Brian Cook

For other people named Brian Cook, see Brian Cook (disambiguation).

Brian Cook

Cook with the Clippers
No. 34   Los Angeles Clippers
Power Forward / Center
Personal information
Date of birth	December 4, 1980 (1980-12-04)
Place of birth	Lincoln, Illinois
Nationality	American
High school	Lincoln Community High School Lincoln, Illinois
Listed height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight	250 lb (113 kg)
Career information
College	Illinois
NBA Draft	2003 / 1st round, (24th overall)
Selected by the Los Angeles Lakers
Pro career	2003–present
League	NBA
Career history
Los Angeles Lakers (2003–07) Orlando Magic (2007–09) Houston Rockets (2009–10) Los Angeles Clippers (2010–present)
Career highlights and awards
Big Ten Men's Basketball Player of the Year (2002–03) Illini All-Century Team (2004)
Stats at NBA.com

Medal record
Men’s basketball
Competitor for United States
FIBA U21 World Championship
Gold	2001 Saitama	Team competition

Brian Joshua Cook (born December 4, 1980, in Lincoln, Illinois) is an American professional basketball player. Cook was drafted out of the University of Illinois with the 24th pick of the first round of the 2003 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He is the son of Norm Cook, an All-American for the Kansas Jayhawks and played briefly for the Boston Celtics, and the nephew of Joe Cook, who played basketball for Duke University from 1988-1990.

Early life

Cook was born on December 4, 1980, in Lincoln, Illinois. His father, Norman Cook, played collegiate basketball at the University of Kansas (1974–76) and professionally for the Boston Celtics (1979–80). Cook played high school basketball at Lincoln High School in central Illinois. 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. He was selected to the 1998 State Farm Holiday Classic all-tournament team.

University of Illinois

He was recruited by Lon Kruger to play power forward for the Illinois Fighting Illini, making him the third consecutive Illinois Mr. Basketball to sign with Illinois, following the lead of Sergio McClain (1997) and Frank Williams (1998).

Cook ultimately played 132 games in four years at the University of Illinois, most of them under coach Bill Self, and led the Illini in rebounding in each season. A 6'10" forward, Cook was a versitle scorer from both inside and outside the paint, utilizing his height to score in the post and hitting three-point shots when left open. This helped him to earn co Big Ten Freshman of the year honors during his first year at Illinois. As a senior in the 2002-03 season, Cook led the Fighting Illini in scoring with 20.0 points per game, and 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 helped lead the Illini to a number one seed in the 2001 NCAA Tournament, and the Illini cruised to the Elite 8, where they were upset in a hard fought and controversial game by Cook's future teammate Luke Walton and the Arizona Wildcats. Cook was projected to be a top 10 draft pick in the NBA Draft, but ultimately slipped to the L.A. Lakers 24th pick. 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, behind Deon Thomas and Kiwane Garris.

Cook was elected to the "Illini Men's Basketball All-Century Team" in 2004.

Professional basketball

Cook played sparingly in his rookie campaign as a backup to superstar center Shaquille O'Neal, and mostly was an interior player, notching only five three-point attempts out of 141 total field goal attempts. As his professional career evolved, however, Cook once again became a player who could play beyond the perimeter, after Shaq moved on to the Miami Heat and Rudy Tomjanovich took over for Phil Jackson as Lakers' head coach. He was mainly used as a three-point specialist; 199 of 422 (or 47.2%) of Cook's field goal attempts were from behind the three-point arc. When Phil Jackson returned to coach the Lakers in 2005-06, Cook shot from the perimeter less often, which 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. His improved play kept Cook on the court more as his minutes played per game rose from 15.1 in 2004-05 to 19.4 in 2005-06.

On November 20, 2007, he along with teammate Maurice Evans were traded to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Trevor Ariza.

On February 19, 2009, Cook was traded to the Houston Rockets in a 3-team trade involving the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic. In Houston, Cook temporarily joined fellow Illini Alumni Luther Head, prior to his being dealt to the Miami Heat.

On February 19, 2010, Cook was waived by the Rockets.

On July 9, 2010, Cook was signed by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Personal

Cook married his long-time girlfriend, Victoria Velasquez, on July 4, 2009.

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2003–04	L.A. Lakers	35	2	12.6	.475	.000	.750	2.9	.6	.5	.5	4.4
2004–05	L.A. Lakers	72	0	15.1	.417	.392	.757	3.0	.5	.3	.4	6.4
2005–06	L.A. Lakers	81	46	19.0	.511	.429	.832	3.4	.9	.5	.4	7.9
2006–07	L.A. Lakers	65	24	15.7	.453	.400	.723	3.3	1.0	.4	.4	6.9
2007–08	L.A. Lakers	6	2	11.7	.190	.200	1.000	1.7	.5	.3	.0	2.3
2007–08	Orlando	45	0	12.4	.394	.390	.882	2.2	.5	.2	.3	5.0
2008–09	Orlando	21	0	7.0	.383	.440	.833	1.3	.2	.1	.0	3.0
2008–09	Houston	9	0	2.8	.313	.400	.000	.6	.1	.0	.3	1.3
2009-10	Houston	15	0	2.9	.304	.222	.714	.6	.1	.0	.1	1.4
2010-11	L.A. Clippers	40	0	11.2	.424	.430	.625	2.4	.4	.3	.3	4.8
Career		389	74	13.8	.445	.396	.779	2.7	.6	.3	.3	5.7

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2003–04	L.A. Lakers	13	0	3.5	.333	.000	1.000	.9	.1	.1	.0	.9
2005–06	L.A. Lakers	7	0	11.1	.391	.364	1.000	3.1	1.1	.1	.0	6.3
2006–07	L.A. Lakers	5	0	10.2	.333	.429	1.000	1.2	.0	.0	.2	3.6
2008–09	Houston	6	0	5.3	.267	.222	.000	2.0	.5	.3	.2	1.7
Career		31	0	6.7	.351	.333	1.000	1.7	.4	.1	.1	2.7

External links

• NBA Player Profile
• Official Web Site
• Career Statistics at basketball-reference.com
• Sports Stats