Emeka Okafor

Emeka Okafor
Player information
Full name	Chukwuemeka Noubuisi Okafor
birthday	28th September 1982 (age 37)
place of birth	Houston , Texas , United States
size	208 cm
Weight	111 kg
position	Center / Power Forward
High school	Bellaire, Texas
college	Connecticut
NBA draft	2004 , 2nd pick , Charlotte Bobcats
Jersey number	50
Clubs as active
2004–2009 Charlotte Bobcats 2009–2012 New Orleans Hornets 2012–2013 Washington Wizards 2017–2018 Delaware 87ers ( G-League ) 2018 New Orleans Pelicans 00000

Chukwuemeka Noubuisi "Emeka" Okafor (born September 28, 1982 in Houston , Texas) is an American basketball player of Nigerian origin. Most of his professional career he was active in the US professional league NBA .

With a size of 2.08 meters, Okafor is mainly used as a center. Before becoming a professional, he attended the University of Connecticut , where he won a national championship in 2004. In his first season in the NBA, he won the Rookie of the Year award .

Career

college

Emeka Okafor attracted attention not only through his skills as a player for the U-Conn basketball team , but also through his performance as a student. In 2004 he won the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship with Ben Gordon and was named the competition's Most Outstanding Player . In April 2004, Emeka Okafor signed up for the NBA Draft and was drafted by the Charlotte Bobcats in second place.

NBA

Before the 2004/05 season began, Okafor played for the American basketball team at the Olympic Games in Athens and won bronze with the team. Okafor celebrated a number of victories with the Charlotte Bobcats in its first year and was named Rookie of the Year in 2005. He also led the NBA All-Rookie First Team that year.

The 2005/06 season he had to largely sit out due to injuries. He stayed with the Bobcats for five years, scoring double-doubles in each of those years . His average during this time was 14.0 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. With the Bobcats, however, he never reached the playoffs .

In July 2009 he was transferred to the New Orleans Hornets for Tyson Chandler . He played for the Hornets until 2012, but was not able to play nearly all games in any season due to several injuries. In the summer of 2012 he was transferred to the Washington Wizards together with Trevor Ariza . In return, Rashard Lewis switched to the Hornets.

Shortly before the start of the 2013/14 season , Okafor moved to the Phoenix Suns for Marcin Gortat . However, Okafor sat out the entire season due to injury and did not play a game for the Suns.

After the season, his contract in Phoenix was not renewed. Even the following season 2014/15, Okafor did not find an NBA team. Due to a neck injury, he decided to postpone his comeback for 2015. However, he did not find an NBA team at the start of the 2016/17 NBA season.

Comeback in the NBA

In September 2017, Okafor signed a contract with the Philadelphia 76ers . However, he was released before the season and came under contract in the G-League with the Delaware 87ers . After performing well, he was signed by the New Orleans Pelicans in February 2018 and made his comeback against the Utah Jazz five years after his last NBA game . In September he was transferred to the Philadelphia 76ers, but his contract dissolved before the start of the season on October 13.

Others

• Okafor's name means literally " God has done great things ".
• Jahlil Okafor is a distant cousin of Emeka Okafor.

Web links

Commons : Emeka Okafor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Emeka Okafor - player profile on basketball-reference.com
• UConn biography ( Memento from January 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Okafor Trade
2. ^ Okafor likely to wait on decision
3. ↑ Hood scores 30, Jazz win 6th straight, 133-109 over Pelicans
4. ↑ Meaning of Chukwuemeka in Nigerian.name
5. ↑ Jahlil Okafor NBA Draft Profile | basketball.de. Accessed April 23, 2020 (German). 
6. ↑ David Haugh: DePaul's young recruit causes stir. Retrieved April 23, 2020 (American English).