Donatas Zavackas

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Basketball player
Donatas Zavackas
Player information
birthday 20th April 1980 (age 40)
place of birth Klaipėda, Soviet Union
size 203 cm
position Power forward
college Pittsburgh
Club information
society Vanoli Cremona
league Series A
Clubs as active
1996-1998 BC Neptūnas 1999-2003 Pittsburgh Panthers ( NCAA ) 2003-2004 Anwil Wloclawek 2004-2005 Besançon BCD 2005 Belgacom Liege 2005-2006 Anwil Wloclawek 2006 Snaidero Udine in 2006 BC Neptūnas 2006-2007 BC Dnipro 2007-2008 BC Šiauliai 2008- 2010 Lietuvos rytas Vilnius 2010–2012 EnBW Ludwigsburg 2012–2013 VEF Riga 2013 Telekom Baskets Bonn Since 2014 Vanoli CremonaLithuania 1989Lithuania
United StatesUnited States
PolandPoland
FranceFrance
00000BelgiumBelgium
PolandPoland
00000ItalyItaly
00000 LithuaniaLithuania
UkraineUkraine
LithuaniaLithuania
LithuaniaLithuania
GermanyGermany
LatviaLatvia
00000 GermanyGermany
0ItalyItaly

Donatas Zavackas (born April 20, 1980 in Klaipėda , Lithuanian SSR ) is a Lithuanian basketball player . After studying in the United States , Zavackas worked for various European clubs, initially in Central and Western Europe, before returning to the Lithuanian league in 2007 . Here he was named " Most Valuable Player " of the regular season in 2008 and got a contract with Lietuvos rytas Vilnius, with whom he won the Eurocup in 2008/09 and twice the Lithuanian championship in 2009 and 2010. He then also played in the German basketball team Bundesliga at EnBW Ludwigsburg and Telekom Baskets Bonn, interrupted by a commitment to the Latvian club VEF Riga, with whom he defended the Latvian championship twice in 2012 and 2013. Zavackas has been playing for Vanoli Cremona in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A since the end of 2013 .

Career

After Zavackas debuted in his parent club Neptūnas early 1996 to senior level in the Lithuanian league, he went in 1998 as a promising youth and junior national team players of his country to study in the United States at the University of Pittsburgh , where he from 1999 for the high school team Panthers in played at the then Big East Conference of the NCAA . With the Panthers, Zavackas reached the final of the championship tournament of the prestigious Conference three times between 2001 and 2003 and was finally able to win it in 2003 against the Huskies of the University of Connecticut . In his senior season, the Panthers then reached the second time in a row the last sixteen of the Sweet Sixteen of the national NCAA finals , in which they were eliminated again. Although Zavackas was seen as one of the key players for the Panthers' return to the Big East's top teams, along with Chevon Troutman , who later also played professional in the Bundesliga , he lost all chances in his last NCAA game a commitment in the highest endowed professional league NBA , when the idiosyncratic Zavackas took off his shoes after being substituted ten minutes before the end of the game and visibly refused to participate in the rest of the game. The Panthers lost the game by three points against the Golden Eagles of Marquette University to later NBA All Star Dwyane Wade .

Zavackas got his first professional contract in 2003 in the Polska Liga Koszykówki with the Polish champions Anwil from Włocławek . However, on their way to defending their title, the team lost the play-off semi- final series in just under five games against upcoming series champion Prokom Trefl Sopot . In the following season, Zavackas got in December 2004 a fixed-term one-month contract in the French LNB Pro B with the second division basket Comté Doubs from Besançon . He then signed in February 2005 for the rest of the season a contract with Belgacom from Liège in the Ethias League , which, however, as the fifth-placed team, narrowly missed the play-offs of the top four teams. In the 2005/06 season he initially had a contract with runner-up Anwil in Poland, for which he only had three missions that season. In April 2006, he then signed a contract for the play-offs with the Italian first division club Snaidero from Udine , which was eliminated from the championship award in three games in the first play-off round. In the 2006/07 season, Zavackas first completed two missions for his home club Neptūnas Klaipėda in the Lithuanian league, before joining BK Dnipro from Dnipropetrovsk in November 2006 in the Basketball Superliga Ukraine . However, Dnipro retired as the main round six in the first play-off round of the 2007 Ukrainian championship.

For the 2007/08 season, Zavackas returned to the Lithuanian league for a longer period and also played in the Baltic Basketball League for the club from Šiauliai . With this club he was awarded third place in the domestic league behind the two top European teams Lietuvos rytas Vilnius and Žalgiris Kaunas and LKL player of the year. His team remained without a chance in the semi-final series against defending champion Žalgiris, but for the following season Zavackas got a contract with runner-up Lietuvos rytas from the capital Vilnius . With this team he triumphed over arch rivals from Kaunas in both the Baltic Basketball League and the Lithuanian championship. By winning the Eurocup 2008/09 , Lietuvos rytas not only secured the triple , but also participation in the highest-ranking European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2009/10 , in which, however, after the preliminary round, they narrowly eliminated because of the poorer direct comparison . While Žalgiris was able to regain his title in the 2010 final in Vilnius in the Baltic Basketball League, Lietuvos rytas retained the upper hand over Žalgiris in just under seven games in the final series of the Lithuanian championship and defended his title. For the 2010/11 season, Zavackas, known as an excellent distance shooter from beyond the three-point line, who achieved a rate of 55% in the 2009/10 season at this distance in the Lithuanian league, got a contract with the German first division club EnBW from Ludwigsburg . But the newly formed team of the new coach Markus Jochum could not completely convince in the basketball Bundesliga 2010/11 and once again narrowly missed out on the championship play-offs in ninth place. In the following Basketball Bundesliga 2011/12 , the team finally slipped into the table basement and after coach Jochum was replaced by Steven Key , Zavackas, who won the three-point competition at the BBL All-Star Game 2012 in front of a home crowd in Ludwigsburg , pushed for one premature club change and left the relegation-threatened team in early February 2012.

With the Latvian champions VEF Riga, Zavackas failed to reach the quarterfinals of the Eurocup 2011/12 in 2012 and in the Baltic League they missed the final against his former club Lietuvos rytas, but the title was successfully defended in the Latvian championship. In the 2012/13 season, too, the Latvian championship title went to VEF Riga for the third time, but in the 2012/13 Eurocup they did not get beyond the round of the 16 best teams. When they first took part in the Eastern European VTB United League 2012/13 they were eliminated in the quarter-finals against the Russian runner-up BK Chimki . In preparation for the 2013/14 season, he initially supported the injury-plagued European top team PBK ZSKA Moscow , before he got a temporary contract to replace Tony Gaffney at the German first division club Telekom Baskets from Bonn at the beginning of the 2013/14 basketball Bundesliga season . After a good start to the season, however, Gaffney returned to Bonn and Zavackas' expiring contract was not extended. Zavackas finally got a new contract at the beginning of 2014 with the relegation-threatened Italian first division club Vanoli from Cremona .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joe Lapointe: 2003 NCAA TOURNAMENT: MIDWEST; Marquette Topples Pitt As Wade Leads Way. The New York Times , March 28, 2003, accessed January 11, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Phil Axelrod, Chuck Finder: Basketball: Zavackas refuses to explain his actions in defeat. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , March 29, 2003; accessed January 11, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Donatas Zavackas - Besançon - Joueurs - Pro B. Ligue Nationale de Basket , accessed on January 11, 2014 (French, player profile).
  4. ↑ Lithuanian Basketball, Teams, Scores, Stats, News, Standings - LKL: Season 2007-2008. Eurobasket.com, accessed January 11, 2014 (season summary).
  5. ↑ Javier Gancedo: Lietuvos Rytas vs. BC Khimki - Report: Lietuvos Rytas comes back for title! ULEB , April 5, 2009, accessed on January 11, 2014 (game report).
  6. ^ The Lithuanian Donatas Zavackas is the new power forward of EnBW Ludwigsburg. Schoenen-Dunk.de, August 5, 2010, accessed on January 11, 2014 (Medien-Info EnBW Ludwigsburg).
  7. ↑ Beko BBL ALLSTAR Day 2012: Local Hero Zavackas wins the three-point contest. Basketball Bundesliga , January 2012, archived from the original on January 12, 2014 ; accessed on January 11, 2014 (English, video report with interview by Sven Simon).
  8. ↑ Donatas Zavackas is about to switch to VEF Riga. Basketballakademie.de, February 5, 2012, archived from the original on January 12, 2014 ; accessed on January 11, 2014 (Medien-Info EnBW Ludwigsburg).
  9. ↑ Donatas Zavackas to help CSKA during the preseason. PBK CSKA Moscow , September 2, 2013, accessed on January 11, 2014 (English, media information).
  10. ↑ Zavackas: "I am happy to have been part of this team". General-Anzeiger (Bonn) , November 3, 2013, accessed on January 11, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Zavackas, Donatas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lithuanian basketball player
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Klaipėda , Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union