Charlie Villanueva

Charlie Alexander Villanueva is a professional basketball player from the USA who plays as a power forward. Born to immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Villanueva was raised in New York City and went to the Newton High School. Villanueva would later get transferred to the Blair Academy where he would earn All-American honours and also be named as the New Jersey Co-Player of the Year.

Although he declared for the 2003 NBA Draft, Villanueva decided to withdraw from the Draft and attend the University of Connecticut instead.

In his freshman year, Villanueva was named to the Big-East All Rookie Team and was also a key reserve member in the 2004 Championship winning team. The following year, he represented USA at the 2004 Summer Olympics and at the 2004 FIBA World Championships at the Under-21 event. He won the gold in the Olympics.

In his sophomore year, Villanueva averaged 13.6 points with 8.3 rebounds and won the team’s MVP award after leading them in scoring. He was also named to the Second Team All-Big East.

After just two years at the University of Connecticut, Villanueva decided to declare for the 2005 NBA Draft and was picked at 7th overall by the Toronto Raptors. The franchise faced a lot of flak from media and supporters alike for picking Villanueva so high up on the draft. However, the Rookie responded with a splendid season as he averaged 13 points per game and had 6.4 rebounds in 81 appearances.

He was second amongst all the rookies in terms of points average and rebounds and also set the franchise record for the Raptors for the most points by a rookie in a game (48) and for most rebounds in a game (18). Villanueva was part of the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and was also named to the first team for the NBA Rookies.

In 2006, T. J. Ford came to the Raptors along with some cash in exchange for Villanueva who went to the Milwaukee Bucks. With the 2006 season gone in getting settled into the new team, Villanueva had to settle for an average 2007 after finding life tough in the new roster. By 2008, he had found his footing again and was averaging 13.3 points per game with 6.4 rebounds per game.

In March of 2009, Villanueva got reprimanded by his coach for posting a message on a website during the halftime break of a Bucks-Celtic game.

Villanueva suffers from an autoimmune skin disease that causes him to lose hair on his scalp and other parts of the body. Known as Alopecia Areata, Villanueva is the spokesman for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation and was the recipient of the February 2006 Community Assist Award from the NBA.