Goran Dragic is a player in the National Basketball Association who currently plays for the Phoenix Suns.
He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia on May 6, 1986. He played soccer in Slovenia until age 11, but an injury forced him to switch to basketball. Even before that he had an admiration for professional basketball players as he woke up at three o’clock in the morning to watch NBA basketball games.
As a child, his favorite players were Michael Jordan, Steve Nash and Allen Iverson. He has a brother named Zoran who also plays professional basketball. He speaks Slovenian, English, Spanish and Serbian fluently.
Career Beginnings
Being that he is not from America, Dragic’s basketball career began overseas. He played four seasons in the Adriatic and Slovenian Leagues, along with stints in the Euroleague and the Spanish ACB.
In 2008, he was drafted by the Suns as the 45th overall pick. In his rookie season for the Suns, he averaged 4.5 points and two assists per game with a 39 percent field goal average. He played an average of 13.2 minutes per game in 55 games that season. On February 26, 2009 he made a career high of 14 points in one game against the Los Angeles Lakers. He led his team in steals five times and scored in the double digits six times.
The next season, he improved immensely. He averaged 7.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3 assists per game. He played in a whopping 80 games and made a 39.4% three point average, making a total of 74 three point shots over the course of the season. This was the fourth highest percentage for second year players in the NBA that season.
In addition, George managed a 45.2% field goal average. He also scored over 20 points three times, making those the first three 20-point efforts of his professional career. On January 25, 2010, George made a remarkable 30 points in the Suns’ game against the Utah Jazz, becoming the first Suns player to score thirty or more points since 1997, when Ced Ceballos was able to achieve such a feat.
This also made him the seventh 2008 draft pick to score 32 or more points in a single game. After the All-Star break, he made three double digit assist efforts. Further, he made a career high 241 assists, which was more than twice that of his rookie season. In the post-season, he logged five double digit scoring games.
Dragic continues to be a leader on the Phoenix Suns, and it will be interesting to see where his career goes from there.