Hasheem ameingia NBA Draft
Hasheem Thabit ameamua kutokumaliza mwaka wake wa mwisho wa masomo katika Chuo Kikuu cha
Connecticut na badala yake ataingia NBA Draft!
Ni hatua kubwa sana, tuone timu gani itamchuku….kuna watu wanasema inaweza ikawa kati ya Washington Wizards na LA Clipper….
PRESS RELEASE
STORRS, Conn. – University of Connecticut junior
men’s basketball player Hasheem Thabeet (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) has
chosen to give up his final season of eligibility and enter his name
into the 2009 NBA Draft, it was announced Tuesday.
“After
spending time with my family and friends and speaking with Coach
Calhoun, I have decided to give up my final year at UConn and enter my
name in the 2009 NBA Draft,” said Thabeet. “I have had a great
experience at Connecticut and cannot thank my coaches and teammates
enough. I look forward to the challenge of playing professionally and
know that my time here at UConn has prepared me to be successful in the
future. I also want to thank all of the fans in Husky Nation that have
followed my career, especially those from my homeland of Tanzania, and
hope they will all be as supportive of me at the professional level as
they have been to this point.”“Hasheem is more than ready to make the
move to the next level,” said head coach Jim Calhoun. “He has been one
of the most dominant defensive players in the history of college
basketball and I am certain that where ever he ends up in the NBA, he
is ready to be equally successful. He is a special player and even more
special as a person. He will truly be remembered as one of the great
players in UConn history, not only for his accomplishments, but also
because of the type of person he is.”
Thabeet was named First
Team All-American in 2008-09 by the NABC and the John R. Wooden Award.
He was the NABC National Defensive Player of the Year and BIG EAST
Defensive Player of the Year in each of the past two seasons and was
the 2008-09 BIG EAST Co-Player of the Year. He averaged 13.6 points,
10.8 rebounds and 4.2 blocked shots per game (No. 2 nationally) in
2008-09 and helped lead the Huskies the 2009 NCAA Final Four and a 31-5
final record.Thabeet is the 11th player at UConn to declare early for
the NBA Draft and nine of the previous ten were drafted in the first
round. Eight of the ten were taken in the lottery portion of the first
round
I’m not surprised at this. Thabeet is definitely a lottery
pick and could be one of the top three picks. I’d expect Blake Griffin
from Oklahoma to go No. 1 overall.
It could now be a long season for
the Huskies as they will now need to replace Thabeet as well as A.J.
Price, Craig Austrie and Jeff Adrien. Kemba Walker should fill-in
nicely at the point and will need Stanley Robinson to play consistently
like he did throughout the NCAA Tournament – soxanddawgs.com/2009-04-14
Thabeet is heading to the NBA.
