Omar Cook

Omar Cook
Cook in the jersey of BC Lietuvos rytas
Player information
Full name	Omar-Sharif Cook
Nickname	marine
birthday	January 28, 1982
place of birth	Brooklyn (NYC), United States
size	186 cm
position	Point guard
college	St. John's (NYC)
NBA draft	2001 , 31. Pick Orlando Magic
Club information
society	Caja Laboral
league	League ACB
Clubs as active
2000–2001 St. John's Red Storm ( NCAA ) 2002–2004 Fayetteville Patriots ( NBA-DL ) 2004 Portland Trail Blazers 2004–2005 Fayetteville Patriots 2005 Toronto Raptors 2005–2006 Dexia Mons-Hainaut 2006–2007 ZSK WWS Samara 2007 Strasbourg IG 2007 –2008 KK Red Star Belgrade 2008–2010 Unicaja Málaga 2010–2011 Power Electronics Valencia 2011–2012 Armani Jeans Milan 2012–2013 Caja Laboral Since 2013 Lietuvos rytas Vilnius 00000 00000 00000 0
National team
Since 02008	Montenegro

Omar-Sharif Cook (born January 28, 1982 in Brooklyn , New York City ) is a native American basketball player . Cook, who was drafted after just one year in the NCAA 2001 , played several seasons in the NBA Development League and only came to short-term contracts in the highest-endowed professional league NBA . In 2005 he moved to Europe and initially played in Belgium , Russia , France and Serbia . After three seasons in the Spanish ACB league , he will play in the Italian Serie A at Olimpia Milano from the 2011/12 season . Cook has been a Montenegrin citizen since 2008 and competes internationally for his adopted country, including the finals of the 2011 European basketball championships in Lithuania .

Career

North America (until 2005)

Cook played while studying at St. John's University in his hometown for the college team Red Storm in NCAA Division I. After just one year, he signed up for the 2001 NBA Draft and dropped out. The Orlando Magic, which Cook had selected as the 31st player overall in the draft, negotiated an exchange with the Denver Nuggets , which from then on owned the NBA rights to Cook. With the Nuggets Cook could not fight for a place in the season squad and from then on played for the Fayetteville Patriots in the newly created Development League of the NBA. With the Patriots he reached the final games of the Development League in 2003, which were lost to the Mobile Revelers , which were then set as a franchise . Cook got in the meantime again and again contracts with NBA clubs, so from November to December 2001 as a free agent with the Dallas Mavericks ; only during two short-term contracts with the Portland Trail Blazers in February 2004, he completed his first seventeen appearances in the NBA, followed by five more for the Toronto Raptors in April 2005.

Start in Europe (2005 to 2008)

For the 2005/06 season Cook moved to Europe and signed a contract with the Belgian first division club Dexia from the Wallonia Mons in Hainaut . Together with, among others, the American Thomas Kelati , who was also naturalized later in Poland , he achieved the greatest success of this club by winning the title in the national cup competition and reaching the final series for the championship, which was lost to the Flemish club Telindus Oostende . He then moved to the Russian Superleague in 2006 at ZSK WWS in Samara . After winning the title in the European club competition FIBA EuroCup Challenge , which was subsequently discontinued , he left the club in April 2007 and switched to the French LNB Pro A in Strasbourg for the championship play-offs , in which they were eliminated in the first round by record champions ASVEL . In the following season 2007/08 Cook acted for the Serbian runner-up KK Crvena zvezda (German: KK Red Star) from the capital Belgrade in addition to the Serbian league also in the Adriatic League and in the ULEB Cup 2007/08 , where they were in the round of 16 retired. At the end of the season he took on the Montenegrin citizenship in June 2008 in order to play internationally for this country.

League ACB (2008 to 2011)

Cook signed a two-year contract in the Spanish ACB league with Unicaja in Málaga for the 2008/09 season , where he played again with Thomas Kelati in the first season. With the Andalusian club, he failed twice in the semi-final series of the championship play-offs at FC Barcelona . In the Copa del Rey cup competition they lost the final game in 2009 with just two points against the Basque club TAU Cerámica . In the top European division ULEB Euroleague , they were eliminated twice in the intermediate round of the sixteen best teams. Cook was named Player of the Month for February 2010 by the ACB and was the best assists in both the ACB and ULEB Euroleague in the 2009/10 season with an average of just under 6 assists per game. For the 2010/11 season he moved to the league competitor and reigning ULEB Eurocup title holder Power Electronics from Valencia . With this club he reached the quarter-finals of the ULEB Euroleague 2010/11 , which was lost to national rivals Real Madrid . With the Montenegrin national team, he took part in the finals of the European basketball championship 2011 in Lithuania , where they lost the remaining four preliminary round matches after an opening win in extra time against the later semi-finalists Macedonia and were eliminated early.

Serie A and return to the ACB league (since 2011)

Cook signed with EA7-Emporio Armani in Milan for the 2011/12 season . In the national championship one moved into the final series, in which one was defeated by series champion Montepaschi Siena . In the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 , the play-off quarter-finals were only just missed because of the poorer direct comparison . In the following season, however, the ULEB Euroleague 2012/13 was eliminated in the preliminary round and Milan broke the contract with Cook, who then moved back to Spain to Caja Laboral from Vitoria-Gasteiz , who in the Euroleague preliminary group still went to Milan passed into the intermediate round.

Web links

Commons : Omar Cook  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Cook, Omar - Player profile on the website of the ULEB (English)
• Omar Cook - player profile on the websites of the Liga ACB (Spanish)
• Players - Omar Cook (MNE). archive.fiba.com - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• Omar Cook Info Page - Profile in the NBA player archive

Individual evidence

1. ^ Omar Cook Stats - St. John's Red Storm. (No longer available online.) Statsheet.com, archived from the original on October 28, 2011 ; Retrieved September 25, 2011 (English, college statistics). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Omar Cook NBA & ABA Statistics. Basketball-Reference.com, accessed September 25, 2011 . 
3. ↑ CSK-VVS Samara - Keravnos / EuroCup Challenge 2007. FIBA Europe , March 29, 2007, accessed on September 25, 2011 (English). 
4. ^ Omar Cook - Strasbourg - Joueurs - Pro A: 2006/07 season. LNB.fr , accessed on September 25, 2011 (French, player statistics). 
5. ^ Omar Cook - NLB League ABA. (No longer available online.) AdriaticBasket.com, archived from the original on May 19, 2011 ; accessed on September 25, 2011 (English, player statistics). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ AJ Milano grabs floor general Cook. ULEB Euroleague , June 27, 2011, accessed September 25, 2011 . 
7. ↑ Legabasket: Omar Cook. Lega Basket Serie A , accessed December 19, 2012 (Italian, player profile on statistics pages). 
8. ↑ CAJA LABORAL puts Cook at point. (No longer available online.) ULEB , December 19, 2012, formerly in the original ; accessed on December 19, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.