Roko Leni Ukic

Born in Split on May 12, 1984, Roko Leni Ukic started as a youth player at KK Split, debuting for the first team at the tender age of 16 and becoming team captain when he was just 18.

He played for five seasons for his hometown club, winning one league and one cup, before moving on to the Spanish ACB. He joined TAU Vitoria in 2005-06. That same year he was 41st pick in the NBA Draft, being selected by Toronto, although he has never made the big move across the water.

With TAU, Ukic played 31 league matches, averaging 14 minutes, 1.6 assists and 5.6 points. He was one of the big stars of the ACB end season, playing all ten games and averaging 22 minutes, 9.9 points and two assists.

Ukic set some amazing stats in his home country. In his last year at KK Split, Roko Leni Ukic was the third highest point scorer and best supplier in the tournament, with 18.5 points and 4.3 assists a game.

With the Croatian national side, Ukic won the Junior European Championship in 2002 and is currently first choice playmaker with the full international team. He played at the Belgrade 2005 Europeans, where his team finished seventh and is already qualified for the European Championship to be held in Spain in 2007.

CHARACTERISTICS

Ukic is a wonderful playmaker, with plenty of individual class and he reads the game well. He is particularly strong at penetrating defences to find scoring positions, and can throw well from medium distances. He also powerful defensively, being of stocky build and measuring 1.95 metres. Valued for his interceptions, he is very good at recovering balls thanks to his innate ability of judging opposing forwards' movements.

HONOURS

FC Barcelona
2006-07 Spanish Cup

TAU
2005-06 Spanish Cup
2005-06 Spanish Supercup

KK Split
2003-04 Croatian League
2002-03 Croatian League

Croatian Nacional Team
2001-02 Junior European gold medal