Яков Цакалидис: Грек-баскетболист грузинского происхождения

Greek basketball player

Iakovos "Jake" Tsakalidis (Ιάκωβος Τσακαλίδης, , born 10 June 1979) is a Georgian born Greek former professional basketball player. Tsakalidis, a 7 feet (2 m) center, holds dual citizenship in Georgia, where he was born (he was born in what was at the time, the Soviet Union's Timino county, Yaroslavl region), and in Greece, where he was raised.

Tsakalidis began his professional career in 1996, at the age of 17, with the Greek League club AEK Athens. With AEK, he was a 2 time Greek Cup finalist (1998, 1999), a FIBA Saporta Cup winner (2000), and a Greek Cup winner (2000). In those years with AEK, Tsakalidis played at a great level, especially in the painted zone area, where he complemented his teammates, Michalis Kakiouzis and Dimos Dikoudis, in that area. In 2000, the Phoenix Suns selected Tsakalidis in the 2000 NBA draft despite a warning faxed from AEK to NBA teams that they would not be letting him out of the four years remaining on his contract. The matter ultimately had to be resolved in the international Court of Arbitration for Sport and Tsakalidis began his NBA career that year with the Suns. He would spend the next 7 seasons playing with various NBA teams. In 2007, he returned to Greece, after leaving the Houston Rockets. He joined the Greek EuroLeague club Olympiacos.

Tsakalidis was selected by the Phoenix Suns, in the 1st round (25th overall) of the 2000 NBA draft. On 30 September 2003 Tsakalidis was traded by the Suns, along with teammate Bo Outlaw, to the Memphis Grizzlies, in exchange for Brevin Knight, Robert Archibald, and Cezary Trybański. He was eventually traded by the Grizzlies to the Houston Rockets, on 13 February 2007, for small forward Scott Padgett. Tsakalidis' final NBA game was played on 28 April 2007 in Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round against the Utah Jazz. This series went to 7 games but Tsakaldis only played in Game 4 where Houston lost 85 98 and he recorded 2 points and 4 rebounds. In his NBA career, he averaged 4.8 points per game and 3.9 rebounds per game.

Tsakalidis played with the senior men's Greek national basketball team at the 1998 FIBA World Championship, where his team finished in 4th place, at the EuroBasket 1999, where his team finished in 16th place, and at the EuroBasket 2003, where his team finished in 5th place.

In 2000, Tsakalidis announced that his real name is Alexey Ledkov and he is not of Caucasus Greek descent as previously believed.