Sanikidze was born in Tbilisi on April 1, 1986 and is 203 centimetres tall. His first experience far from home is at age 15, when he plays for Globe Tech Junior College in New York for a season (2001/2002). He returns to Georgia the following season, where he plays with Basket Club Academy in Tbilisi for a year. The 2003-2004 season, he goes to France and SAOS JDA Dijon, signing for 3 years and closing out his seconds season with 32 games, a 4.6 ppg and 3.1 rpg average. He’s chooses second round in the 2004 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks (choice #42), who immediately trade him to the San Antonio Spurs. In 2006-2007, he plays Spain’s ACB with Estudiantes Madrid, where he collects 12 games and averages 6.7 minutes and 1.3 points per game. After a year, he returns to Tbilisi and wins the Georgian All Star Game’s dunk competition (named the event’s MVP). He heads to Estonia for 2008-2009 to play for Tartu, a team with which he has 20 games, scores and average of 16.5 points and wins the national championship. He arrives in Bologna, more specifically, at Virtus, in 2009. His first A Series championship brings 6.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. He also makes the Coppa Italia finals and plays the Supercoppa Italiana the start of the following season. He’s second year is statistically even better, seeing as though he finishes it with 7.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in 30 matches played. Lastly, he starred this past season with the Black V’s with almost double the number of average points and rebounds per game (12.0 points and 10.9 rebounds). In 2012/2013 he arrived in Siena and he won the Italian Cup with Montepaschi's jersey.
SANIKIDZE AND THE NATIONALS: He played the European Under 18’s with his country in and the Under 20’s in 2006. He’s currently a member of the major league nationals, with whom he played some qualification games for the 2008-2009 Europeans.