Emir Preldžić

Emir Preldžić

Preldžić with Fenerbahçe
No. 55 – Fenerbahçe Ülker Istanbul
Position Forward / Guard
League Turkish Basketball League
Euroleague
Personal information
Born September 6, 1987
Zenica, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia
Nationality Bosnian / Slovenian / Turkish
Listed height 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight 220 lb (100 kg)
Career information
NBA draft 2009 / Round: 2 / Pick: 57th overall
Selected by the Phoenix Suns
Pro career 2003–present
Career history
2003–2004 Čelik Zenica
2004–2005 Triglav Kranj
2005–2007 Geoplin Slovan
2007–present Fenerbahçe Ülker
Career highlights and awards

Emir Preldžić (born September 6, 1987) is a Turkish professional basketball player who plays for Fenerbahçe Ülker of the Turkish Basketball League. He also represents the Turkish national basketball team. He is 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) tall and he mainly plays the small forward position, but he also has the ability to play as a power forward, shooting guard and point guard.

Professional career

Early years

Preldžić began his career playing with Čelik Zenica youth teams in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He made his pro debut with Čelik Zenica in the Bosnia and Herzegovina League during the 2003–04 season. In the 2004–05 season he played with Triglav Kranj. He then moved to the Adriatic League club Geoplin Slovan for the 2005–06 season.

Fenerbahçe Ülker

In 2007, he signed a four-year contract with the Turkish Euroleague team Fenerbahçe Ülker.[1]

On 27 January 2011, in Euroleague match against Power Electronics Valencia, he double blocked Rafa Martínez in only one second.[2] He played with 10 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks performance in a victory against Power Electronics Valencia.

On 13 February 2011, in Turkish Cup final match against Beşiktaş Cola Turka, he played with 35 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists as MVP performance.[3]

On 28 February 2011, official page of the team declared that he signed 3 years contract with the team.[4]

On 20 March 2011, he played with 10 points, 15 rebouns and 10 assist performance against Olin Edirne which he did his first triple double in the team.[5] This triple double is second in Turkish Basketball League history after Mark Dickel played with 16 points, 13 rebouns and 11 assists performance against Galatasaray in 2002-03 season.[6]

On 11 October 2012, he played 20 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals performance against BC Khimki in 2012–13 Euroleague first week match which made him Euroleague Weekly MVP by 31 ratings.[7]

NBA

In the 2009 NBA Draft, Preldžić was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the second round, with the 57th draft pick. His draft rights were then traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers,[8] and later to the Washington Wizards in a February 2010 trade that sent Antawn Jamison from Washington to Cleveland.[9] On July 17, 2014, the Dallas Mavericks acquired Preldžić's rights from the Wizards in a sign-and-trade deal for DeJuan Blair.[10][11]

Euroleague 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  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

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.

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2007–08 Fenerbahçe 20 10 18.1 .376 .255 .500 2.3 1.1 .5 .1 4.8 3.5
2008–09 Fenerbahçe 16 7 22.6 .358 .245 .806 3.8 2.5 1.1 .3 7.3 7.4
2009–10 Fenerbahçe 10 1 25.2 .362 .188 .667 4.1 2.3 .9 .1 6.8 7.7
2010–11 Fenerbahçe 16 1 16.3 .494 .438 .679 2.4 2.3 .3 .3 7.3 8.1
2011–12 Fenerbahçe 16 4 21.5 .310 .250 .750 3.3 3.1 .6 .1 6.7 7.5
2012–13 Fenerbahçe 22 4 22.5 .504 .333 .704 2.1 3.5 .6 .1 8.1 10.5
2013–14 Fenerbahçe 23 18 29.0 .452 .317 .696 4.7 4.7 1.1 .3 10.2 15.5
Career 123 45 22.3 .415 .288 .698 3.2 2.9 .7 .2 7.5 9.0

International career

Slovenian national team

Preldžić was a member of the Slovenian national basketball team and he competed for Slovenia at the 2008 Olympic Qualification Tournament.

Turkish national team

Through 2011, the Bosnian media speculated that Preldžić may play for the Bosnian national basketball team because of his birthplace Zenica, city in modern Bosnia and Herzegovina.[12] However, on July 6, 2011, the Turkish Basketball Federation announced Preldžić's name in its official nominated squad for the EuroBasket 2011 held in Lithuania.[13] Preldžić decided to change national team using the FIBA regulation on Eligibility and National Status of Players (Chapter I.22).[14]

He was later selected to the Turkish national team's Eurobasket 2011 roster by head coach Orhun Ene.[15] On 5 September 2011 in EuroBasket 2011 group match against Spain, he played with 18 points, 5 rebounds and 1 steal performance in a victory.[16] Over the tournament, he averaged 10.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

He was once again called to play for the national team at the EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia.[17] He averaged 8.8 points, and 3.8 rebounds and assists over 5 tournament games.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Preldzic passed medical test
  2. ↑ Emir blocked twice in a second
  3. ↑ Turkish Cup final
  4. ↑ 3 more years with Emir Preldzic
  5. ↑ Olin Edirne 78 - Fenerbahçe Ülker 83
  6. ↑ First Triple Double
  7. ↑ Emir Preldzic won the first week's MVP award
  8. ↑ "Cavaliers Acquire the Rights to Emir Preldzic". NBA.com. 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  9. ↑ "Wizards Acquire Ilgauskas, Thornton and First-Round Pick In Three-Team Deal". NBA.com. 2010-02-17. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  10. ↑ "Wizards Acquire DeJuan Blair". NBA.com. July 17, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Mavs send DeJuan Blair to Wizards". ESPN.com. July 17, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Preldžić ipak igra za BiH?". radiosarajevo.ba (in Bosnian). Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Preldžić u Litvaniji igra u dresu Turske". sportsport.ba (in Bosnian). Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "Chapter I.22 - Eligibility and National Status of Players" (PDF). fiba.com. p. 9. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  15. ↑ "Emir Preldzic Profile". eurobasket2011.com. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  16. ↑ "Spain-Turkey game report". eurobasket2011.com. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  17. ↑ "TURKEY ANNOUNCE AMBITIOUS SQUAD". eurobasket2013. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "EMIR PRELDZIC PROFILE". eurobasket2013.org. Retrieved 13 May 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Emir Preldžić.