Goga Bitadze

Goga Bitadze was born in 1999 in the small town of Sagarejo in Kakheti, Georgia. Sagarejo is home to less than 11,000 people and is on the eastern side of Georgia. Bitadze's father was a basketball player whose career was cut short by injury. Bitadze started competing in professional leagues when he was 16 years old, playing for teams in Georgia, Serbia and Montenegro. Bitadze played for Georgia at the junior level during FIBA tournaments in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, Bitadze joined the Georgian national basketball team at EuroBasketball 2017 but couldn't play due to a calf injury. Later in 2017, at the FIBA World Cup qualifier games, Bitadze made his national team debut. The 6-foot-11 big man's name is pronounced GO-gah bih-TAH-zay. Goga Bitadze's pre NBA career took him all over the Balkan states of Europe. He split the 2018-19 season between Mega Bemax and Buducnost teams of the Serbian, Adriatic and EuroLeague leagues. In 13 EuroLeague games, four of them starts, Bitadze posted 12.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game, shooting almost 55% from the floor. The year before, he played for Mega Bemax's top team and their U-19 squad. Over 22 contests for Mega Bemax in the Adriatic League, Bitadze averaged 11.8 points and 6.9 rebounds over 23 minutes per contest. In 2016-17, Bitadze split time between Smederevo of the Serbian league and the Mega Bemax U-18 team, which played in the Adidas NGT.