Czech basketball player Ondřej Hanzlík ( in the picture from February 20, 2023).
Girona (Spain) – Basketball player Ondřej Hanzlík from Girona, Spain, signed up for this year's NBA draft, which will take place on June 22 in New York. The twenty-one-year-old Czech representative announced it on Instagram.
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Five Czech basketball players have played in the famous overseas league so far. Vít Krejčí, who is currently working in Atlanta, was the last to go through the draft in 2020. Even last season, Tomáš Satoranský played in the NBA, in the past Jan Veselý, Jiří Welsch and, as the first Czech player, Jiří Zídek, tried the competition.
Hanzlík is gathering experience in the highest Spanish competition in the jersey of Girona, where he is visiting from Baskonia . In his first year in Europe's elite league, he earned a nomination for the best young player award. In Girona, Spartak graduate Rychnov nad Kněžnou joins former NBA champion and two-time world champion Marc Gasol, who is a co-owner of the club.
The two-meter point guard or winger played in 21 games and averaged over eight minutes played and 2 ,2 points.
In February, Hanzlík drew attention to himself in the national team, where coach Ronen Ginzburg invited him at the end of the unsuccessful qualification for the World Cup. In the last game in Montenegro, he was the best scorer with 17 points.
According to the NBA website, 242 players signed up for the draft. Hanzlík is one of 48 foreign basketball players on the list. The favorite of the draft is the nineteen-year-old French super talent Victor Wembanyama.
