Šarūnas Marčiulionis

Infobox Euroleague Player
name = Šarūnas Marčiulionis
nickname =


caption =
position = Shooting guard
height_ft = 6
height_in = 5
weight_lbs = 200
nickname =
nationality = Lithuanian
birth_date = birth date and age|1964|6|13
birth_place = Kaunas, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR
college =
draft = 6th round, 127th overall
draft_year = 1987
draft_team = Golden State Warriors
career_start = 1981
career_end = 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 = Lithuanian Sportsman of the Year (1987, 1989, 1990, 1991) 1995 European Championship MVP

Raimondas Šarūnas Marčiulionis (pronunciation|Sarunas Marciulionis.ogg) (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.

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 1991 and 1992. 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.

Lithuanian national basketball 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.cite book |first=Alexander |last=Woolf |title=Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure |year=2002 |publisher=Warner Books |location=New York |isbn=0-446-52601-0 |pages=p. 20] 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. 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 European Championship, after leading Lithuania to a silver medal in the tournament. He also won the silver medal at the 1987 European Championship. In 1987, 1989, 1990, and 1991 he was voted as the best sportsman in Lithuania.

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. 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.

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. [Woolf, "Big Game, Small World", pp. 19-20.]

He is also currently the president of the Šarūnas Marčiulionis Basketball Academy.

Notes and references