Kirk Penney

Kirk Samuel Penney ( born November 23, 1980 in Milford, North Shore City ) is a New Zealand professional basketball player. After Sean Marks, he was the second New Zealander in the NBA, but where he could not prevail. It belongs to the most successful generation of New Zealand basketball player, which culminated with the national team at the 2002 World Cup semi-final.

Club career

Penney began his career at North Harbour Heat in the Australasian NBL, where he was honored as the best rookie of the season 1998 /99. He was then to 2003 for the team at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the Wisconsin Badgers, active, with whom he 2000 Final Four of the NCAA Division I reached. In the 2003 NBA Draft Penney has not been selected, but the Minnesota Timberwolves took him under contract. Without having a game for Minnesota denied he was deleted from the final season squad, but got little later with the Miami Heat a contract for which he completed two games. In November 2003, he moved to Spain to CB Girona, which in turn charges the call immediately to the league rivals CB Gran Canaria. There Penney then remained until the end of the season 2003/04. Then the Asheville Altitude took him under contract, with which he was master of the NBA D- League. During that season had meanwhile the Los Angeles Clippers signed him at the end of 2004, for which he played four more NBA games.

2005 Penney moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv. With this club he reached the final of the Euro League 2005/06. Then Penney was active for Zalgiris Kaunas and the Bundesliga club Alba Berlin. As of 2007, he again played in the NBL after he had moved to New Zealand Brakers. Penney, 2009 was the first New Zealander who was elected MVP of the NBL. In 2010, he tried one more time in the NBA D- League, where he played seven games for Sioux Falls Skyforce. The following NBL season Penney won with the Brakers the championship, before moving to Baloncesto Fuenlabrada in Spain. After one season, he spent the 2012/13 season to the Turkish Erstligarückkehrer TED Ankara Kolejliler, with whom he plays, among other things with his brief Berliner teammates Jovo Stanojević. 2013 signed a contract with Penney league rivals Trabzonspor.

National team career

Penney is an integral part of the New Zealand national team since 1999. He took her to two Olympic Games (2000 and 2004 ) and three World Championships ( 2002, 2006 and 2010) in part. By far the most successful team fared in the 2002 World Cup, when they reached the semi-finals, what Penney ( to Phillip Jones) played a key role as the second best scorer of the team.

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