| Beno Udrih Prepares for the '04 NBA Draft |
By Brad Friedman
MAMARONECK, New York (Ticker) - Beno Udrih must feel like an old
man.
Unlike the majority of his peers in the NBA draft, the 21-year-old point guard waited until he was automatically
eligible to play in the league before pursuing his dream.
A 6-4 native of Slovenia, Udrih could have entered the draft early. For years, he was one of the hottest names circulating in the international scouting community.
"Beno was highly regarded as a junior (under-18) player since he was already starting at senior level," one international NBA scout said. "He was considered the best point guard born in
1982 in Europe and one of the top backcourt prospects in Europe up until last year."
No longer a teenage phenom, much of Udrih's mystery is gone. Unfortunately for Udrih, mystery is what teams regularly consume on draft night. Boy wonders are often more alluring than known quantities.
"With Beno, he is one of those guys who it seems like he has been around forever," said Udrih's agent, Marc Cornstein of Pinnacle Management. "Since he isn't the fresh, flavor-of-the month guy, he's kind of slipped under (the radar). Just the fact that he has been out there is probably going to hurt him a
little bit."
Udrih's extensive pro basketball resume began at 17, when he made his debut with KK Kovinotehna Polzela of the Slovenian League in 1999. There, he earned Rookie of the Year and All-Star honors, which landed him a contract with Olimpija Ljubljana, the top professional club in Slovenia.
By 18, Udrih was playing major minutes for an Olimpija team that featured guards Jiri Welsch and Sani Becirovic. The club captured the Slovenian League title and the Slovenian National Cup, and Udrih gained valuable experience in his first of three campaigns in the Euroleague, the top pro competition on the continent.
The following season, Olimpija repeated as Slovenian League and
National Cup winners, also adding a prestigious Adriatic Goodyear League title to its trophy case. Udrih was named MVP of the 2002 Slovenian League finals.
At that point, Udrih was 19 and on top of the world. His draft stock hit its all-time peak as he was regarded as a first-round pick. He followed the advice of his former manager, however,
who was more concerned about his client's career in Europe.
"My old agent that I had at the time, he really didn't have any connections with the NBA," Udrih said. "He didn't want to put me in the draft early. I heard a few scouts were asking, 'why
don't I come to America?'"
Instead, Udrih remained in Europe, signing a two-year deal with Israel's Maccabi Tel-Aviv, one of Europe's most storied clubs. He put together a solid season in 2002-03, averaging 8.3 points
and 2.8 assists per game in Euroleague play. But the team failed to make it out of the Top 16 phase.
Such a finish would not be acceptable to Maccabi in 2003-04, when the club was in a must-win situation with Tel Aviv hosting the Euroleague Final Four.
In a bloody summer of 2003, Maccabi demoted coach David Blatt to assistant, lured former coach Pini Gershon out of retirement and made a number of major changes to the roster that included the supplanting of Udrih at point guard with Lithuanian star
Sarunas Jasikevicius, who was coming off Euroleague, ACB and Spanish Cup titles with FC Barcelona.
To make matters worse, Udrih was having difficulty finding a new
home.
"My ex-agent did not start calling teams until the end of August
(that offseason) and all the teams (in Europe) had signed point guards by the beginning of September," Udrih said. "He did a great job with the contract with Maccabi, but there was a lot of other things he didn't do. I just decided to fire him and sign
with Danko."
Enter Danko Drakulic, President of XL Croatian Basketball Center, Pinnacle Management's Croatian partner. Drakulic landed Udrih an opportunity in Russia where his client could compete under the tutelage of well-respected coach Neven Spahija, who
also serves in that capacity for the Croatian National Team.
In five games with Avtodor Saratov, Udrih starred in Russian Superleague play, averaging 19.6 points and 4.7 assists. However, the club was defaulting on payments, and Udrih was
forced to move on, this time to Olympiacos in Greece.
Then came another setback.
"Because of the Bosman rules, if I played in Greece, I would have only been able to play during the Euroleague schedule and not in the Greek League," Udrih said. "I didn't want to go there just play in the Euroleague. I wanted a situation where I would be able play all the time."
That turn of events brought Udrih to Italy, where Breil Milano was looking for a playmaker. Udrih's January entrance meant he would slowly be worked into the rotation, but by the end of the campaign it was obvious he fit right in.
"When I first came there, they didn't play me a lot," he said. "The coach would just put me out for like 10 minutes. (But then he started playing me), and the team started to do very well."
Despite the late-season surge, Milano's rocky start cost it a chance at the playoffs. With the campaign over and Udrih free to devote himself to preparing for the draft, he headed to Slovenia to work with a personal coach for two weeks.
Pinnacle brought Udrih to New York early last week, where he has been training on a daily basis with fellow NBA prospects Ivan Koljevic, Damir Omerhodzic and Predrag Samardziski.
Udrih will attend workouts in Washington and Indiana this week
before returning to New York for an audition with the Clippers, then flying to Chicago on June 8 to attend the NBA's Pre-Draft Camp.
Udrih knows that a good performance there can get his stock back to where it once was.
"I'm excited to play in Chicago," he said. "It is the biggest pre-draft camp and all the NBA teams will be there. Anything there is possible there."
As for the past, Udrih isn't worrying about what could have been.
"Life is like this. Sometimes you have to pay for other people's mistakes," Udrih said. "I can't do anything about what happened, all I can focus on is what I can do now."
Didn't a wise old man once say something like that?
Used courtesy of: USATODAY.com |
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