Nene Biography
Nene biography Nene was born on September 13, 1982, in Sao Carlos, Brasil.
No coincidence then that his favourite number is 13. He would have liked to have 13 on the back of his Denver Nuggets jersey, but it was taken when he arrived in Denver. Nene decided he would play his first season as number 31.
Nene began playing basketball when he was 14 years old, after a schoolteacher recommended that he should give basketball a try.
He enrolled at a basketball school in his town, run by a man named Nivaldo Meneghelli. As the story goes, Meneghelli knew the young Nene was a special athlete. Recalls Meneghelli, "I told Nene I wanted him to dunk the ball with as much force as he could. I guess I shouldn’t have told him that. He broke the basket."
Nene first made waves in international basketball when he played for the Brasilian National Team at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia. In just 18 minutes of play, he scored eight points, pulled down seven rebounds and blocked five shots. In one sequence, he blocked All-Star center Jermaine O’Neal three times.
While the Goodwill Games were certainly good to Nene, he truly established himself at the Pre-Draft Camp in Chicago, Illinois, just before the 2002 NBA Entry Draft.
Measuring in at 6’10 3/4" with a 7’4 1/2" wingspan, Nene blazed through all the physical examinations. By the end of the tests, Nene was ranked second overall to J.R. Bremer. Interestingly enough, current Chicago Bulls point guard Jay Williams finished seventh and current Phoenix Suns forward Amare Stoudemire ended up twelth.
The word was out. Nene was the most athletic big man in the Draft. According to some experts, Nene was the most athletic big man. Period.
With the seventh pick in the 2002 NBA Entry Draft, the New York Knicks selected Nene. Minutes later, he was traded to the Denver Nuggets.
In his first NBA game, playing against Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nene put up 10 points and 11 rebounds. He also led the Nuggets team with four assists that night. Not too shabby for someone the experts had dubbed a four year project! Nene would go on to start 53 times, averaging 10.5 points per game, 6.1 rebounds and 1.59 steals per game for the season. Along the way, Nene was named to the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team and finished sixth in Rookie of the Year balloting. As a whole, Nene finished sixth overall in the NBA in field goal percentage.
That said, the season was frustrating as the Nuggets were not among the league’s elite. In fact, they were the worst team in the NBA with a 17-65 win-loss record. But things were to change in the 2003-2004 NBA season. The Nuggets improved dramatically, winning 43 games and losing 39. Nene helped lead one of the biggest turnarounds, starting in 77 games and averaging 11.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. And it was on the defensive end that Nene excelled the most. He finished second to only Kevin Garnett in the NBA in terms of plus-minus ratings, the statistic that determines a player’s actual value on the court. In short, Nene joined the elite players in the league in 2003-2004.
As the 2004-2005 season progresses, the Nuggets have struggled. Personally, Nene faces stiff competition from his own team. The Nuggets signed All-Star and US Olympian power forward Kenyon Martin to a free agent contract and also inked Marcus Camby to a long-term contract. While these signings have proven to be a challenge to Nene’s playing time, Nene believes that challenges bring out the best in him and he has no doubt that he will triumph.
Source: www.Nene31.com
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