Wally Szczerbiak Biography

Wally Szczerbiak is a retired American basketball player and currently the color analyst for the New York Knicks on the MSG Network. He played ten seasons for four National Basketball Association teams.

Early life and education of Wally Szczerbiak

Wally Szczerbiak was born on March 5, 1977 in Madrid Spain to mother Marilyn and father Walt Szczerbiak who is a famous former ABA player. He led Real Madrid to win three consecutive European Championships. Wally, along with his parents and two siblings, Will and Wendy, moved to Long Island.

Wally attended Cold Spring Harbor High School and began avidly playing basketball. In the 1994-1995 seasons, Wally went on to average a total of 36.6 points per game and 15.9 rebounds per game. While there, he was named the Richard Spangler Award recipient, Nassau County’s Most Outstanding Men’s Basketball Player.

Wally joined Miami University in Ohio in 1995. He started playing basketball for the Redhawks. While there, in the first two seasons, Wally went on to average 8.0 and 12.8 points per game, respectively. As a senior, Wally averaged 24.2 points per game.

He left Miami in 1999 and was named the University of Miami’s second all-time leading scorer after totaling 1847 points. Wally graduated from the University of Miami Richard T. Farmer School of Business.

In 1999, Wally announced that he was ready to be drafted in the 1999 NBA. Thus, he was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round as the 6th overall pick. He thus began playing as a forward for the Timberwolves and on April 13, 2003 he tied one of his records with 44 points.

Wally Szczerbiak’s career

He played for the Timberwolves until 2006 and then left to play for the Boston Celtics. He was unable to play many games with the Celtics due to his knee injury. Later, he decided to undergo season-ending ankle surgery.

In 2007, Wally was transferred to the Seattle SuperSonics. He played a few games for the SuperSonics before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2008. While with the Cavaliers, he went on to play in 25 regular-season games and averaged 8.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game.

In the 2008-2009 season, he played a total of 74 games in which he managed to score an average of 7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. However, later on November 5, 2009, Wally announced that he would undergo a third, career-ending knee surgery.

Wally ended up as a basketball analyst for CBS College Sports and is currently an analyst for the MSG Network covering the New York Knicks.

Wally Szczerbiak Net Worth and Salary

Wally Szczerbiak’s net worth is $35 million today. He has earned an incredible amount of salary with his playing career.

According to the richest sources, his salary with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1999 was $2 million, in 2000 it was $2.1 million, in 2001 $2.3 million, in 2002 $2.9 million, in 2003 $ 8 million, in 2004 $9 million and in 2005 $10 million.

He earned the salary of $11.7 million from the Boston Celtics in 2006, $12.7 million from the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007, and $13.7 million in 2008.

Wally Szczerbiak’s personal life

Wally met his wife Shannon Ward at the University of Miami. They were both in the same freshman orientation group. The couple got married on July 1, 2000. They have four children named Amberley, Maximus Jack, and Annabella. There have been no rumors of extramarital affairs or divorces.

Wally weighs 111 kg and is 6 feet 7 inches tall. Throughout his basketball career, Wally has been named an NBA All-star, NBA Rookie Challenge MVP, NBA All-Rookie First Team, MAC Player of the Year, Consensus Second Team All-American. He was also inducted into the University of Miami Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.