Richard Petruška (born January 25, 1969) is a Slovak-Italian former 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 and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coa ...

. He was born in

Levice Levice (; hu, Léva, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Lewenz, literally lionesses) is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies on the left bank of the lower Hron river. The Old Slavic name of the town was ''Leva'', which means "the Left One ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. At a height of 6'10" (2.08 m) tall, and a weight of 260 lbs. (118 kg), he played at the power forward and

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

positions.

College career

Petruška played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

at Loyola Marymount, and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californi ...

, in the United States.

Professional career

Petruška was selected by the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its h ...

, of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United ...

(NBA), with the 46th overall pick (2nd round), of the 1993 NBA draft. He played in 22 games with the Rockets during the

1993–94 NBA season The 1993–94 NBA season was the 48th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Houston Rockets defeating the New York Knicks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals to win the franchise's first championship. Notable occurre ...

, and scored 53 total points. His only NBA season also saw him as part of an NBA championship team, which resulted in him accidentally dropping and denting the team's first Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy during the celebration of the title. The dent in the trophy's basketball would remain a part of the trophy until 2018, when the team commissioned replacements after an ownership change.

National team career

Petruška was a member of the senior Czechoslovakian national basketball team. He played with the Czechoslovakia at the 1991 EuroBasket.

Coaching career

After he retired from playing professional basketball, Petruška became a

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

. He has worked as a coach at the CBA (Canarias Basketball Academy).

Personal life

Petruška lives in Canada with his wife and two sons.

References

External links

Petruska bio from basketball-reference.com

Euroleague.net Profile

Italian League Profile

Spanish League Profile

TBLStat.net Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petruska, Richard 1969 births Living people Baloncesto Málaga players Basket Zaragoza players Centers (basketball) Czechoslovak men's basketball players Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players Houston Rockets draft picks Houston Rockets players Italian men's basketball players Lega Basket Serie A players Liga ACB players Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball players Orlandina Basket players Pallacanestro Varese players People from Levice Power forwards (basketball) Saski Baskonia players Slovak expatriate basketball people in Spain Slovak expatriate basketball people in the United States Slovak men's basketball players UCLA Bruins men's basketball players