Greece - Schortsanitis may finally play for the Clippers
24-year old international prospect Sofoklis Schortsanitis, whom the Los Angeles Clippers drafted with the 34th pick of the 2003 Draft, may actually play basketball for the Clippers next season. ClipperBlog has a synopsis of the report from sportnet.gr: "Big Sofo will be travelling to Los Angeles to meet with the administration of the LA Clippers. The Clippers own his rights in the NBA, selected in the 2nd round (34th overall) of the 2003 NBA Draft. Schortsanitis already has tickers to L.A. and the Clippers notified Olympiakos of their invitation to the player.
From probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com
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24-year old international prospect Sofoklis Schortsanitis, whom the Los Angeles Clippers drafted with the 34th pick of the 2003 Draft, may actually play basketball for the Clippers next season.
ClipperBlog has a synopsis of the report from sportnet.gr:
"Big Sofo will be travelling to Los Angeles to meet with the administration of the LA Clippers. The Clippers own his rights in the NBA, selected in the 2nd round (34th overall) of the 2003 NBA Draft. Schortsanitis already has tickers to L.A. and the Clippers notified Olympiakos of their invitation to the player.
It wasn't necessary though because Schortsanitis will be a free agent at the end of this month when his contract ends. The article says that the Clippers are not going to use him in the Las Vegas Summer League team unless he signs with them first. Another source says that they are already planning to show him some houses where he can stay in LA."
D.J. Foster of ClipperBlog had some thoughts about what this report means for the Clipper organization:
It seemed like it would never happen, but it appears Sofo may finally end up in a Los Angeles Clippers uniform after seven years of playing over seas. The timing looks right -- the Clippers have only five players on contract and need bodies to fill out the roster. Sofo turns 25 in a few days and is in the best shape of his life and is playing the best basketball of his career. If there were ever a time for him to test the NBA waters and see if he can hack it, it's now.
"Baby Shaq" has obviously been on the radar screens of NBA scouts for quite some time now, but it looked like Sofo's weight problems and the fact he was content to play in Greece would keep him from ever playing in the same league as the original Shaq. Now Sofo is at a svelte 315 pounds, is coming off a Greek league championship run, and may finally be ready to test his skills against the (metaphorical) big boys. And for those of you keeping score at home, there is a very good chance that the 2nd overall pick of the 2003 Draft will be out of the league before the 34th overall draft enters it.