Personal information | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Born |
Los Angeles, California |
May 19, 1976 ||||||||||||
Nationality | American / Panamanian | ||||||||||||
Listed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||||||||||||
Listed weight | 195 lb (88 kg) | ||||||||||||
Career information | |||||||||||||
High school |
Samuel J. Tilden (Brooklyn, New York) |
||||||||||||
College | North Carolina (1996–2000) | ||||||||||||
NBA draft | 2000 / Undrafted | ||||||||||||
Playing career | 2000–2008 | ||||||||||||
Position | Point guard | ||||||||||||
Career history | |||||||||||||
2000–2001 | Gary Steelheads (IBL) | ||||||||||||
2001–2002 | Telindus Oostende (Belgium) | ||||||||||||
2002–2004 | Žalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania) | ||||||||||||
2004–2005 | Dynamo Saint Petersburg (Russia) | ||||||||||||
2005–2006 | Žalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania) | ||||||||||||
2006 | Barcelona (Spain) | ||||||||||||
2006–2007 | Hapoel Jerusalem (Israel) | ||||||||||||
2007–2008 | Stal Ostrów Wielkopolski (Poland) | ||||||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Medals
|
Eduardo Enrique Cota (born May 19, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player. He is currently living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Cota played his freshman and sophomore years at Brooklyn's Samuel J. Tilden High School. As a sophomore, he averaged 31.5 points, 11 assists and six steals per game and led his team to the semifinals of the New York Public School Athletic League.
Cota underwent a devastating family tragedy in the ninth grade when his parents were in a car accident in Panama that would hospitalize them for several years. His mother spent a year in the hospital, his stepfather spent two and left in a wheelchair, never to regain use of his legs. He struggled to stay on track in school but was helped by the return of his mother and help from his high school coach Eric Eisenberg to get him counseling and find a prep school to attend to get a fresh start.
He then enrolled in St. Thomas More Academy in Oakdale, Connecticut, where he led his team to the New England private school title his junior year as he averaged 21 points and nine assists a game. He was selected for the United States Junior National Select Team and played in the 1996 McDonald's All-American Game, which featured future stars Jermaine O'Neal, Stephen Jackson, Mike Bibby and Kobe Bryant. The one-time truant high school student also excelled in the classroom, eventually finishing his high school career as an honor roll student.
Cota is probably best known to basketball fans for his play at point guard for the University of North Carolina from 1996-2000. At UNC, Cota led the Tar Heels to three Final Fours in his four years as a starter. During the 1997-1998 season, Cota was a member of new coach Bill Guthridge's successful "Six Starters" rotation with Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Shammond Williams, Ademola Okulaja, and Makhtar N'Diaye.