Daequan Cook is a player in the National Basketball Association who plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was born on April 28, 1987 in Orange City, Iowa.
He has been playing professional basketball for three years, but like all great basketball players, his career did not simply start great. He began playing basketball in high school, and then moved onto college basketball.
College Basketball
Cook’s basketball career really took off in college at Ohio State University. He played only one season before becoming an early candidate for the NBA draft because of his exceptional performance as a freshman player.
He averaged 9.7 points per game and made an average of 4.3 rebounds and 1 assist per game. He made a .445 free throw percentage and shot 69.7 percent from the free throw line. Due to his incredible basketball skill, he led his team to the Big Ten regular season tournament, and from there helped them get to the NCAA Championship game.
As a freshman, he was named the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year. Further, he became second in all-time three point field goal percentage in Ohio State history. He also scored in the double figures 16 times, with eight of those games scoring at least 20 points.
Entering the NBA
Cook entered the NBA in 2007 as a draft pick by the Philadelphia ‘76ers. He was selected in the first round, making him the 21st pick overall.
However, on June 28, 2007, the Miami Heat obtained draft rights to Cook in exchange for draft rights to Jason Smith along with cash considerations and Philadelphia’s 2nd round draft pick for 2009.
Thus, he played his first two season with the Miami Heat. In his rookie season for the Heat, he played in 59 games and started in 19. He averaged 8.8 points and shot a .825 free throw percentage. He also had a 33.2 shooting percentage from the three point range, ranking him fifth for rookie single season three point percentage for the Heat.
The next season, Cook appeared in 79 games, though started in only four. However, he did improve his averages to 9.1 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in spite of missing seven games due to injury. He led the Heat in three point field goal attempts at 395 and three point field goals made at 153. After his two years with the Heat, Cook was given to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the 32nd pick of the 2010 NBA draft.