Rasho Nesterovic
The steady Slovenian 7-footer who anchored the middle through the early Kevin Garnett era, flirted with a breakout in 2002-03, then chased a ring.
He was the seven-footer Minnesota kept waiting to become more than he was, and the one Kevin Garnett would still be needling two decades after they last shared a locker room.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 30, 1976, Ljubljana, Slovenia (then Yugoslavia) |
| Position | Center (7’0”) |
| Pre-NBA | Olimpija Ljubljana, PAOK, Virtus Bologna |
| Drafted | No. 17 overall, 1998 (Minnesota) |
| Seasons as a Wolf | 5 (1998–2003) |
| Number | 8 |
The project. Minnesota spent the No. 17 pick in the 1998 draft on Radoslav “Rasho” Nesterovic and then did the patient thing: left him in Europe. A genuine seven-footer out of Slovenia by way of the Italian and Greek leagues, he was the kind of long-term center bet a franchise makes when it already has a 22-year-old Kevin Garnett and wants someone to stand in the paint so Garnett doesn’t have to. Nesterovic finally arrived late in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, played two games, and inherited exactly the assignment the Wolves had drafted him for: be big, be there, and let the best player in franchise history do everything else.
The climb. For a stretch it looked like the bet was paying off. By 1999-00, his first full season, Nesterovic was playing all 82 games, and his production climbed almost every season after: 5.7 points that first full year, then 8.4 and 6.5 boards in 2001-02, then a genuine career year in 2002-03 — 11.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and a tidy 52.5 percent from the floor. Around Garnett’s MVP-caliber peak he became a useful finisher on the roll, a real rim-protector, and a body Minnesota could throw at Shaquille O’Neal and the West’s other giants without embarrassment. It was, for one contract-year winter, exactly what a franchise wants from a mid-first-round center.
The ceiling. It was also as high as it ever got. The Timberwolves of the Garnett era were a machine that produced regular seasons and then stalled: eight straight playoff berths, seven of them ending in the first round, and a big man who kept flirting with “solid starter” without ever quite forcing the label to stick. The fit questions were real. Garnett spent his prime as a nominal power forward who was really the team’s best center, which left Nesterovic in the awkward space of a traditional five on a team whose franchise player already owned the paint. He needed touches to get going and got few; he needed to match Garnett’s motor and, by most accounts, rarely did. On a roster built entirely around one relentless engine, a quiet, skill-first center was always going to look like the part that idled.
The exit. When free agency came in the summer of 2003, the chase for a bigger role became a chase for a ring. San Antonio offered a six-year, $42 million deal, and Minnesota offered more to keep him. Nesterovic took less to go be David Robinson’s successor at center for a title contender, and it worked: he started at center through the regular season and won a ring with the 2005 champion Spurs. The cruelest twist for Wolves fans: the very season he left, Minnesota added Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell, broke through to the 2004 Western Conference Finals, and never looked back at the center it had let walk. The man and the moment missed each other by a single summer.
By the numbers
Regular-season stats with Minnesota, per Basketball-Reference:
| Season | GP | PPG | RPG | APG | BPG | FG% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998-99 | 2 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | .250 |
| 1999-00 | 82 | 5.7 | 4.6 | 1.1 | 1.0 | .476 |
| 2000-01 | 73 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 0.6 | 0.9 | .461 |
| 2001-02 | 82 | 8.4 | 6.5 | 0.9 | 1.3 | .493 |
| 2002-03 | 77 | 11.2 | 6.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | .525 |
Wolves career totals
Franchise ranks
- 6th Blocked shots (370)
Per StatMuse and the all-time franchise leaderboard.
Accolades
- NBA champion, 2005 (San Antonio, after leaving Minnesota)
- Career-best 11.2 ppg / 6.5 rpg / .525 FG, 2002-03
- 6th in Timberwolves history in blocked shots
Lore
The Garnett verdict. More than 20 years after they last played together, Garnett was asked on Australia’s 1116 SEN radio in October 2025 to name the most overrated teammate he’d ever had. The answer was instant: Rasho Nesterovic. It fit a long-running theme. Garnett’s practice-floor intensity was legendary and, for some teammates, punishing, and the accounts of that era consistently describe him riding Nesterovic for not matching his motor — a running friction across their five shared seasons. What survives instead is Garnett’s blunt, decades-later dismissal, which tells you as much about the standard he held everyone to as it does about the center who couldn’t always meet it.
Less money, more banner. Turning down a richer Minnesota offer to sign in San Antonio was, in the moment, a referendum on how far the Wolves’ ceiling really was from a title. Nesterovic bet on the Spurs and cashed it, winning the 2005 championship while Minnesota’s own contender window slammed shut behind him. It remains one of the clearer object lessons in early-2000s Wolves history: even a good team can be a place players leave to win.
Luka’s godfather. Long before he was an NBA center, Nesterovic was a Slovenian pro alongside Sasa Doncic — and he is the godfather of Sasa’s son, Luka. The most overrated teammate Kevin Garnett ever named also happens to be family to one of the best players of the next generation, a small piece of basketball geography that ties the early Garnett Wolves to a name every fan now knows.
The Admiral’s replacement. The role Minnesota couldn’t quite build for him, San Antonio handed over on day one: Nesterovic stepped in as the man who followed David Robinson in the middle of a champion. He was never a star there either, but he was exactly what a great team needed a center to be, and that, quietly, was the point all along.