Arvydas Macijauskas

Arvydas Macijauskas

Nickname(s)	Kalashnikov
Position	Shooting guard
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight	215 lb (98 kg)
Born	January 19, 1980 (1980-01-19) (age 31) Klaipėda, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Lithuanian
Draft	Undrafted, 2002
Pro career	1997–2010
Career history	Neptūnas (1997–99) Lietuvos Rytas (1999–03) Tau Ceramica (2003–05) New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets (2005–06) Olympiacos BC (2006–08)
Awards	NEBL Finals MVP (2002) LKL All-Star Game MVP (2003) Lithuanian league MVP (2002, 2003) Euroleague Week-7 MVP (2003-04) Lithuanian Player of the Year (2004)[1] All-Euroleague First Team 2005 Euroleague November MVP (2007)

Arvydas Macijauskas (born January 19, 1980) is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player. He announced termination of his career after his last club, Olympiacos, released him following a prolonged judicial litigation.

Early years

Early in his career, Macijauskas was a member of the Neptūnas junior team.^[2]

Pro career

Macijauskas made his pro debut in 1996 with Neptūnas. He only played 3 games in his rookie season and spent most of the season with the Klaipėda University-Irvinga team. He spent three seasons with the Neptūnas and averaged 12.7 points on 53 percent shooting.

He played the next four seasons with Lietuvos Rytas and led them to two Lithuanian league titles in 2000 and 2002 and a Northern Europe League title in 2003. He was named the Lithuanian league MVP in 2002 and 2003. He averaged 15.3 points on 61% shooting in 143 games with the Rytas.

Macijauskas joined the Tau Ceramica for the next two seasons and helped them win a Spanish Cup in 2004. On December 17, 2003, he scored a career-high 40 points against Asvel Lyon. The team reached the Euroleague finals in 2005, but lost to Maccabi, which was led by a Lithuanian Final Four MVP Šarūnas Jasikevičius. Macijauskas was selected to the All-Euroleague First Team. He played in 42 Euroleague games over 2 seasons with TAU and averaged 18.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

Macijauskas signed with the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets in 2005. He was rarely used in his only season in the NBA, totaling 135 minutes and 44 points in 19 games.^[3] He was bought out by the Hornets after the season. After returning to Europe, he criticized the Hornets and the NBA through the press. When asked if he put the last season behind him, Macijauskas responded: "I want to forget that year. Everything went wrong. A really bad coach, a bad franchise. At the end of the season, I didn't even think of returning to New Orleans next season. From the third game on, I was already sentenced to zero minutes for the rest of the year. The NBA isn't funny. Teams are (not) teams. There's not true commitment between the teammates."^[4]

On July 20, 2006, Macijauskas signed with the Olympiacos. The deal was worth 9 million euros over four years. However, he suffered a devastating Achilles' tendon injury in September and missed the rest of the regular season.

Macijauskas was healthy for the next season and was named the Euroleague MVP for November, 2007, shooting a staggering 80 percent from the field. However, his team came up short again. Olympiacos lost to eventual champion CSKA Moscow in the semi-finals. Ironically, they were led by a Lithuanian again, Ramūnas Šiškauskas.

Later that year, Olympiacos sued Macijauskas for violating the contract terms (he injured his ankle during holiday). The club wanted to cancel the contract without paying a compensation.^[5] However, the court made a decision in Macijauskas' favor. But Olympiacos appealed and eventually won the case in November 2009.^[6] He played in 14 Euroleague games in 2 seasons with the Olympiacos and averaged 13.8 points and 2.1 rebounds.

In June 2010, he announced his retirement from basketball career because of health reasons.^[7]

Coaching career

On June 19, 2010, he became the assistant coach of Perlas Vilnius,^[8] but in August it was announced that he left Perlas due to personal reasons.

National team

Medal record
Competitor for  Lithuania
Men's Basketball
European Championships
Gold	2003 Sweden	National team

Macijauskas was a member of the Lithuanian U-18 and U-20 national teams. He played at the 1998 European U-18 Basketball Championship and the 2000 European U-20 Championship.

Macijauskas led the Lithuania national team in scoring in the 2003 European Championship with 15.8 points per game. The Lithuanians prevailed to win the gold medals. However, Šarūnas Jasikevičius was named the tournament MVP.

He played at the 2004 Olympics, where the Lithuanians were fourth. He averaged 15.9 points on 54% shooting and scored a tournament-high 32 points against China in the quarter finals.^[9]

Macijauskas also played at the 2006 World Championship, where the team finished seventh. He was a candidate for the Eurobasket 2009 in Poland, but at the last minute, he declared that he will not participate in the tournament.^[10]

Personal life

Arvydas Macijauskas is married to Viktorija Buder (24-th of July, 2010) ^[11]

Notes

1. ^ Arvydas Macijauskas Player Profile
2. ^ Arvydas Macijauskas Career Notes
3. ^ NBA.com : Arvydas Macijauskas Info Page
4. ^ Macijauskas mouthing off again
5. ^ Trial Macijauskas vs. Olympiacos postponed
6. ^ Olympiacos wins "Macijauskas case"
7. ^ Shooting star Macijauskas ends comeback try
8. ^ http://sportas.delfi.lt/eurobasket2003/nzabarausko-asistentu-perlo-komandoje-dirbs-amacijauskas.d?id=34620825 N. Zabarauskas' assistant will be A. Macijauskas (Lithuanian)
9. ^ Lithuania 95, China 75 Boxscore
10. ^ Delfi.lt - A. Macijausko rinktinėje nebus (Lithuanian)
11. ^ Krepsininkas.Macijauskas.vede

External links

• Euroleague.net Profile
• NBA.com Profile

Persondata
Name	Macijauskas, Arvydas
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 19, 1980
Place of birth	Klaipėda, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Date of death
Place of death