Armands Šķēle
Armands Šķēle in 2009
|
|
| No. 22 – VEF Rīga | |
|---|---|
| Position | Point guard / Shooting guard |
| League |
LBL VTB |
| Personal information | |
| Born |
September 4, 1983 Riga, Latvia |
| Nationality | Latvian |
| Listed height | 6 ft 3 1⁄2 in (1.92 m) |
| Listed weight | 200 lb (91 kg) |
| Career information | |
| Playing career | 1999–present |
| Career history | |
| 1999–2001 | BK Brocēni |
| 2001–2004 | Anwil Włocławek |
| 2004–2005 | Liège Basket |
| 2005–2006 | Spirou Charleroi |
| 2006–2009 | Barons LMT |
| 2009 | Basket Napoli |
| 2010 | BK Ventspils |
| 2011 | Ferro-ZNTU |
| 2011–2013 | BC Kalev/Cramo |
| 2013–2014 | Gamateks Pamukkale Üniversitesi |
| 2014–2015 | BC Kalev/Cramo |
| 2015 | Barons/LDz |
| 2015–2016 | Valmiera/ORDO |
| 2016–present | VEF Rīga |
| Career highlights and awards | |
Armands Šķēle (born September 4, 1983) is a Latvian professional basketball player who currently plays for VEF Rīga. Šķēle has been fan favorite due to his creative style of play. He is also consider as one of the great talents of his generation in Europe who never really lived up to expectations because of various reasons.
Šķēle started his pro career very early by debuting at age of 16 for Brocēni which at the time was top team in Latvia. In 2001 he moved to Poland where he signed multi-year contract (3+3) with Anwil Włocławek, where he won Polish championship and played very well, so he began to attract attention from stronger clubs. At that time he was a highly rated prospect in Europe and his game was compared to Serbian star Aleksandar Đorđević.
In 2004, he was pursued by Real Madrid as they sought talented Latvian to back-up Louis Bullock, but Anwil asked half-million dollars and deal fell through. In the same year Šķēle was a candidate for NBA Draft, but ultimately went undrafted. Šķēle later was cited saying that it was mainly due to poor work by his agent. Šķēle felt that other same aged European players who worked out with him during pre-draft, for example Sasha Vujačić or Roko Ukić, were on the same level with him or even below it, but their representatives did better job off-court and got their players drafted.
Following experience in Poland he played two seasons in Belgium. In summer of 2006, he was bought out from contract with Anwil by Latvian side Barons LMT that reportedly cost them around 70 000 euros. He spent three seasons with Barons and most successful was in 2007–2008 when Šķēle led his team to the FIBA EuroCup and the Latvian Basketball League championships.
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