Wally Szczerbiak

Walter Robert "Wally" Szczerbiak (/ˈsɜːrbi.æk/ SUR-bee-ak; born March 5, 1977) is an American retired basketball player. He played ten seasons for four teams in the National Basketball Association.

Early life

Szczerbiak was born in Madrid, Spain, to Marilyn and Walt Szczerbiak, a former ABA player who helped lead Real Madrid to three European League championships. While there he set a Spanish League single-game scoring record with 65 points. Wally spent much of his childhood in Europe during his father's playing career.

When Walt retired, he moved his family back to his native Long Island, New York. Wally 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. 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 Szczerbiak's outstanding high school statistics, his small school background failed to impress East Coast college coaches and he went unrecruited.