Nikola Pekovic

Team Number:	14
Birth Date:	01/03/1986
Height:	6'11
Weight:	243lbs.
Position:	Center

More Info
Nikola Pekovic was born on January 3, 1986. He hails from Montenegro in Eastern Europe.

Nikola Peković began his basketball career playing with the Budućnost Podgorica club's junior team department in the 2001-02 season. From there, he went on to go play for KK Atlas in 2002 and he played for them until 2005, when he moved to Partizan Belgrade. With Partizan, he won 3 Serbian League Championships (2006, 2007, 2008), 2 Adriatic League Championships (2007, 2008), and the Serbian Cup in 2008. He was named the MVP of the Adriatic League Final Four in 2008. In the summer of 2008, Peković joined the Greek League club Panathinaikos.

Nikola Peković was selected 31st overall in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Many draft experts considered him a top 10 pick, but due to his contract situation with his team in Europe he was selected much lower. He was considered a lock to be drafted with the first pick of the second round because players selected in the second round are not subject to the rookie scale contracts of the first round. This meant that the team that drafted him would be able to pay him more than those players selected later in the first round. Due to the amount of money Pekovic was making in Europe already, he likely would not have made the jump to the NBA for the amount of money that could be paid to a late first round player. On June 30, 2010, that Pekovic had agreed with the Wolves to a 3 year, $13 million deal.