Patrick Sparks may be best known for the clutch free throws that he made during the December 18, 2004 win over the Louisville Cardinals. That was surely a memorable performance for Sparks and all of the Kentucky fans that watched. After a foul and a time review the seemed to take referee’s an eternity to verify, Sparks stepped to the free throw line and swished three shots to give Kentucky the lead 60-58 with six tenths of a second left. Louisville had no chance and Patrick Sparks left yet another memory with his legacy at UK. But where is he now?
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After completing his career with the Wildcats in 2006 Sparks was drafted by the Indiana Alley Cats (CBA) in the 4th round however he never played. He went to play professional ball in Russia for Spartak St. Petersburg for the 2006-2007 season. During this stint, Sparks played 9 games and averaged 9.0ppg, 1.5rbpg and 1.7apg. He left Spartak SP in November of 2006 and in January 2007 moved to Sport Lisboa Benfica (Portugal league) where he was a starter. He played 14 games there but was only scoring 7.9ppg with limited minutes and left in March 2007.
In September 2007 Sparks signed a 2 month contract to play with the Giessen 46ers in Germany. This was a limited contract as he was just filling a vacant spot due to an injured players. In 14 games for the 46ers Sparks scored 10.1ppg and was shooting 45.5% from 3-point range. To finish the season he moved to the Walter Tigers Tuebingen in Germany and contributed 7.7ppg during 18 games played.
For the 2008-2009 season Sparks found a home for the season and was a starter in 40 games for Hoverla Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine-UBL). After getting back into his shooting groove Patrick provided 16.4ppg and shot a red hot 41.3% from 3-point range. For the 2009-2010 season he is still with Hoverla Ivano-Frankivsk now in the Ukraine Superleague.
We have also provided a small video tribute to Patrick Sparks on our message board that you might enjoy.
[url=http://www.nationofblue.com/f2/video-tribute-patrick-sparks-1036/]Patrick Sparks Video Tribute[/url]
I was a big fan of Patrick Sparks. Leave us a comment below to let us know how he ranked in your book.
