Wally Szczerbiak shoots a free throw.

Walter Robert "Wally" Szczerbiak (pronounced /ˈsɜrbi.æk/ SUR-bee-ak; born March 5, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player in the NBA.^[1][2]

[edit] Early life

Szczerbiak was born in Madrid, Spain, while his father Walter (a former ABA player) was playing for Real Madrid, and spent much of his childhood in Europe during his father's playing career. When Walter retired, he moved his family back to his native Long Island, New York, where Wally attended high school in Cold Spring Harbor. Szczerbiak competed for the Long Island team in the 1997 Empire State Games.

[edit] College career

In college, Szczerbiak played for Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He graduated from the Richard T. Farmer School of Business at Miami University where he studied marketing. At Miami he led his team to the Sweet 16 in the 1999 NCAA Tournament as a #10 seed. Szczerbiak scored a career high 43 points in a first round win over #7 seed University of Washington. He followed that up with a 24-point performance in the second round against #2 seed Utah, leading the Redhawks to the Sweet 16, where they would eventually lose to Kentucky 58-43, despite Szczerbiak's 23-point performance.

He was named a first team All-American, and second team All-American in 1998-99. In the same year, he was named MAC Player of the Year.

He finished his career at Miami University as the university's second all-time leading scorer with 1,847 points. ^[3]

[edit] NBA career

The Minnesota Timberwolves selected Szczerbiak 6th overall in the 1999 NBA Draft. His best year as a pro was in 2002 when he was a coaches' selection to the Western Conference All-Star team. Later he tied a Timberwolves franchise record of 44 points on April 13, 2003, since broken by Kevin Garnett. Szczerbiak was coming off the bench for the 2004-05 NBA season. He was uncomfortable with the role and wanted to be a starter. In the 2005-06 season, the former All-Star returned to the starting role.

[edit] Boston

On January 26, 2006, Szczerbiak, along with Michael Olowokandi, Dwayne Jones and a conditional first-round draft pick, was traded to the Boston Celtics for Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marcus Banks, Justin Reed, and two second-round draft picks.^[4]

Szczerbiak underwent knee surgery in the 2006 off-season to fix a knee which had been somewhat injured for many months.

In the 2006-07 season, Szczerbiak played well early on, including a 35-point performance against the Charlotte Bobcats early in the season. However, he was soon plagued by several injuries to both ankles, which greatly affected his performance, namely his shooting and jumping ability. Szczerbiak decided to have season-ending surgery on his ankles.

[edit] Seattle

On June 28 (the night of the 2007 NBA Draft), the Celtics traded Szczerbiak to the Seattle SuperSonics along with Delonte West and Jeff Green (Boston's 5th overall pick) for Ray Allen and Glen Davis (Seattle's 35th overall).^[5]

[edit] Cleveland

On February 21, 2008, Szczerbiak was traded from the SuperSonics to the Cavaliers along with Sonics teammate Delonte West. Ben Wallace and Joe Smith were involved in the trade also, and were traded from the Bulls.^[6]

Szczerbiak played in 25 regular season games (one start) with the Cavaliers averaging 8.2 points and 3.2 rebounds. He put up 18 points against Detroit on April 16, 2008. Between the Supersonics and the Cavaliers, Szczerbiak played in 75 games (two starts) and averaged 11.5 points and 2.9 rebounds.

During the playoffs, Wally took over as a starter for the Cleveland Cavaliers playing at the #2 spot. Wally helped the Cavs get past the first round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs by putting up 26 points along with shooting 6-13 from the 3 point line in Game 6 against the Washington Wizards. For the playoffs, Szczerbiak averaged 10.8 points per game.

During the 2008-2009 NBA season, Szczerbiak played in 74 games, starting in 5 of them. Given 20 minutes a game, Szczerbiak averaged 7 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.1 assists while shooting .450% from the field and .411% from 3.

During the offseason Szczerbiak's contract ran up and was not renewed by the Cavaliers, making him a free agent.

[edit] Career transactions

• June 30, 1999: Drafted 6th overall by Minnesota Timberwolves in 1999 NBA Draft.^[7]
• January 26, 2006: Traded by Minnesota along with Michael Olowokandi, Dwayne Jones and a future first-round draft pick to the Boston Celtics for Ricky Davis, Marcus Banks, Mark Blount, Justin Reed and two future second-round draft picks.^[8]
• June 28, 2007: Traded by Boston along with Delonte West and draft rights of 5th pick Jeff Green to the Seattle SuperSonics for Ray Allen and draft rights of 35th pick Glen Davis.^[9]
• February 21, 2008: Traded by Seattle to the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of three-team deal (Cleveland also acquired Ben Wallace, Joe Smith and a future second-round draft pick from Chicago Bulls and Delonte West from Seattle; Chicago acquired Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown from Cleveland; Seattle acquired Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall from Cleveland and Adrian Griffin from Chicago). ^[10]

[edit] Personal life

Szczerbiak and his wife Shannon have 3 children, the youngest of whom was born on March 1, 2008.^[11] He is named Maximus Jack.^[12] The other two children are daughters named Annabella and Amberley. Szczerbiak has two younger siblings, Will (a graduate of Georgetown University) and Wendy (a current member of the women's basketball team at Lehigh).

[edit] NBA career statistics

[edit] Regular season

[edit] Playoffs

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Wally Szczerbiak Info Page at NBA.com

• Wally Szczerbiak Statistics at Basketball-Reference.com
• Statistics from ESPN.com