Ime Udoka
Ime Sunday Udoka ( born August 9, 1977 in Portland, Oregon ) is an American professional basketball player of Nigerian descent. Currently, the shooting guard / small forward plays for the Sacramento Kings in the American professional league NBA.
His older sister Mfon Udoka played in the WNBA (amongst others with the Houston Comets ). Imes mother is American, and his father Nigerian. His father died while preparing for the season in October 2006.
Playing career
Udoka attended Jefferson High School in Portland. He then played two years for the Eastern Utah Junior College and one season at the University of San Francisco and finished his collegiate career at Portland State University. His professional career began in the 2000 /01 season. After he had spent some time in U.S. sub - leagues ( such as the NBDL ), he was taken on January 14, 2004 by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. After only four games in which he could make an average of 2.0 points, the Lakers but he had to leave. Then he returned to the NBA D- League.
In 2005 he spent some time in Europe. He played nine games in France for JA Vichy and made an average of 24.8 points. Ime subsequently received several offers from major, French clubs. He leaned from this, however, to continue his luck in North America to try and fulfill his dream of the NBA.
Udoka was 2005/ 06 won the NBA Development League Joel Collier Sportsmanship Award and chosen team to the All- NBA D -League First, after he was able to achieve 17.1 points and 6.2 rebounds for the Fort Worth Flyers.
On 6 April 2006 Udoka was taken by the New York Knicks under contract. Overall, he played in the 2005/06 season eight games for the Knicks, scoring an average of 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. On 11 September 2006, he was however fired by the Knicks again.
Before the season 2006/ 07 Udoka was the training camp of the Portland Trail Blazers, his hometown, invited. He impressed the coaches so much that he was inducted into the season the Blazers squad. He was even in all 75 regular season games in the starting lineup his team. In 28.6 minutes, he made an average of 8.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.9 steals per game.
On 16 August 2007 Udoka moved to the San Antonio Spurs. After the 2009 season, Udoka was a free agent and signed again with the Trail Blazers, but was dismissed on 22 October 2009 by the Blazers again. On 4 November 2009 Udoka moved to the Sacramento Kings.
On 24 November 2010 Udoka again got a contract with the San Antonio Spurs. After Udoka played in 2012 for one year in Spain with CB Murcia, he is now an assistant coach back in San Antonio.
Nigerian national
Udoka was born in the United States. However, his father from Nigeria, so he could be included in the squad of the Nigerian national basketball team comes. For Nigeria, he played in the African Cup of Nations 2005 and the 2006 World Cup. During the 2006 World Cup in Japan Udoka was able to achieve an average of 14.2 points and 5.2 rebounds in six games.