Gregor Fučka

Gregor Fučka
Player information
birthday	7th August 1971
place of birth	Kranj , SFR Yugoslavia
size	215 cm
position	Power Forward / Center
Clubs as active
1989–1990 Olimpija Ljubljana 1990–1994 Stefanel Trieste 1994–1997 Stefanel Milano 1997–2002 Fortitudo Bologna 2002–2006 FC Barcelona 2006–2007 CB Girona 2007–2008 Lottomatica Roma 2008–2009 Fortitudo Bologna 2009–2011 Carmatic Pistoia
National team
1991-2001	Italy	164

Gregor Fučka (born August 7, 1971 in Kranj , SFR Yugoslavia ) is a former Italian basketball player of Slovenian origin. He mostly played in the position of the power forward , but was also used as a center due to his height of 2.15 m . In the late 1990s in particular, his mobility, which was unusual for his size, made him one of the dominant players in European basketball.

Career

society

Fučka grew up in what is now the Slovenian part of Yugoslavia, where he played professional basketball for the first time at Olimpija Ljubljana . However, he then fled to Italy with his family before the approaching war . Due to his Italian ancestry, he was able to quickly acquire Italian citizenship. His first club there was Stefanel Trieste , where he played alongside the Italian basketball legend Dino Meneghin and the young Dejan Bodiroga . In 1994 he moved with Bodiroga to the top club Stefanel Milano , where he celebrated the championship and cup victory in 1996 .

In 1997 he switched to Teamsystem Bologna . There Fučka played with his national team colleague Carlton Myers (until 2001) and in the first year with the former NBA star Dominique Wilkins . Again he was able to celebrate cup victory (1998) and championship (2000).

In 2002 Fučka moved to Spain for FC Barcelona , where he played again with Dejan Bodiroga. His first season there was the most successful of his career at club level, as he won the triple with the Spanish championship , the cup and the highest European club competition, the Euroleague . In the following season Fučka was able to defend the championship title with Barcelona. After another year, Fučka moved to CB Girona , where he played again under coach Svetislav Pešić like in Barcelona and was able to win the FIBA EuroCup .

For the 2007/08 season he returned to Italy to Lottomatica Roma , where Dejan Bodiroga had become General Manager . While it was enough in Rome to another runner-up behind series champion Montepaschi Siena , he rose with Fortitudo from Bologna, for which he had already played between 1997 and 2002, in the following season 2008/09 from the first division. While the traditional club Fortitudo was making a fresh start in the third division, Fučka moved to the Italian second division LegADue in Pistoia in 2009 , where he completed two more seasons before his retirement.

National team

After Fučka had won the silver medal with the Italian national basketball team at the Goodwill Games in 1994, his first European championship followed in 1995 , which ended Italy in 6th place. The 1997 European Championship was more successful , with Italy only having to admit defeat in the final. In 1998 Fučka took part in his only World Cup and finished 6th with Italy as the team's top scorer .

His greatest triumph followed when he won the European Championship in 1999 , in which Fučka was also recognized as the most valuable player . As in the two previous European championships, he was the second best scorer (on par with Andrea Meneghin ) of his team, and he had collected the most rebounds for the Italians. After the 5th place in his only participation in the Olympic Games in 2000 and a disappointing 11th place at the European Championship in 2001 ended FUCKA his international career. In total, he scored 1867 points for Italy in 164 international matches.

successes

At club level

• 2 Italian championships : 1996, 2000
• 2 Spanish championships : 2003, 2004
• 2 Italian cups : 1996, 1998
• 1 Spanish Cup : 2003
• 1 Euroleague win: 2003
• 1 FIBA EuroCup : 2007

At national team level

• European Championships : gold 1999 , silver 1997

Individual awards

• European basketball player of the year 2000
• Most valuable player at the 1999 European Championship
• Elected to the All-Tournament First Team of the 1998 World Cup and the 1997 European Championship

Web links

• FUCKA, GREGOR - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB (English)
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Gregor FUCKA (ITA) - Overview of participation in official FIBA tournaments (English)
• Legabasket: Gregor Fucka - Profile on the statistics pages of Serie A (Italian)
• Gregor Fucka - player profile on the pages of the Liga ACB (Spanish)
• Gregor Fucka in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )