by Efes Pilsen. On June 24, 2008 he signed a 2-year contract with Greek club Panathinaikos.[1] Nicholas helped Panathinaikos win the 2009 and 2011 Euroleague championships. He also won the Greek cup in 2009 as well as the Greek championship in 2009, 2010, and 2011. In July 2011 he signed with Armani Jeans Milano.[2]
In January, 2012 Nicholas was waived by Armani Jeans Milano.[3]
In July, 2012 after being a free agent for 7 months since his departure from AJ Milano, Nicholas signed a one-year contract with the Russian club CSKA Moscow.[4] However, on November 23, 2012, Nicholas has reached an agreement to terminate his contract with the team by mutual agreement.[5] In July 2013 he announced retirement.[6]
Euroleague career statistics
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.
| † |
Denotes seasons in which Nicholas won the Euroleague |
|
Led the league |
| Year |
Team |
GP |
GS |
MPG |
FG% |
3P% |
FT% |
RPG |
APG |
SPG |
BPG |
PPG |
PIR |
|---|
| 2005–06 |
Benetton |
20 | 17 | 33.8 | .479 | .457 | .827 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 1.1 | .1 | 18.4 | 16.6 |
| 2006–07 |
Efes Pilsen |
20 | 20 | 34.3 | .429 | .400 | .726 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 3.8 | .2 | 13.9 | 13.1 |
| 2007–08 |
Efes Pilsen |
14 | 12 | 32.5 | .430 | .353 | .729 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 1.0 | .1 | 16.5 | 14.1 |
| 2008–09† |
Panathinaikos |
22 | 16 | 23.5 | .429 | .408 | .615 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.0 | .1 | 8.3 | 6.0 |
| 2009–10 |
Panathinaikos |
16 | 15 | 27.6 | .433 | .410 | .667 | 1.2 | 2.2 | .9 | .2 | 10.5 | 7.9 |
| 2010–11† |
Panathinaikos |
20 | 6 | 23.0 | .437 | .415 | .600 | 1.1 | 1.7 | .4 | .1 | 9.8 | 6.1 |
| 2011–12 |
Milano |
14 | 8 | 26.4 | .302 | .297 | .625 | 2.6 | 1.7 | .5 | .2 | 7.4 | 4.2 |
| 2012–13 |
CSKA Moscow |
4 | 1 | 15.0 | .067 | .000 | .000 | .5 | .8 | .0 | .0 | .5 | -3.5 |
| Career |
|
130 | 95 | 28.2 | .422 | .391 | .737 | 2.1 | 2.3 | .8 | .1 | 11.8 | 9.4 |
Personal
In February 2008, Nicholas refused to travel with Efes Pilsen for the away match against Partizan Belgrade in Belgrade, due to an advice for U.S. citizens not to visit Serbia related to the tension after the declaration of independence of Kosovo.[7] He was then banned from the club and shortly after that he was released.[8] In March 2008 he shortly negotiated with Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv on a three-year contract offer, but came to no final contract agreement with the club.
References
External links
