No. 1 draft choice Bargnani signs with Raptors

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The Toronto Raptors wasted little time getting Andrea Bargnani under contract.
Three days after becoming the first European player selected with the top overall pick in the NBA draft, Bargnani signed his rookie contract Saturday.
Under the NBA's rookie scale, Bargnani will make $7.78 million in the first two years of the deal, which runs through 2007-08. The Raptors hold club options for the next two years of the contract.
Getting Bargnani under contract quickly was a priority for the Raptors as he will be a member of the club's summer team in Las Vegas. That league begins Thursday and runs through July 14.
The signing of Bargnani continued the busy offseason for the rebuilding Raptors under first-year general manager Bryan Colangelo.
Colangelo made another move to reshape the club's roster Friday night when he traded Charlie Villanueva -- the seventh overall pick in 2005 -- to the Milwaukee Bucks for speedy point guard T.J. Ford.
Earlier this offseason, Colangelo traded for Slovenian center Rasho Nesterovic, hired Maurizio Gherardini as his assistant and received assurances from Spanish forward Jorge Garbajosa that he would join the team. Colangelo also dealt Rafael Araujo -- the eighth overall pick in 2004 -- to the Utah Jazz.
On Wednesday, the 6-foot-10 Bargnani joined Yao Ming (2002) as the only pure international players to be taken with the top pick. He is 20 years old but already has three years with Benetton Treviso of the Italian League under his belt.
Bargnani averaged 11.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 21.7 minutes per game in his third season with Benetton. He shot 57.8 percent from the field, including 36.9 percent on 3-pointers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2506941
 
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