Zydrunas Ilgauskas Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cleveland Cavaliers

With the 20th overall pick, the Cavaliers chose Ilgauskas. Unfortunately, it was not the rookie season Big Z was hoping for, as he missed the entire season and did not play at all due to broken bone in his right foot. Fortunately for him, he was still considered a rookie in 1997, and he was able to pull through and play in all 82 regular season games, plus the postseason.

Answer: 5

In 1998, Big Z played in five games. However, he suffered a fractured navicular bone in his left foot which required surgery. The injury never actually got the surgery it needed until well over a year after it took place, which essentially caused Big Z to lose out on two seasons of action.

Answer: He was selected as an All-Star

In 2002, Ilgauskas had by far and away his best season as a pro to date. He averaged a career high 17.2 points per game to go with 8 rebounds per game, nearly averaging a double-double. Unfortunately for him and the Cavaliers, the team as a whole was pretty terrible and didn't even win 20 games, thus causing a lot of Big Z's efforts to go to waste. That said, the NBA did not let him go completely empty handed for his resurgence, and he became an All-Star for the first time in his career.

Answer: 49

Ilgauskas retired in 2011, so missing 49 games over the span of nine years might seem like a lot at first glance. But it absolutely pales in comparison to Big Z missing 329 games due to injury during the six years which preceded his first All-Star appearance. Also, of those 49 games, 17 of them were due to rest, so Ilgauskas could most likely have played in those games had the team truly needed him. Thankfully, Ilgauskas went the rest of his career without suffering any major injuries which required surgery.

Answer: Yes

When asked his thoughts on the trade which brought O'Neal to Cleveland, Ilgauskas casually remarked that the move would cause him to come off the bench, but he said so clearly without any apparent disdain or animosity. And indeed, Big Z readily accepted his role as O'Neal's back up. This naturally led to a major reduction in playtime, as Ilgauskas was down to 20 minutes per game and scoring about 8 points per game, both of which were career lows by a long shot.

While it may seem as if this was a 'down year' for Big Z, this was only truly the case in terms of his personal statistics. On the court, he was still a major contributor, not just as a generic backup doing generic backup things and giving the starter a breather, but Big Z played meaningful defense in tight late game situations. Though he was not the greatest free throw shooter, he was well above the NBA average at the charity stripe for his position, hitting 74% of his free throws. For reference, Shaquille O'Neal was so inept at hitting free throws that he has an entire strategy named after him called "Hack-a-Shaq", used today, to exploit players who are not good at the line. While Big Z's 74% is flawed, it is night and day compared to Shaq's 52.7% career free throw shooting percentage.

Answer: Games played as a Cavalier

At the time, Danny Perry held the record at 723 games. Ilgauskas broke the record in slightly ironic fashion, coming off the bench to supplement the starter Shaquille O'Neal of whom Perry had just traded for. Ilgauskas would go on to reach 771 games before his time with Cleveland came to an end. Down the road, LeBron James would break this record and stretch it up to 849 games.

Answer: Zero

Ilgauskas was immediately bought out of his contract by Washington, and became a free agent. Washington was way, way out of the playoff picture. In the aforementioned trade with Cleveland, they sent standout performer Antawn Jamison to the Cavs, then immediately proceeded to get rid of anything that wasn't a draft pick that they acquired from the deal.

The Wizards finished that season with the worst record in the NBA, so it stands to reason that they would've had little use for a veteran big man who was out of his prime at this point.

Answer: One month, six days

It was February 17 of 2010 in which the trade was officially announced. It took just over a week, eight days to be exact, for Washington to officially execute a contract buyout with Big Z, rendering him a free agent. At the time, NBA regulations forced a player to wait 30 days before he was allowed to return to the team that had traded him. So, Big Z proceeded to do exactly that. On March 23rd of the same year, he was officially re-signed to the Cavaliers roster. In his first game back, the team honorarily renamed their arena "The Z" for the one game, when it had otherwise been colloquially referred to as "The Q" due to being Quicken Loans Arena.

As a result of Ilgauskas' speedy return, one key negotiation spanning from the 2011 NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement would change how things worked to prevent a similar situation from ever occurring. After 2011, a player could no longer return to the team that had traded them until waiting a full year or until July 1st, not 30 days anymore.

Answer: Miami Heat

Longtime teammate LeBron James had just left Cleveland to famously form "The Big Three" with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. This influenced Big Z to join them for the one season.

Hilariously, when LeBron and Big Z played in Cleveland, as opponents to the Cavaliers, for the first time in their careers, LeBron was showered with the loudest boos one could imagine - when getting introduced by intercom, even when he would so much as touch the basketball during play, he would hear an earful of boos from the Cleveland faithful. Juxtaposed to Big Z, he was instead welcomed warmly with loud, constant cheering in virtually the same situations LeBron was being booed in. Of course, Big Z didn't feel the need to go on TV to announce that he was leaving Cleveland, so that certainly helped.

Answer: Assistant GM

In 2012, Ilgauskas was hired as an assistant to then-GM Chris Grant. His specific duties involved scouting amateur and pro talent. Ilgauskas would hold this role down until March of 2014, as he formally resigned roughly a month after Chris Grant was fired.