Jorge Garbajosa

Jorge Garbajosa

Garbajosa with the Toronto Raptors during a preseason game in Italy.
Personal information
Born December 19, 1977
Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain
Nationality Spanish
Listed height 6 ft 9.5 in (2.07 m)
Listed weight 245 lb (111 kg)
Career information
NBA draft 1999 / Undrafted
Pro career 1994–2012
Position Power forward
Number 7, 15
Career history
1994-2000 Taugres/TAU Cerámica
2000-2004 Benetton Treviso
2004-2006 Unicaja Málaga
2006-2008 Toronto Raptors
2008-2009 Khimki Moscow Region
2009-2011 Real Madrid
2011-2012 Unicaja Málaga
Career highlights and awards
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Jorge Garbajosa Chaparro, Jr. (born December 19, 1977), is a retired Spanish professional basketball player. Standing at 2.07 m (6 ft 9½ in), he played both power forward and small forward.

Professional career

Europe

Garbajosa began his career playing for Taugres, later known as TAU Cerámica, between 1995 and 2000.[1] In the 1998–99 season, he guided Vitoria to a Spanish National Cup victory.[2]

Garbajosa then spent four seasons at Benetton Treviso between 2000 and 2004 under future Toronto Raptors Vice-President and Assistant General Manager Maurizio Gherardini and New York Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni. He won two Italian National Cups, two Italian Super Cups and two Italian Championships with Benetton and averaged 13.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and a Euroleague-best 2.85 steals per game en route to All-Euroleague 2002–03 First Team honors and being named the 2003 Eurobasket.com Player of the Year.[1]

Garbajosa spent his next two seasons (2004–06) with Unicaja Málaga, helping them to win the 2005–06 Spanish Championship and Spanish Cup.[1] He was in the top 15 in scoring (14.9 points per game) and rebounding (6.9 rebounds per game) in the Euroleague 2005–06 season, and averaged 13.3 points and 6.4 rebounds domestically in 42 Spanish league outings, shooting 55% from the field and 81% from the free throw line.[1] Garbajosa was also the 2005 Spanish Cup MVP and the 2006 Spanish League Finals MVP,[1] and earned All-Euroleague Second Team honors.[2]

Overall, in his 11 seasons with the three clubs, Garbajosa had regular-season averages of 10.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 362 domestic league games, and averaged 13.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 105 Euroleague games.[2]

NBA

Garbajosa in his first season with the Toronto Raptors

On July 24, 2006, the Toronto Raptors officially signed Garbajosa to a three-year contract[1] amounting to about US$12 million. He wore number 15 for the Raptors, previously worn by ex-Raptors star Vince Carter. Given his pedigree, Garbajosa was a regular starter at the forward position. For the first half of the season, Garbajosa was instrumental in driving the Raptors past the .500 mark and he was awarded Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month honours in December 2006.[3]

On March 26, 2007, Garbajosa suffered an injury to his left leg during a regular-season matchup against the Boston Celtics. The injury was serious, as he was carried out on a stretcher in considerable pain. Doctors in Toronto performed surgery to repair a broken fibula, a displaced ankle and ligament damage. Because his recovery time was estimated to be in the range of six months, he was forced to miss the rest of the season and the entire post-season.[4] He averaged 8.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game after 67 appearances in his debut season for the Raptors.[5] Garbajosa and Raptors teammate Andrea Bargnani were named to the NBA All-Rookie Team at the end of the season.[6]

Garbajosa returned to play with the Raptors for the 2007–08 season, but after meeting with a specialist on November 26, he chose to have further surgery on his leg and ankle.[7] The operation took place on December 11, 2007.[8]

In June 2008, negotiations took place in an attempt by the Raptors to buy out the remaining year of his contract. Garbajosa had previously been named to the Spanish Olympic basketball squad for 2008, against the wishes of the Raptors.[9] On June 18, 2008, the Raptors officially bought out Garbajosa's contract.[10]

Return to Europe

In the 2008 off-season, Garbajosa signed a two-year, €6 million net income contract with the Russian Super League club Khimki Moscow Region, giving him one of the most expensive contracts in Europe. The next year, however, he was allowed to terminate his contract in order to return to Spain to sign with Real Madrid. The transfer was announced by the club after weeks of speculation on August 15, 2009.[11] In 2011, Garbajosa and Real Madrid reached an agreement to rescind the player's contract.[12] In March 2011, he signed with Unicaja Málaga.[13] In May 2012, he decided to end his career.[14]

Spanish national team

Garbajosa was a member of the Spanish national teams that participated in the 2000 Olympic Basketball Tournament and the 2004 Olympic Basketball Tournament.[2] He also won a bronze medal at the 2001 FIBA European Championship and a silver medal at the 2003 FIBA European Championship.

On September 3, 2006, Garbajosa and the Spanish national team won the gold medal at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, he scored a game high 20 points and collected 10 rebounds in the final against the Greek national team.[2] He averaged 12.6 points and 5.3 rebounds in the tournament.[2] In addition to winning the gold medal, Garbajosa made the All-Tournament team, along with teammate Pau Gasol.

On January 1, 2007, Garbajosa was named European Player of the Year Mister Europa 2006 by an Italian weekly magazine, SuperBasket. Other NBA players given this award are Dirk Nowitzki (2005) and Pau Gasol (2004).[15]

At the 2007 FIBA European Championship, Garbajosa again featured for the Spanish team. He averaged 7.8 points per game and 3.1 rebounds per game in the nine games he played,[16] but Spain lost 59–60 to the Russian national team in the final.[17]

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.

Led the league

Euroleague

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2000–01 Benetton 15 13 24.6 .621 .524 .712 4.9 .9 1.3 .8 12.4 15.8
2001–02 Benetton 20 16 26.4 .466 .351 .823 5.9 1.1 2.0 .6 11.5 15.4
2002–03 Benetton 22 21 27.9 .429 .391 .756 6.7 1.2 2.3 .7 12.3 19.3
2003–04 Benetton 18 17 28.3 .519 .410 .714 5.8 1.1 1.7 .6 13.8 18.1
2004–05 Unicaja 13 12 32.9 .413 .348 .800 7.8 1.7 1.6 .9 14.0 21.2
2005–06 Unicaja 18 16 35.2 .411 .396 .771 6.9 2.3 1.8 .8 14.9 19.3
2009–10 Real Madrid 20 16 21.9 .455 .373 .786 4.0 1.1 .6 .2 8.2 9.8
2010–11 Real Madrid 11 1 16.2 .422 .345 .786 2.7 .3 .6 .5 5.4 6.5
2011–12 Unicaja 14 3 20.0 .353 .271 1.000 2.9 .9 .9 .2 6.2 6.8
Career 151 115 26.3 .538 .374 .772 5.4 1.2 1.5 .6 11.2 15.1

NBA

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2006–07 Toronto 67 60 28.5 .420 .342 .731 4.9 1.9 1.2 .2 8.5
2007–08 Toronto 7 0 10.6 .320 .375 .000 2.1 .4 .4 .0 3.1
Career 74 60 26.8 .415 .344 .731 4.7 1.7 1.1 .2 8.0

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Raptors Sign Free Agent Jorge Garbajosa", nba.com/raptors, 24 July 2006.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Jorge Garbajosa Info Page - Bio, nba.com, accessed 25 February 2007.
  3. ↑ Player News, nba.com, accessed 3 January 2007.
  4. ↑ Ewing, Lori, "Garbajosa to be sidelined 6 months", thestar.com, 27 March 2007, accessed 12 September 2007.
  5. ↑ Jorge Garbajosa Info Page - Career Stats and Totals, nba.com, accessed 18 March 2007.
  6. ↑ Andrea Bargnani & Jorge Garbajosa Highlight 2007 All-Rookie Team, nba.com/raptors, 8 May 2007, accessed 11 May 2007.
  7. ↑ "Jorge Garbajosa: Will Have More Surgery", nba.com, accessed 13 December 2007.
  8. ↑ Smith, Doug, "Surgery likely shelves Garbajosa for season", thestar.com, 12 December 2007, accessed 13 December 2007.
  9. ↑ Raptors attempt to buyout [sic] Garbajosa at FIBA.com, 12 June 2008
  10. ↑ Raptors release Garbajosa, 18 June 2008
  11. ↑ El Real Madrid hace oficial el fichaje de Garbajosa at Marca.com, 15 August 2009
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ Garbajosa to Unicaja
  14. ↑ Garbajosa decided to end his career
  15. ↑ Jorge Garbajosa "Mister Europa 2006" for Superbasket", fiba.qq.com, 1 January 2007, accessed 12 September 2007.
  16. ↑ Player Home, eurobasket2007.org, accessed 16 September 2007.
  17. ↑ Game card, eurobasket2007.org, 16 September 2007, accessed 17 September 2007.

External links

Media related to Jorge Garbajosa at Wikimedia Commons

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Dirk Nowitzki		 Mr. Europa
2006 		Succeeded by
Dimitris Diamantidis