Efthimios "Efthimis" Rentzias (alternate spellings: Efthymios, Efthymis;

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Ευθύμιος "Ευθύμης" Ρεντζιάς; born January 11, 1976) is a retired Greek professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. During his pro club career, he was most notably a member of the Spanish League's

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

, and the

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. At a height of 2.12 m (6'11 ") tall, he played at the

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position.

Professional career

Europe

Rentzias played his first club basketball with the amateur youth teams of Danaos Trikalon, a local team from

Trikala Trikala ( el, Τρίκαλα; rup, Trikolj) is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios. According to the Greek National Stati ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. After that, he began his professional

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career at the age of 17, with PAOK Thessaloniki of the Greek League, in the 1993–94 season. With PAOK, he won the championship of the now defunct European-wide third-level competition, the

FIBA Korać Cup The FIBA Korać Cup was an annual basketball club competition held by FIBA between the 1971–72 and 2001–02 seasons. It was the third-tier level club competition in European basketball, after the FIBA European Champions' Cup (later renamed th ...

, in the 1993–94 season, and the

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup ( el, Κύπελλο Ελλάδος Ποδοσφαίρου), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Kypello Elladas is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second most ...

title, in the 1994–95 season. He later transferred to the

Spanish ACB League The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system. Administrated by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, wi ...

club Barcelona Bàsquet, for the 1997–98 season. With Barcelona, Rentzias won his second FIBA Korać Cup championship, in the 1998–99 season. With Barcelona, he also won 2 Spanish League championships, in the 1998–99 and 2000–01 seasons. In his last year with Barcelona (2001–02), Rentzias averaged 9.2 points and 3.5 rebounds, in 17.3 minutes per game, in 51 games played, in both the Spanish League (ACB) and in Europe's premier club basketball competition, the EuroLeague. He shot 61.6 percent from the field, 36.3 percent from three-point range, and 71.4 percent from the foul line.

NBA

Rentzias was selected with the 23rd overall pick by the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

, in the

1996 NBA draft The 1996 NBA draft was the 50th draft in the National Basketball Association (NBA). It was held on June 26, 1996 at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In this draft, NBA teams took turns selecting college basketball play ...

, while still under contract with PAOK. Rentzias opted not to play in the

at that time. On 29 September 1997, Rentzias' player draft rights were traded by the Denver Nuggets, along with a future

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2nd-round draft pick (

Hanno Möttölä Hanno Aleksanteri Möttölä (born 9 September 1976) is a Finnish former professional basketball player. Möttölä played for the Atlanta Hawks in the National Basketball Association (NBA), at the power forward position, where he became the first ...

was later selected), to the

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, in exchange for

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. On 26 June 2002, Rentzias was traded by the

, to the

, in exchange for a future 2004 2nd-round draft pick (

Royal Ivey Royal Terence Ivey (born December 20, 1981) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is also the head coach of the South Sudane ...

was later selected), and a future

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2nd-round draft pick ( Daniel Gibson was later selected). Rentzias then played in the NBA, with the

76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Ea ...

, during the 2002–03 season. He played in 35 regular season games, and averaged 1.5 points per game. At that time, he was just the second Greek-born basketball player to have played for an NBA team. On 8 August 2003, Renztias was waived by the 76ers.

Return to Europe

After leaving the

, Rentzias subsequently played with Ülkerspor, of the

Turkish Super League Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities an ...

Montepaschi Siena Mens Sana 1871 Basket is an Italian professional basketball club based in Siena. It is a section of the sports club Polisportiva Mens Sana, founded in 1871. Under the name Montepaschi Siena, derived from sponsor Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, ...

, of the Italian A League, and Forum Valladolid, of the

. Rentzias had plans to come back to PAOK, where he wanted to finish his playing career. Unfortunately, in August 2006, he announced his retirement from playing pro club basketball at the age of 30, because of injury problems.

National team career

Greek junior national team

Rentzias was a part of the Greek junior national basketball teams. With Greece's junior national teams, he won the silver medal at the 1991 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship and the gold medal at the 1993 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship. Rentzias was named the MVP of the

1995 FIBA Under-19 World Cup The 1995 FIBA Under-19 World Championship (Greek: 1995 Παγκόσμιο Πρωτάθλημα FIBA Under-19) was the 5th edition of the FIBA U19 World Championship. It was held in multiple cities in Greece, from 12 to 22 July 1995. Host country ...

, after he helped Greece to win the tournament's gold medal, scoring 33 points and grabbing 21 rebounds in the final against Australia. In the process, Greece beat (by a score of 98–78) an Under-19 U.S.A. Team that featured future

players like

Vince Carter Vincent Lamar Carter Jr. (born January 26, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who serves as a basketball analyst for ESPN. He primarily played the shooting guard and small forward positions, but occasionally played Powe ...

Trajan Langdon Trajan Shaka Langdon (born May 13, 1976) is an American basketball executive and former professional player. He is the current general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A and shooting guard, he fi ...

Stephon Marbury Stephon Xavier Marbury (born February 20, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach in the Chinese Basketball Association. After his freshman year with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, he was selected as th ...

, and Samaki Walker.FIBA.com Game: GREECE vs USA (Group B) Date: 18 July 1995.
/ref> During that period of time, Rentzias was considered to be one of the most talented young European basketball players.

Greek senior national team

Rentzias was also a member of the senior men's Greek national team, from 1992 to 2003, and with Greece, he competed at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. At that time, that was the just the second ever appearance by

's senior men's basketball team in a

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

, and their first since the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympic Games. He averaged 5.0 points and 4.1 rebounds, in 12 minutes per game, over seven games played in the 1996 Olympic Games tournament. He also played with Greece at the following major

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its na ...

tournaments: the 1994 FIBA World Championship, the 1995 EuroBasket, the 1997 EuroBasket, the 1998 FIBA World Championship, the 2001 EuroBasket, and the 2003 EuroBasket.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Awards and accomplishments

Pro career

*2×

Champion: (1994, 1999) *

Winner: (1995) *2× Spanish League Champion: (1999, 2001) *

Spanish Cup The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

Winner: (2001) * Turkish Supercup Winner: (2003) *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası ...

Winner: (2004) *

Italian Supercup The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

Winner: (2004)

Greek junior national team

* 1991 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship: * 1993 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship: *

: *

: All-Tournament Team *

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

References

External links

NBA.com profile

*

Euroleague.net profile

Italian League profile

Spanish League profile

Hellenic Basketball Federation profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rentzias, Efthimios 1976 births Living people 1998 FIBA World Championship players Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics CB Valladolid players Centers (basketball) Denver Nuggets draft picks Greek expatriate basketball people in Italy FC Barcelona Bàsquet players Greek men's basketball players Greek Basket League players Greek expatriate basketball people in the United States Greek expatriate basketball people in Spain Greek expatriate basketball people in Turkey Liga ACB players Mens Sana Basket players National Basketball Association players from Greece Olympic basketball players of Greece P.A.O.K. BC players Philadelphia 76ers players Basketball players from Trikala Ülker G.S.K. basketball players 1994 FIBA World Championship players