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Basketball: Poland’s Sochan selected to NBA with San Antonio Spurs

24.06.2022 14:45
Poland’s Jeremy Sochan has been selected as the number nine pick at the NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs. 
Jeremy Sochan (right) shakes hands with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (left) after being selected as the number nine pick by the San Antonio Spurs during the 2022 NBA Draft at Barclays Center in New York on Wednesday, July 23, 2022.
Jeremy Sochan (right) shakes hands with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (left) after being selected as the number nine pick by the San Antonio Spurs during the 2022 NBA Draft at Barclays Center in New York on Wednesday, July 23, 2022.PAP/EPA/Jason Szenes

The 19-year-old joins the famous league from Baylor University in Texas, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

Sochan also became the highest-picked Polish player in NBA history, surpassing Maciej Lampe (No. 30), Szymon Szewczyk (35), and Marcin Gortat (57).

Szewczyk never got to play in the NBA, while the league's first Pole, Cezary Trybański, featured in the NBA without being picked in the draft.

Sochan, who described his move to the five-time NBA champions San Antonio as “really exciting,” is set to earn some USD 4 million in his first season. 

The NBA’s official website described the Polish rookie as a “versatile forward who fills in a lot of blanks on both ends of the floor guarding multiple positions, making hustle plays, passing the ball with nice vision, and scoring opportunistically while steadily improving as a jump shooter.”

Sochan will now have the opportunity to further hone his skills under the leadership of the legendary coach Gregg Popovich, who has led the Spurs to their five NBA titles.   

Radosław Piesiewicz, head of Poland’s PZKosz basketball federation, congratulated the player and voiced his hope that “we’ll soon see Jeremy in the white-and-red shirt during the EuroBasket tournament."

Sochan is the son of the Polish former basketball player Aneta Sochan and an American father.

(pm/gs)

Source: PAP, nba.compzkosz.pl