Nikoloz Tskitishvili ( ka, ნიკოლოზ ცქიტიშვილი; born April 14, 1983) is a Georgian former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. He is a 7'0" forward-

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

, who was selected fifth overall by the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

in the 2002 NBA draft. Tskitishvili has also played for the senior

Georgian national basketball team The Georgia men's national basketball team ( ka, საქართველოს ეროვნული საკალათბურთო ნაკრები) represents the country of Georgia in international basketball matches, and is ...

Professional career

Europe

From January to July 2002, Tskitishvili played in Italy, for Benetton Treviso, winning the

Italian League The Italic League or Most Holy League was an international agreement concluded in Venice on 30 August 1454, between the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, and the Kingdom of Naples, following the T ...

championship under

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in asso ...

Mike D'Antoni Michael D'Andrew D'Antoni (born May 8, 1951) is an Italian-American professional basketball coach and former player who is a coaching advisor for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). While head coach of the Ph ...

. He played in 13 games, averaging 6.6 points per game (with a high of 15). Around that time, he was selected as the 5th overall pick of the 2002 NBA draft.

NBA

On February 25, 2005, Tskitishvili was traded by the Nuggets, to the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

, along with Rodney White, in exchange for Eduardo Nájera, Luis Flores, and a 2007 future first-round draft pick. In three seasons with the Nuggets, Tskitishvili averaged 3.8 points and 1.9 rebounds per game, and shot 30 percent from the field, while appearing in 143 total games. After playing just 12 games for the Warriors, he signed as a free agent with the

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

, after playing on their

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season competition organized by the National Basketball Association. NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regular season line-ups ...

team. He was traded half-way through the 2005–06 season, to the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

, in exchange for a second-round draft pick. Tskitishvili's final NBA game was Game 4 of the 2006 Western Conference Finals on May 30th, 2006 in a 106 - 86 win over the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Southwest Division. Th ...

. Tskitishvili only played for a minute and half (substituting at the very end of the game for Leandro Barbosa) and recorded no stats. Phoenix would go on to lose games 5 and 6 (with Tskitishvili not playing in either game), thus losing the series to Dallas 4 - 2. On June 30, 2006, Tskitishvili was claimed off of waivers by the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...

. He was waived five days later, after the team announced they would re-sign center

Joel Przybilla Joel Przybilla (; born October 10, 1979) is an American retired professional basketball player who played the center position for 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). High school career Przybilla was born in Monticello, Minn ...

. On October 2, 2006, Tskitishvili was signed by the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

, and he was later waived by them on October 25. With career averages of 2.9 points and 1.8 rebounds per game, over his first four NBA seasons, Tskitishvili is widely considered to be a major

draft bust A draft is a process used in some countries (especially in North America) and sports (especially in closed leagues) to allocate certain players to teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team selec ...

. Former

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

writer

Bill Simmons William John Simmons III (born September 25, 1969) is an American sports analyst, author, podcaster, and former Sports journalism, sports writer who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website ''The Ringer (website), The Ringer ...

claimed that Tskitishvili is "the worst-case scenario for any foreign pick" in the NBA. Columnist David Schoenfield of

's Page 2, ranked Tskitishvili 30th, on his "100 worst draft picks ever", in 2006, and in 2008, ESPN's Adam Reisinger rated Tskitishvili as the worst NBA draft lottery pick ever selected.

Return to Europe

After playing in the NBA, Tskitishvili returned to Europe. In Europe, he had playing stints in the Spanish League ( Caja San Fernando,

Fuenlabrada Fuenlabrada () is a city and municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,586, making it the region's fourth most populated municipality. Placename The etymology of ''Fuenlabrada'' comes from the contra ...

, Lagun Aro GBC),

(

Teramo Basket Teramo Basket was a professional basketball club that is based in Teramo, Italy. Established in 1960, Teramo played in the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), Italy's top league, for 10 years before they were moved to the Serie B. The team played at Pala ...

), and Greek League (

Panionios Panionios G.S.S. Football Club (Greek: ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ.), the ''Pan- Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'' (Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis'' ...

). After that, he left Europe and went to Asia, in order to continue his playing career.

Asia

While playing in Iran, Tskitishvili won an Iranian Super League championship in 2012, with Mahram. He started the 2012-13 season with Iran's Foolad Mahan Esfahan, but he was released in November 2012. The next month, he signed with Champville, from Lebanon’s Division A, and posted 17.9 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game, in 27 games played. On October 27, 2014, he signed for a second stint with Champville.

NBA comeback attempt

On September 25, 2015, Tskitishvili signed with the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

, returning to the NBA, after a nine-year absence. However, he was later waived by the Clippers, on October 3, 2015.

Return to Asia

On October 11, 2015, Tskitishvili signed with the

Fujian Sturgeons Fujian SBS Xunxing Sturgeons (Simplified Chinese: 福建SBS浔兴鲟) or Fujian Xunxing or Fujian SBS are a Chinese professional men's basketball team in the Chinese Basketball Association, based in Jinjiang, Quanzhou, Fujian. The "SBS" reflects c ...

of the

Chinese Basketball Association The Chinese Basketball Association (), often abbreviated as the CBA, is the first-tier professional men's basketball league in China. The league is commonly known by fans as the CBA, and this acronym is even used in Chinese on a regular basis ...

(CBA). However, he left the team before the season began, and signed with the Japanese club,

Link Tochigi Brex Utsunomiya Brex is a Japanese professional basketball team based in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. After winning the JBL 2 in 2008, the team played in the National Basketball League. In July 2015 it was announced that the team would compete in ...

, on November 2. On December 24, he left Tochigi Brex, after averaging eight points and four rebounds per game. The next day, he returned to Champville. On April 3, 2016, he left Champville, and signed with Chemidor Tehran, of the Iranian Super League. In late December 2017, he signed with

Byblos Club Byblos Club is a multi sports club based in Byblos, Lebanon. The franchise was established in 1981, and such notable stars played as Jay Youngblood, Michael Fraser, Bassel Bawji, Ali Mahmoud, Rodrigue Akl, Ratko Varda, Steven Burtt, Joseph ...

, of the

Lebanese Basketball League The Lebanese Basketball League is the top-tier professional men's basketball league in Lebanon. It is organized annually as a national championship with playoffs and a national cup by the Lebanese Basketball Federation (FLB). Currently, the leagu ...

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

, - , align="left" , 2002–03 , align="left" ,

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 81 , , 16 , , 16.3 , , .293 , , .243 , , .738 , , 2.2 , , 1.1 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 3.9 , - , align="left" , 2003–04 , align="left" ,

, 39 , , 0 , , 7.9 , , .328 , , .273 , , .793 , , 1.6 , , 0.3 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 2.7 , - , align="left" , 2004–05 , align="left" ,

, 23 , , 0 , , 6.9 , , .294 , , .000 , , .571 , , 1.3 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 1.5 , - , align="left" , 2004–05 , align="left" , Golden State , 12 , , 0 , , 5.2 , , .304 , , .200 , , .000 , , 1.0 , , 0.5 , , 0.0 , , 0.3 , , 1.3 , - , align="left" , 2005–06 , align="left" ,

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

, 5 , , 0 , , 2.6 , , .250 , , .000 , , .500 , , 0.4 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.6 , - , align="left" , 2005–06 , align="left" , Phoenix , 12 , , 0 , , 7.2 , , .364 , , .333 , , .667 , , 1.7 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 0.2 , , 2.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 172 , , 16 , , 11.3 , , .304 , , .235 , , .730 , , 1.8 , , 0.7 , , 0.3 , , 0.2 , , 2.9

Playoffs

, - , align="left" , 2005–06 , align="left" , Phoenix , 4 , , 0 , , 2.0 , , .000 , , .000 , , .500 , , .3 , , .5 , , .0. , , .0 , , .3

References

External links