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Zydrunas Ilgauskas

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Žydrūnas Ilgauskas
No. 11 – Cleveland Cavaliers
PositionCenter
LeagueNBA
Personal information
Born (1975-06-05) June 5, 1975 (age 49)
Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
NationalityLithuanian
Listed height7 ft 3 in (2.21 m)
Listed weight260 lb (118 kg)
Career information
NBA draft1996: 20th overall
Selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers
Playing career1994–present
Career highlights and awards
1998 All-Rookie First Team
1998 MVP of the Rookie Challenge
2003, 2005 NBA All-Star
Eastern Conference Player of the Week (week ending March 14, 2004)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

Žydrūnas Ilgauskas (Lithuanian pronunciation [ʒʲiːdruːnɐs ɪlɡɐuskɐs] ⓘ; born June 5, 1975) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player who is currently a free agent. He plays the center position.

Pro career

Early career

Ilgauskas in a NBA game against the Washington Wizards in 2007.

Ilgauskas made his pro debut in his hometown of Kaunas with the Atletas Basketball Club. He averaged 20.3 points, 12.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Ilgauskas was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 20th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft.

He suffered through myriad foot injuries early in his career. He spent the entire 1996-97 season on the injured list due to a broken bone in his right foot.

Despite being selected to the All-Rookie First Team in 1997-98 and signing a contract extension in 1998 that was worth 70.9 million over 6 years, Ilgauskas played only in 5 games over the next two seasons. On January 26, 2000, he had a surgery on a fractured navicular bone in his left foot.

He remained the starting center for the Cavaliers in 2000-01. However, he was injured again in December 2000 and was out for the season. The injury dealt a blow to the Cavaliers. After winning 15 out of 23 games with Ilgauskas, they finished with a 30-52 record.

He returned in December 2001 and was mostly used as a backup to Chris Mihm for the rest of the season.

Ilgauskas averaged 17.2 points and 7.5 rebounds in 2002-03. He was selected as an All-Star, but the Cavaliers finished with the third-worst record in team history (17-65) and landed the number one draft pick.

The Cavaliers drafted high school phenomenon and future NBA MVP LeBron James in 2003. James teamed up with Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden to form the core of the team. Ilgauskas only missed 9 games over the next three seasons and was selected as an All-Star again in 2005.

On July 12, 2005, Ilgauskas signed a contract extension with the Cavaliers. The deal was reportedly worth over 55 million over 5 years.[1][2]

For the next four seasons, Ilgauskas was the starting center for the team, which had turned into a contender. They reached the NBA Finals in 2007 and the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009. However, in summer 2009, the Cavaliers acquired Shaquille O'Neal.[3] When asked about the trade, Ilgauskas responded: "I was just reading the news. That means I'll probably be coming off the bench."[4][5] On December 2, 2009, Ilgauskas came off the bench in a game against Phoenix Suns to break the team record for career games played, overtaking General Manager Danny Ferry. [6]

Washington Wizards

On February 17, 2010, Ilgauskas, along with a 2010 first round pick and the rights to Emir Preldžič, were traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Washington Wizards as part of a three-team, six-player trade that also sent Antawn Jamison from Washington to Cleveland, Al Thornton from the Los Angeles Clippers to Washington, Drew Gooden from Washington to Los Angeles, and Sebastian Telfair from Los Angeles to Cleveland.[7] On February 25, 2010, the Wizards bought out his contract, making him a free agent.[8] Ilgauskas did not play in any games for the Wizards.[9] It is possible that Ilgauskas could return to the Cavaliers, but only after a thirty day waiting period policy required for players traded from their former teams after being bought out of their contract by their new team. However he was still free to sign with any other team at any time if he chose to do so during his time of free agency.

Return to Cleveland

As of March 21, 2010, Ilgauskas has decided to return to Cleveland, where he is eligible to re-sign in on March 22, 2010 after his contract was bought out. He can rejoin the team on Wednesday, March 24 for their road game in New Orleans.[10]

On Tuesday March 23, 2010 Ilgauskas signed a one year deal for the remainder of the 2009-2010 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.[11]. With starting center Shaquille O'Neal out for the remainder of the regular season due to injury, Ilgauskas will regain his starting position with the team.

National team

Ilgauskas wanted to play for Lithuania national team in the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Cavaliers did not permit him to play due to his injury history.[12]

Personal

Ilgauskas married his wife, Jennifer, during the summer of 2004. In the summer of 2009, Ilgauskas adopted two Lithuanian brothers (aged five and four at the time) from his hometown of Kaunas.

NBA 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  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1997–98 Cleveland 82 81 29.0 .518 .250 .762 8.8 .9 .6 1.6 13.9
1998–99 Cleveland 5 5 34.2 .509 .000 .600 8.8 .8 .8 1.4 15.2
2000–01 Cleveland 24 24 25.7 .487 .000 .679 6.7 .8 .6 1.5 11.7
2001–02 Cleveland 62 23 21.4 .425 .000 .754 5.4 1.1 .3 1.4 11.1
2002–03 Cleveland 81 81 30.0 .441 .000 .781 7.5 1.6 .7 1.9 17.2
2003–04 Cleveland 81 81 31.3 .483 .286 .746 8.1 1.3 .5 2.5 15.3
2004–05 Cleveland 78 78 33.5 .468 .286 .799 8.6 1.3 .7 2.1 16.9
2005–06 Cleveland 78 78 29.3 .506 .000 .834 7.6 1.2 .5 1.7 15.6
2006–07 Cleveland 78 78 27.3 .485 .000 .807 7.7 1.6 .6 1.3 11.9
2007–08 Cleveland 73 73 30.4 .474 .000 .802 9.3 1.4 .5 1.6 14.1
2008–09 Cleveland 65 65 27.2 .472 .385 .799 7.5 1.0 .4 1.3 12.9
2009–10 Cleveland 53 6 20.5 .452 .500 .728 5.3 .7 .2 .8 7.5
Career 760 673 28.4 .475 .313 .780 7.7 1.2 .5 1.7 13.9
All-Star 2 0 10.5 .556 .000 1.000 3.5 .5 .0 1.0 6.0

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1997–98 Cleveland 4 4 36.8 .571 .000 .520 7.5 .5 .5 1.2 17.3
2005–06 Cleveland 13 13 27.2 .454 .000 .750 6.3 .8 .4 2.1 10.4
2006–07 Cleveland 20 20 32.5 .492 .000 .838 9.7 .9 .4 .8 12.6
2007–08 Cleveland 13 13 30.2 .479 .000 .818 7.5 1.6 .4 1.1 13.1
2008–09 Cleveland 14 14 29.1 .449 .154 .636 7.8 1.2 .4 .9 10.5
Career 64 64 30.5 .479 .154 .748 8.0 1.0 .4 1.2 12.1

Notes

  1. ^ Cavs to sign big man to five-year deal
  2. ^ Cavaliers to announce re-signing of C Ilgauskas on Tuesday
  3. ^ Cavaliers Acquire 15-Time NBA All-Star and Four-Time NBA Champion Shaquille ONeal
  4. ^ Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas reacts to the arrival of Shaquille O'Neal
  5. ^ Zydrunas Ilgauskas knows what it means that Shaquille O'Neal has joined the Cleveland Cavaliers
  6. ^ Ilgauskas finally has his record day as Cavs rout Suns
  7. ^ "Wizards Acquire Ilgauskas, Thornton and First-Round Pick In Three-Team Deal". NBA.com. February 17, 2010. Retrieved February 17, 2010.
  8. ^ http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsider/2010/02/wizards-closer-to-zydrunas-ilg.html?wprss=wizardsinsider
  9. ^ "Wizards buy out C Zydrunas Ilgauskas, waive him". February 25, 2010.
  10. ^ Lebron excited to get Z back
  11. ^ [1]
  12. ^ Cavs Deny Zydrunas Ilgauskas a Chance to Play in Olympics
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