Šarūnas Marčiulionis
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| Position | Shooting guard |
|---|---|
| Height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Weight | 215 lb (98 kg) |
| Born | June 13, 1964 Kaunas, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR |
| Nationality | Lithuanian |
| Draft | 6th round, 127th overall, 1987 Golden State Warriors |
| Pro career | 1981–1997 |
| Former teams | Statyba Vilnius (1981-89) Golden State Warriors (1989–94) Seattle SuperSonics (1994-95) Sacramento Kings (1995-96) Denver Nuggets (1996-97) |
| Awards | Mr. Europa Award 1988 Lithuanian Sportsman of the Year (1987, 1989, 1990, 1991) 1995 FIBA European Championship MVP |
Raimondas Šarūnas Marčiulionis (
pronunciation (help·info)) (born June 13, 1964 in Kaunas, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR) is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player. He was one of the first Europeans to become a regular in the North American National Basketball Association (NBA). In the 1988 Seoul Olympics Basketball Tournament, together with teammate Arvydas Sabonis, he led the USSR national team to a gold medal in basketball.
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[edit] Pro career
Marčiulionis started his pro basketball career with Statyba Vilnius in the USSR League, the forerunner of the Russian Super League in 1981.
Marčiulionis was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the 6th round of the 1987 NBA Draft. He moved to the NBA in 1989 and he played four years with the Warriors, finishing as the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year Award in both 1992 and 1993. Marčiulionis became one of the first Europeans to get significant playing time in the NBA, helping to lead the way for the internationalization of the league in the late 1990s. After missing a year and a half with a leg injury, he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics in 1994, then traded to the Sacramento Kings in 1995, and he finished his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets in the 1996-97 season.
[edit] Lithuanian national basketball team
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's Basketball | ||
Competitor for  Soviet Union |
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| Summer Olympics | ||
| Gold | 1988 Seoul | National team |
| European Championships | ||
| Silver | 1987 Greece | National team |
Competitor for  Lithuania |
||
| Summer Olympics | ||
| Bronze | 1992 Barcelona | National team |
| Bronze | 1996 Atlanta | National team |
| European Championships | ||
| Silver | 1995 Greece | National team |
Following the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1990, Marčiulionis almost single-handedly resurrected the Lithuanian national team. He contacted prospective players, encouraged several to join, selected the uniforms, negotiated a shoe deal, and arranged for sponsorships.[1] One notable sponsor was The Grateful Dead; the band had one of its licensees design the distinctive warm-up outfits the team wore at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Basketball Tournament.[1] The outfits were a tie-dyed design in Lithuania's national colors of green, yellow, and red, with a version of the band's logo and "LIETUVA" (the country's name in its own language) on the front. The team went on to win a bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Marčiulionis was again a bronze medalist with Lithuania at the 1996 Athens Olympic Basketball Tournament. In 1995, he was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1995 FIBA European Championship, after leading Lithuania to a silver medal in the tournament. He also won the silver medal at the 1987 FIBA European Championship. In 1987, 1989, 1990, and 1991, he was voted as the best sportsman in Lithuania.
[edit] Personal
Despite a language barrier during his NBA career (Warriors coach Don Nelson hired his son Donn as an assistant chiefly to serve as an interpreter for Marčiulionis), Marčiulionis was a devoted teammate and active in the communities he played in. In the aftermath of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, Marčiulionis appeared at the site of a commuter train accident wearing his Warriors warm up outfit and helped by pulling out trapped passengers and administering first aid.
In addition, his wife Inga enrolled at Merritt College, a junior college in the Oakland hills, and she walked on to their women's basketball team and was a star player there for two seasons.[2] Inga became one of 147 women in women's college basketball history to score 50 or more points in a college game while at Merritt, and today is the head coach of Merritt's women's team.[3]
Marciulionis and Inga are divorced, but Inga still continues to live in the United States and continues her work at Merritt College[4].
[edit] Post playing career
In 1992, Marčiulionis opened the Šarūnas Hotel in Vilnius. In 1993, he founded the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and also became its president. In 1999, Marčiulionis founded the North European Basketball League (NEBL) and also became its commissioner. The NEBL would later be absorbed into today's Baltic Basketball League. Today, he is one of the most successful businessmen in Lithuania.[5]
He is also currently the president of the Šarūnas Marčiulionis Basketball Academy.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b Woolf, Alexander (2002). Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure. New York: Warner Books. pp. 20. ISBN 0-446-52601-0.
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/04/sports/king-renegotiates-his-own-contract.html
- ^ http://www.merritt.edu/apps/comm.asp?$1=40486
- ^ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/12/27/SP153150.DTL
- ^ Woolf, Big Game, Small World, pp. 19-20.
[edit] External links
- Krepsinis.net Player Profile (Lithuanian)
- Basketnews.lt Player Profile (Lithuanian)
- Sports-reference.com Profile
- Basketball-reference.com NBA Career Stats
- NBA.com Player Profile
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