Marcin Gortat

Marcin Gortat was born February 17th, 1984 in Lodz. His nationality is Polish and is nicknamed the Polish Hammer. He is known as the Polish professional NBA basketball player who is a backup center for the Orlando Magic. He is the son of boxer Janusz Gortat. He spent three seasons with the Rhein Energie Koln basketball team in the Polish National Under-22 league. His team in Poland won the domestic championship in 2006.

Gortat entered the NBA draft were he was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in the second round, pick number 57 in 2005. He was traded to Orlando for future cash considerations afterwards. Gortat has played in the NBA for five seasons now and all of them has been with Orlando. In his rookie year with Orlando he averaged just over three points per game and just over two rebounds per game in six games.http://www.nba.com/playerfile/marcin_gortat/bio.html<ref>

In the 2008-2009 season the Orlando Magic went 59-23 for a 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Magic went on the NBA Eastern Conference Finals against the heavily favored Cleveland Cavaliers to shock the world and beat them in six games. The Orlando Magic went on to lose to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in six games. Marcin Gortat played in 63 games in 2008-2009 for the Magic. He averaged 3.8 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game. He also made three starts averaging 10.0 points per game and 11.7 rebounds per game. In the playoffs he appeared in all 24 games helping them to the NBA finals. He was a DNP-CD 17 times and on the inactive list twice, for having a sprained left ankle.http://www.nba.com/playerfile/marcin_gortat/bio.html<ref>