Wally Szczerbiak

Lore & Background

Szczerbiak was born in Madrid, Spain, to Marilyn and Walt Szczerbiak, a former ABA player who helped lead Real Madrid to three FIBA European Champions Cup championships. During his time with Real Madrid, the elder Szczerbiak set a Spanish League single-game scoring record with 65 points. Wally Szczerbiak spent much of his childhood in Europe and was taught to speak fluent Spanish and Italian. When Walt Szczerbiak retired, he moved his family back to his native Long Island, New York. Wally Szczerbiak played basketball at Cold Spring Harbor High School in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. As a senior in the 1994–95 season, he averaged 36.6 points per game and 15.9 rebounds per game. He was named the winner of the Richard Sangler Award as Nassau County's outstanding boys' basketball player. Szczerbiak competed for the Long Island team in the 1994 Empire State Games. Despite his outstanding high school statistics, the small size of Szczerbiak's school did not win him the attention of East Coast college coaches, and he went unrecruited. During the fall of his high school senior year, Szczerbiak and his parents visited the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio. The following Monday, despite Walt's wishes for his son to wait before making a decision, Szczerbiak called coach Herb Sendek and committed to play for Miami. In his first two seasons at Miami, Szczerbiak averaged 8.0 and 12.8 points per game, respectively. As a junior in 1997–98, he burst onto the scene as one of college basketball's leading scorers, averaging 24.4 points per game and earning first-team All-MAC honors despite missing several games with a broken right wrist. In his senior season, Szczerbiak averaged 24.2 points per game and led the Redhawks to the Sweet 16 in the 1999 NCAA tournament as a #10 seed. Szczerbiak scored a career-high 43 points in a first-round 59–58 win over #7 seed Washington. He followed that performance with 24 points in a second-round toppling of #2 seed Utah, leading the Redhawks to the Sweet 16. Despite Szczerbiak's 23-point performance, the team lost to Kentucky, 58–43. Miami finished the season with a record of 24–8. Szczerbiak was named MAC Player of the Year, was honored as a first-team All-American by Basketball News and Sports Illustrated, and was selected as a second-team All-American by the Associated Press.

Reader's Guide

Szczerbiak played 10 seasons in the NBA, not 9. He is one of five basketball players whose jerseys have been retired by Miami University. His career-high 43 points in the NCAA tournament was in a first-round game against Washington in 1999, not a second-round game.

Did You Know?

• Szczerbiak tied a Timberwolves franchise record of 44 points on April 13, 2003.
• He was a coaches' selection to the Western Conference All-Star team in 2002.