Brian Cook
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For the Australian football CEO, see Brian Cook (football administrator).
| Position | Power Forward |
|---|---|
| Height | 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) |
| Weight | 258 lb (117 kg) |
| Team | Los Angeles Lakers |
| Nationality |  United States |
| Born | 4 December 1980 Lincoln, Illinois |
| College | University of Illinois |
| Draft | 24th overall, 2003 Los Angeles Lakers |
| Pro career | 2003–present |
Brian Joshua Cook (born December 4, 1980 in Lincoln, Illinois) is a power forward for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. Cook was drafted out of the University of Illinois with the 24th pick of the first round of the 2003 NBA Draft. He led his high school team, the Lincoln Community High School Railsplitters, to the quarterfinals of the Illinois High School Association class AA state boys basketball tournament [1].
[edit] University of Illinois
Cook played four seasons at the University of Illinois, beginning with the 1999-2000 season, and led the Fighting Illini in rebounding in each season. He was the co Big Ten Freshman of the year during his first year at Illinois. As a senior in the 2002-2003 season, Cook led the Fighting Illini in scoring with 20.0 points per game, and was received the Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball as the Most Valuable Player of the Big Ten Conference. That same season, Cook was named Second-Team All-American by The Sporting News, and Third-Team All-American by the Associated Press, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and The Basketball Times, as well as Big Ten Player of the Year and First-Team All-Big Ten by both the coaches and the media. Cook left Illinois as the school's third all-time leading scorer with 1748 total points, at an average of 13.2 points per game.
[edit] Professional basketball
In college, Cook was a scorer from both the inside and the outside, utilizing his height to score in the post and attempting three-point shots when left open. As a professional, Cook has become a player who predominantly shoot from the perimeter, away from the basket. In Cook's rookie season (2003-04), he had only five three-point attempts out of 141 total field goal attempts. As a second-year player (2004-05) under former Lakers head coach Rudy Tomjanovich he was mainly three-point specialist, in fact 199 of 422 (or 47.2%) of Cook's field goal attempts were from behind the three-point arc. However since Phil Jackson return to coaching the Lakers in 2005-06, Cook shoots from the perimeter less often and now looks for midrange opportunities. Only 59 of 442 (or 13.3%) of Cook's field goal attempts are three-point attempts. This has resulted in Cook improving his overall field-goal percentage from .417 in 2004-05 to .520 in 2005-06, and has also resulted in an improvement in his three-point field-goal percentage, from .392 in 2004-05 to .441 in 2005-06. In fact, Cook's field-goal percentage would rank 10th in the NBA if he was qualified (through the Lakers 69 games in 2005-06, Cook would need to have made 252 field goals to qualify [2], however he has made only 230.) His improved play presumably has also kept Cook on the playing floor more and on the bench less, as his minutes played per game has risen from 15.1 in 2004-05 to 19.4 in 2005-06. He is currently the Lakers scoring leader at the power forward position, averaging 8.3 points per game. (Statistics from the 2005-06 season as of March 21, 2006.)
[edit] External links
| 2003 NBA Draft | ||
|---|---|---|
| First Round LeBron James | Darko Miličić | Carmelo Anthony | Chris Bosh | Dwyane Wade | Chris Kaman | Kirk Hinrich | T. J. Ford | Michael Sweetney | Jarvis Hayes | Mickaël Piétrus | Nick Collison | Marcus Banks | Luke Ridnour | Reece Gaines | Troy Bell | Žarko Čabarkapa | David West | Aleksandar Pavlović | Dahntay Jones | Boris Diaw | Zoran Planinić | Travis Outlaw | Brian Cook | Carlos Delfino | Ndudi Ebi | Kendrick Perkins | Leandro Barbosa | Josh Howard |
||
| Second Round Maciej Lampe | Jason Kapono | Luke Walton | Jerome Beasley | Sofoklis Schortsianitis | Szymon Szewczyk | Mario Austin | Travis Hansen | Steve Blake | Slavko Vraneš | Derrick Zimmerman | Willie Green | Zaza Pachulia | Keith Bogans | Malick Badiane | Matt Bonner | Sani Bečirovič | Maurice Williams | James Lang | James Jones | Paccelis Morlende | Kyle Korver | Remon Van de Hare | Tommy Smith | Nedžad Sinanović | Rick Rickert | Brandon Hunter | Xue Yuyang | Andreas Glyniadakis |
||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cook, Brian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Professional basketball player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 4, 1980 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
