He joins Larry Nance Jr. as the only New Orleans players who’ve participated in the NBA Finals, with Zeller appearing in all five games for Miami vs. Denver in the 2023 championship series. Zeller logged eight minutes in the Heat’s Game 2 road victory at Ball Arena, scoring four points. The 30-year-old has accumulated a total of 32 playoff games in his NBA career (21 of those were with Miami this spring during the No. 8 seed’s surprising run to an Eastern Conference crown).
Zeller was the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft by Charlotte – then nicknamed the Bobcats – and spent the first eight seasons of his pro career with the NBA’s North Carolina franchise. He ranks fourth all-time on Charlotte’s career rebounding list with 2,824 boards, trailing only Emeka Okafor, Larry Johnson and Gerald Wallace. Zeller is sixth in career blocks for the Hornets at 315 rejections and fourth in games played (467).
Meet the Pelicans Roster: Cody Zeller
1 / 25PORTLAND, OREGON - NOVEMBER 30: Cody Zeller #40 of the Portland Trail Blazers warms up before the game against the Detroit Pistons at Moda Center on November 30, 2021 in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The Indiana University product joins forward EJ Liddell (Ohio State) as current New Orleans roster members who played in the Big Ten Conference during college. A native of Washington, Indiana (population 12,000), Zeller has two brothers who also played in the NBA. Tyler was a first-round pick in 2012 and played eight seasons in the league, while Luke played 16 games for Phoenix during the 2012-13 campaign. An uncle, Al Eberhard, played four seasons for Detroit in the mid-1970s. Eberhard’s nickname on Basketball Reference is “Country.”
Speaking of nicknames, Cody Zeller’s on Basketball Reference is “The Big Handsome.” The 30-year-old is New Orleans’ third-oldest player, slightly younger than CJ McCollum (31) and Jonas Valanciunas (30, born in May 1992, five months before Zeller).
Zeller was a teammate of McCollum and Larry Nance Jr. with Portland during the 2021-22 season prior to McCollum and Nance being traded to New Orleans in February of that campaign. Incidentally, Zeller was actually negatively impacted by that Pelicans-Trail Blazers trade, because in order for Portland to create roster space for players it acquired, it was forced to waive Zeller. He returned to an NBA roster just over a year later by signing with Miami in February 2023.