Marcus Fizer

Marcus Fizer

Position	Power forward Small forward
Height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Weight	265 lb (120 kg)
Team	Free agent
Born	August 10, 1978 (1978-08-10) (age 33) Inkster, Michigan
Nationality	American
High school	Arcadia High School, Arcadia, Louisiana
College	Iowa State
Draft	4th overall, 2000 Chicago Bulls
Pro career	2000–present
Career history	Chicago Bulls (2000–2004) Milwaukee Bucks (2004–2005) Austin Toros New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets (2006) Polaris World Murcia (2006–2007) Arecibo Captains (2007) Maccabi Tel Aviv (2007-2008) Guaynabo Mets (2010)
Awards	NBA All-Rookie Second Team (2001) NBDL Most Valuable Player (2006)

Medal record
Men’s basketball
Competitor for  United States
Goodwill Games
Gold	2001 Brisbane	National team

Darnell Marcus Lamar Fizer (born August 10, 1978 in Inkster, Michigan) is an American professional basketball player who is currently a free agent.

High school career

Fizer played high school basketball at Arcadia High School in Arcadia, Louisiana. As a senior, Fizer was selected to play in the McDonald's All-American Game.^[1]

College career

Cyclone head coach Tim Floyd became aware of Fizer's potential while coaching in Louisiana and interested Fizer in playing collegiate basketball at Iowa State University. Fizer became the first McDonald's All-American to wear the Cyclone uniform.^[2]

Tim Floyd left Iowa State to coach the Chicago Bulls of the NBA after Fizer's freshman year and was replaced by Larry Eustachy. While playing for both Floyd and Eustachy, Fizer accumulated many Big 12 Conference and national accolades including All-Big 12 honorable mention (freshman), National first-team All-Freshman, first team All-Big 12 (sophomore and junior), Big 12 Player of the Year (junior), Big 12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player (junior), and consensus first-team All-America (junior).^[1] He led the Big 12 in scoring his sophomore and junior seasons.^[1] Following a Big 12 regular season title^[3] Big 12 tournament title,^[3] and Elite Eight NCAA Tournament finish^[3] his junior year, Fizer elected to declare for the NBA Draft.^[1]

Fizer is ranked fifth on ISU's career scoring list with 1,830 points recorded during his three years spent at ISU.

Professional career

Fizer was selected with the fourth pick of the 2000 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls,^[2] coached by Tim Floyd, the coach that recruited him to Iowa State. Many analysts suspected that the Bulls had drafted Fizer merely to trade him for another player, since the Bulls already had Elton Brand at the power forward position. However, no such trade ever took place, and Fizer spent the next four years with the Bulls. He never averaged more than 12.3 points per game. Fizer tore his ACL in late January 2003.^[4] In 2004 he was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats in the expansion draft. Not making their final roster, he signed as a free agent with the Milwaukee Bucks. After one season in Milwaukee, he failed to sign a free agent deal with another team. In November 2005, he signed with the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League. On March 8, 2006, Fizer signed a 10-day contract with the Seattle SuperSonics, but did not play any games for them. On March 31, 2006, he was named the NBA Development League MVP for the 2005–2006 season. The same day, he was signed to a 10-day contract with the New Orleans Hornets.

He appeared in 289 career NBA games, making 35 starts and averaging 9.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 1.2 apg, shooting .435 from the floor and .691 from the free throw line in 20.9 mpg, and has scored 20+ points 17 times, with 10+ rebounds on 22 occasions in his four-year NBA career. He played for the gold medal-winning United States team at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia while averaging 4.8 points and 3.0 rebounds, shooting .550 from the floor. In the summer of 2006 he signed a one-year contract with Polaris World Murcia of the Spanish league ACB. Then he played with Capitanes de Arecibo, in the Puerto Rico professional Basketball league (BSN).^[5] In 2007 Fizer signed a two year deal with the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the 2007–2008 season the Israeli Super League club reached the Euroleague championship game, eventually losing to CSKA Moscow. Fizer was unable to play in the later stages of the Euroleague due to a knee injury that led to the termination of his contract with Maccabi just before the 2008–2009 season started.

In February 2010, Fizer signed with the Guaynabo Mets of Puerto Rico, along with Antoine Walker.^[6]

Personal

Fizer was one of the most heavily tattooed players in the NBA. As of March 2006, he had 31 tattoos.^[7]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Marcus Fizer". CNNSI.com. 2001. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/2000/nba_draft/draftboard/players/36.html. Retrieved 2008-06-04. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Brown, Rick (2000-10-21). "Fizer picked fourth by Bulls". DesMoinesRegister.com. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nba/00draft/full002.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-04. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Big 12 Men's Basketball Record Book. Big 12 Conference. pp. 8–13. 
4. ^ [1]
5. ^ CAPITANES DE ARECIBO roster, LatinBasket.com
6. ^ Antoine Walker Signs In Puerto Rico
7. ^ Allen, Percy. Tattoos tell story of former first-round pick Marcus Fizer, Seattle Times, March 10, 2006

External links

• Marcus Fizer NBA Profile
• Euroleague.net Profile
• Basketpedya.com Profile
• Marcus Fizer at Basketball-Reference.com
• Marcus Fizer NBADL Profile
• Marcus Fizer ACB Profile

Persondata
Name	Fizer, Marcus
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 10, 1978
Place of birth	Inkster, Michigan
Date of death
Place of death