Marko Popović (basketball, born 1982)

Marko Popović

Marko Popović with Žalgiris in 2011
No. 2 – Baloncesto Fuenlabrada
Position Point guard / Shooting guard
League Liga ACB
Personal information
Born (1982-06-12) 12 June 1982
Zadar, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Nationality Croatian
Listed height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Listed weight 190 lb (86 kg)
Career information
College College of Southern Idaho (2000–2001)
NBA draft 2004 / Undrafted
Playing career 1998–present
Career history
1998–2003 Zadar
2003–2004 Valencia
2004–2005 Cibona Zagreb
2005–2006 Efes Pilsen
2006–2008 Žalgiris Kaunas
2008–2011 UNICS Kazan
2011–2013 Žalgiris Kaunas
2013–2015 Khimki
2015–present Fuenlabrada
Career highlights and awards
Medals
Men’s basketball
Competitor for  Croatia
European U-18 Championship
2000 Croatia Team competition

Marko Popović (born 12 June 1982) is a Croatian professional basketball player who plays for Fuenlabrada of the Liga ACB. Standing at 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in), he plays at the point guard position.

Early life

Marko Popović was born in Zadar, the son of Petar Popović,[1] a retired basketball player and a present day coach whose father (Marko's grandfather) had moved to Zadar from Kraljevo in 1943.[2] Marko had started training basketball in the youth school of KK Zadar, but in 1991 the family moved to Zagreb in 1994 when the father signed with Benston.[2] Marko then entered the youth system of KK Cibona, where he remained in 1997 as his family moved back to Zadar. His cadet team won the national championship and he himself was voted MVP of the tournament.[2]

Professional career

Marko started his career with KK Zadar in 1998. In the 1998–99 season he was in the junior squad but scored an average of 25 points per game, which earned him a spot in the top tier in 1999.[2] In 2000, he competed in the European Junior Basketball Championship in Zadar where Croatia won the second place and Popović was the best assistant with an average of 5.2 assists per game.[2] KK Zadar decided to offer him a seven-year contract at that point, but he refused and went to an American college at the NCAA Division II team Southern Idaho where he stayed for a year.[2] In 2001, he moved back to Croatia and Zadar.[2] In the 2002–03 season, Zadar surprisingly wins the Goodyear League beating Maccabi Tel Aviv in the finals. A major role in this success was played by Popović, who was awarded the MVP title of the Final 4 tournament in Ljubljana.

In 2003, he moved Pamesa Valencia of the Spanish ACB League for the 2003-04 season, where he stayed for one season until moving back to Croatia again, this time to Cibona Zagreb, with which he won the Croatian Championship in the 2004–05 season.

In 2005, Popović was signed to the Turkish league club Efes Pilsen, and the next year he moved to Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian League, with which he won the 2006–07 season and the 2007–08 season Lithuanian Championships. He was named the Eurocup Basketball Finals MVP in 2011.[3]

In 2011, he returned to Žalgiris.[4] After leaving Žalgiris in June, Marko agreed to terms with BC Khimki, signing on 7 August 2013 a two-year deal.[5] On 16 June 2015, he left BC Khimki after two seasons.[6]

On 6 October 2015, he signed with Baloncesto Fuenlabrada.[7]

Croatian national team

Popović played for the Croatian men's junior national basketball teams. His team won the silver medal at the 2000 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship held in his home town Zadar, losing the gold medal match by one point from France led by Tony Parker. He led the 2002 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship in both scoring and assists.

He joined the senior men's Croatian national basketball team in 2002, and with the senior team he has played at the following EuroBaskets: EuroBasket 2003, EuroBasket 2005, EuroBasket 2007, and EuroBasket 2009. He also played at the 2008 Olympic Basketball Tournament and the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

Career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

Note: The Euroleague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season, he also played in domestic competition.

Euroleague

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2001–02 Zadar 11 4 30.4 .402 .299 .813 1.8 4.0 1.6 .0 13.9 13.1
2003–04 Valencia 17 5 20.0 .363 .339 .767 2.2 1.8 1.1 .0 6.8 6.5
2004–05 Cibona 17 16 31.8 .449 .386 .733 2.2 4.0 1.9 .0 15.4 16.2
2005–06 Efes Pilsen 16 13 24.0 .478 .419 .776 1.4 3.1 1.4 .0 12.9 12.8
2006–07 Žalgiris 7 7 34.4 .395 .273 .909 .9 4.9 1.4 .0 15.1 15.9
2007–08 Žalgiris 20 0 21.5 .432 .396 .839 1.4 2.0 1.0 .0 11.7 10.3
2011–12 Žalgiris 14 1 22.2 .404 .387 .906 2.1 2.1 .4 .0 12.5 11.4
2012–13 Žalgiris 21 13 24.0 .486 .439 .855 1.4 2.2 .7 .0 13.4 12.5
Career 123 59 29.2 .434 .380 .821 1.7 2.8 1.2 .0 12.5 12.0

References

  1. ↑ "Košarkaši strepili za pobjedu i protiv Finaca". Slobodna Dalmacija (in Croatian). 2011-08-31. Retrieved 2011-09-07. [...] Petar Popović, legenda zadarske košarke, koji je potegnuo do Alytusa pogledati uživo nastupe Hrvatske na Eurobasketu. Otac Marka Popovića, [...]
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dean Sinovčić (15 April 2003). "Bit ću najniži europski igrač u NBA" [I will be the shortest European NBA player]. Nacional (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 3 July 2012. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  3. ↑ "Eurocup Finals MVP, Marko Popovic of Unics". Eurocupbasketball.com. 17 April 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  4. ↑ "Kapetan može bezbrižno na Eurobasket: Marko Popović se vraća u Žalgiris!". Sportske Novosti (in Croatian). 14 August 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  5. ↑ "BC Khimki inks Popovic to two-year deal". Euroleague.net. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  6. ↑ "Hvala Marko". BCKhimki.ru. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  7. ↑ "Marko Popovic signs with Fuenlabrada". Sportando.com. 6 October 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marko Popović (basketball, born 1982).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, March 11, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.