Omar-Sharif Cook ( sr, Omar-Šarif Kuk / Омар-Шариф Кук; born January 28, 1982) is an American-Montenegrin professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the

Cleveland Charge The Cleveland Charge are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Cleveland, Ohio, and are affiliated with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The team plays its home games at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland. The f ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA De ...

. He represented

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = ...

internationally. Prior to entering the draft he was considered a top 10 overall prospect by several NBA scouts.

Amateur career

Cook played high school basketball at

Christ The King Regional High School Christ the King Regional High School is a co-educational, college preparatory, Catholic high school for grades 9-12 located in Middle Village, Queens, New York, United States and established in 1962. It is located within the Roman Catholic Dioce ...

, and then played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

St. John's University St John's University may refer to: *St. John's University (New York City) **St. John's University School of Law **St. John's University (Italy) - Overseas Campus *College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, St. Joseph, Minnesota and Col ...

. Cook ranked second in the nation and first in the

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...

in assists during the one year he spent at St. John's. He also broke

Mark Jackson Mark A. Jackson (born April 1, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player. A point guard from St. John's Red Storm men's basketball, St. John's University, he played for the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, ...

's record for the most assists in a game for a St. John's player with 17, against

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York syste ...

Professional career

Cook was drafted by the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was estab ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United ...

as the third pick in the second round (31st overall) of the

2001 NBA Draft The 2001 NBA draft took place on June 27, 2001 in New York City, New York. Kwame Brown became the first high school player to be drafted with the first overall pick in the history of the NBA. The selection of Kwame Brown by the Washington Wizards, ...

. He was immediately traded to 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 ...

, but failed to make the team, reportedly because of his inability to shoot the ball effectively. From 2001 to 2004, Cook made some pre-season appearances for teams in the league, also managing 22

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability ...

games played (17 with 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 ...

in the 2003–04 season and five with the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Atlantic Division (NBA) ...

in the 2004–05 season). In July 2005, he was drafted by the AAPBL, but the league folded less than two weeks after the draft. He also briefly led the

NBA D-League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

in steals and assists in the 2004–05 season, while playing with the

Fayetteville Patriots The Fayetteville Patriots were an NBA Development League team based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States. Its logo design features a bald eagle's head and a basketball in the middle of a capital letter "P" with stars and stripes filling ...

. Cook's final NBA game was played on April 20th, 2005 in a 104 - 95 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. In his final game, Cook recorded 19 points, 9 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block. During the 2005–06 season, Cook played in the Belgian league with

Dexia Mons-Hainaut Belfius Mons-Hainaut is a Belgian professional basketball club that is based in Mons, Wallonia. The club competes in the highest division of the country, the BNXT League. The club's home arena is the Mons Arena. Founded as Quaregnon in 1959, the c ...

. The following year, he played with two teams, the French Pro A club

SIG Strasbourg Strasbourg Illkirch-Graffenstaden Basket, most commonly known as SIG Basket or SIG Strasbourg, is a French professional basketball club that is based in Strasbourg. The club, founded in 1929, competes domestically in the French Pro A League, and ...

and the

Russian Super League Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

club

Samara Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara rivers, with a population ...

. In the 2007–08 season, he played with the

Adriatic League The ABA League, renamed to the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the 1st-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Mac ...

club

Crvena zvezda Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in B ...

. He had the best season of his career with Crvena zvezda, where he was one of the team leaders. On June 26, 2008, he joined the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

league's Unicaja, signing with the club for two seasons. In 2010, he signed a two-year deal with Spanish basketball club

Power Electronics Valencia Valencia Basket Club Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., commonly known as Valencia Basket (), is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague, with home games played at the Pavelló Mu ...

. In 2011, he signed a two-year deal with Italian team Armani Jeans Milano. In December 2012, after Milano was eliminated from the Euroleague, Cook signed with

Caja Laboral Caja Laboral Popular Cooperativa de Crédito or Caja Laboral (Workers' Credit Union) was a Spanish credit union established in 1959 as part of the Mondragon Corporation and headquartered in Mondragón, in the Basque Country (autonomous community ...

until the end of the season. On August 6, 2013, Cook signed with

Lietuvos rytas ''Lietuvos rytas'' (lit. 'Morning of Lithuania') is a Lithuanian daily newspaper. History and profile "Lietuvos rytas" was established in 1990 on a basis of newspaper "Komjaunimo tiesa". The paper is printed in Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see als ...

of Lithuania for the 2013–14 season. On September 30, 2014, Cook signed a two-month deal with

Budućnost Podgorica Budućnost means "the future" in many Slavic languages, and it may also refer to: * SD Budućnost Podgorica, a sports society from Podgorica, Montenegro ** KK Budućnost Podgorica, a professional basketball club FK Budućnost may refer to: * FK ...

of Montenegro. On November 14, 2014, he extended his contract with Budućnost for the rest of the season. On August 15, 2015, he re-signed with Budućnost for one more season. On August 20, 2016, Cook signed with Spanish club Estudiantes for the 2016–17 season. On July 17, 2019, Cook signed a one-plus-one deal with

Herbalife Gran Canaria Club Baloncesto Gran Canaria – Claret, S.A.D., is a professional basketball club based in Las Palmas, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB. Their home arena is the Gran Canaria Arena. From 2012 until 2021, they have been sponsored by Herbali ...

. On July 24, 2020, he has signed with

San Pablo Burgos Club Baloncesto San Pablo Burgos, S.A.D., previously known as Club Baloncesto Miraflores and also known as Hereda San Pablo Burgos by sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball team based in Burgos, Spain and plays in the Coliseum Burgos. ...

of the Liga ACB. On July 15, 2021, he has signed with Casademont Zaragoza of the Liga ACB.

Coaching Career

On September 29, 2022, Cook was hired as an assistant coach for the

of the

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2003–04 , style="text-align:left;",

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, 17 , , 0 , , 8.2 , , .259 , , .000 , , .000 , , .4 , , 1.4 , , .6 , , .0 , , .8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2004–05 , style="text-align:left;",

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

, 5 , , 0 , , 14.8 , , .417 , , .000 , , .500 , , 1.4 , , 4.4 , , 1.2 , , .2 , , 4.6 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 22 , , 0 , , 9.7 , , .333 , , .000 , , .500 , , .6 , , 2.1 , , .7 , , .0 , , 1.7

Montenegrin national team

In May 2008, Cook received

Montenegrin Montenegrin may refer to: * Adjective for anything related to Montenegro * Demonym referring to the people of Montenegro, see Demographics of Montenegro * Ethnonym, referring to Montenegrins, the ethnic group associated with Montenegro * Monteneg ...

citizenship, thus applying to represent Montenegro's national basketball team.Cook officially a Montenegrin.

Amateur career

Professional career

Coaching Career

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

Montenegrin national team

References

External links