Christopher Czerapowicz (Swedish: Christopher Czerapowicz; born September 15, 1991, in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a professional basketball player with dual Swedish-American citizenship who plays as a shooting guard and small forward. Since July 2018, he has been a player for the basketball club "Nizhny Novgorod".[1]
Origins and Family
Christopher's mother is Swedish, and his father is a US citizen. His paternal great-grandfather and great-grandmother were Poles who lived in what is now Belarus; during World War I the family emigrated to the United States and settled in the state of Massachusetts, where Christopher's father was later born.[2]
Career
From 2010 to 2014, Czerapowicz played in the NCAA college league for the Davidson Wildcats (Davidson College, North Carolina). In his sophomore year he suffered serious hip problems and underwent five operations, three of which were unsuccessful. His best college statistics came in the 2011/12 season: in 33 games he averaged 10.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 0.7 assists per game.[2] After college, he received no offers from NBA clubs and went to Europe.[2]
His first professional club was the Swedish Södertälje Kings (2014–2016), with whom Czerapowicz twice won the Swedish championship — in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons.[1] In the 2016/17 season he moved to the Polish club Krosno, where in 20 games he averaged 17.7 points and 6.9 rebounds, hitting from long range with 49% accuracy.[2] In February 2017 he moved to the Spanish Andorra and played 13 games in the LEB Oro (averaging 5.3 points and 2.5 rebounds).[2]
In August 2017, Czerapowicz signed a contract with the Belarusian Tsmoki-Minsk and spent the season in the VTB United League: he averaged 14.6 points (52.4% on two-pointers, 42.4% on three-pointers), 4.9 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in almost 30 minutes on the court — the 11th-best scoring result in the league. In a game against PARMA on March 11, 2018, he set a personal record — 33 points, 7 rebounds, and 32 efficiency points; exactly one month later he matched this result in a game against Khimki.[1] At the end of the season, Tsmoki-Minsk became champions of Belarus.[1]
In July 2018, Czerapowicz signed a two-year contract with BC Nizhny Novgorod, receiving jersey number 35.[1]
Swedish National Team
As part of the Swedish university national team, Czerapowicz took part in the 2013 Universiade.[2] At age 24, he made his debut for the senior national team in qualification for the 2017 European Championship, playing in all four games against the national teams of Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (averaging 8.8 points and 4.3 rebounds in 24 minutes).[2]
Sources
- old2.nn-basket.ru — BKNN — Nizhny Novgorod Basketball Club
- news.sportbox.ru — Cherapovich Christopher — Forward
- flashscorekz.com — Christopher Cherapovich (Cherapovich K.) statistics (archive)
- slamdunk.ru — Christopher Cherapovich (Christopher Czerapowicz) (archive)
- nn-basket.ru — Christopher Cherapovich — new player of BC "NN" — BC "Nizhny Novgorod"