Malik Pope

Malik Pope
Pope in 2014
No. 21 – PAOK Thessaloniki
Position Power forward
League Greek League
Champions League
Personal information
Born (1996-07-25) July 25, 1996
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight 220 lb (100 kg)
Career information
High school Laguna Creek (Sacramento, California)
College San Diego State (2014–2018)
NBA draft 2018 / Undrafted
Playing career 2018–present
Career history
2018–present PAOK
Career highlights and awards

Malik Pope (born July 25, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for PAOK of the Greek Basket League. He played college basketball for the San Diego State Aztecs.[1]

Early life

Pope is a native of Sacramento and played for Laguna Creek High School He measured 6'3 as a high school sophomore and 6'8 as a junior, crediting his growth spurt in part to drinking more milk. In 2012, while doing some drills, Pope broke his left leg. Several months later, he broke it again and tore his meniscus, causing him to miss his entire senior season of high school.[2] Even so, he was an 5 star recruit in the class of 2014 who committed and played for San Diego State.[3]

College career

Pope had a career high 22 points and seven rebounds in a game against Colorado State as a freshman, sending his name up NBA Draft boards.[4] As a sophomore at San Diego State, he averaged 7.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. He increased those numbers to 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in March 2016 as he led the Aztecs to the NIT finals. Following the season he declared for the 2016 NBA draft but did not hire an agent.[5]

Pope had an injury-riddled junior campaign and missed nine games.[4] He still managed to average 11 points per game.[6] As a senior, Pope was named to the Second Team All-Mountain West Conference.[7] He was suspended on February 23, 2018 for allegedly receiving a $1400 loan from an agent, according to an FBI investigation.[8] Pope was cleared to return to the team on February 28.[9] He averaged 12.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots per game, shooting 52.1 percent from the floor and 36.8 percent from 3-point range. Pope led San Diego State to an NCAA Tournament berth as an 11 seed after winning the conference tournament.[2]

Professional career

Pope joined the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2018 NBA Summer League.[10] On August 10, 2018, Pope officially started his professional career by signing with Greek team PAOK.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Malik Pope 21". GoAztecs.com. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  2. 1 2 Davidson, Joe (March 14, 2018). "Malik Pope fueled by bad breaks, a lost friend and milk. He seeks NBA after NCAAs". Sacramento Bee. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Malik Pope - Basketball Recruiting - Player Profiles - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Zeigler, Mark (January 1, 2018). "SDSU's Malik Pope: 'I set my bar pretty high.'". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  5. ↑ Greene, Dan (May 23, 2016). "Stay or Go? San Diego State forward Malik Pope". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  6. ↑ Grammer, Geoff (November 7, 2017). "MWC basketball preview: San Diego State transitions to a new coach". The Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  7. ↑ Zeigler, Mark (March 6, 2018). "SDSU's Malik Pope named second team all-conference". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  8. ↑ Zeigler, Mark (February 23, 2018). "SDSU suspends Malik Pope after allegations he received $1,400 loan from pro agent". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  9. ↑ Boone, Kyle (February 28, 2018). "College basketball scandal: San Diego State's Malik Pope cleared to return". CBS Sports. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  10. ↑ Cunningham, Sean (June 23, 2018). "Sacramento's Malik Pope will begin NBA dream with Los Angeles Lakers". ABC10. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  11. ↑ "PAOK signed Malik Pope". EuroHoops.net. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
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