Logi Gunnarsson (basketball player)

Logi Gunnarsson
Player information
birthday	5th September 1981
place of birth	Keflavík, Iceland
size	190 cm
position	Shooting Guard / Point Guard
Club information
society	UMF Njarðvíkur
league	Úrvalsdeild karla
Clubs as active
Until 002002 UMF Njarðvík 2002–2003 ratiopharm Ulm 2003–2005 Gießen 46ers 2005–2006 BBC Bayreuth 2006–2007 Torpan Pojat 2007–2008 Gijón Baloncesto 2008–2009 UMF Njarðvík 2009–2010 CA Saint-Étienne Basket 2010–2011 Solna Vikings 2011–2012 Angers BC 49 Since 2013 UMF Njarðvík 0
National team
2000–	Iceland	121

Logi Gunnarsson (born September 5, 1981 in Keflavík ) is an Icelandic basketball player . After starting his career, the Icelandic international played for four years in Germany from 2002 , including almost two years in the top German basketball division for the Gießen 46ers. After further stints abroad in Finland , Spain , France and Sweden , Gunnarsson has been playing for his parent club in UMF Njarðvík in Reykjanesbær since 2013 . In 2014, Logi Gunnarsson succeeded in qualifying for the finals of the European Championship for the first time with the men's selection .

Career

Logi Gunnarsson made his debut for UMF Njarðvík at the age of 16 in the top division of the Icelandic championship. After a year at a high school in the United States , he returned to his homeland in early 2000. After his personal third national championship with Njarðvík in 2002, he tried his hand at abroad again for the 2002/03 season and moved to Germany to the former first division club ratiopharm from Ulm in the 2nd basketball league (2nd BBL). After only six defeats this season in 32 games in Group South of the 2nd Bundesliga 2002/03 , the Ulm team improved to third place, which did not entitle them to return to the top division. Instead, Logi Gunnarsson rose by moving to the first division club Gießen 46ers in the basketball Bundesliga . Handicapped by a shoulder injury, he only made eight appearances in the 2003/04 basketball league under coaches Chris Finch and Armin Andres . The 46ers, since the foundation of the Bundesliga as a permanent member of the top division MTV 1846, only managed to stay up through the bankruptcy and the forced relegation of two other teams. In the following basketball league in 2004/05 , under coach Stefan Koch, things went much better for the Giessen team when, led by Chuck Eidson, they reached sixth place and advanced to the semi-finals in the championship play-offs . In addition to Louis Campbell and the young guards Anton Gavel and Heiko Schaffartzik , Logi Gunnarsson only played a small part in 20 appearances this season. For the following season he was relegated to the group south of the 2nd BBL and moved to Bayreuth to the BBC, which had formed from the former master BG Steiner. While his former club ratiopharm achieved first place in the 2nd basketball league in 2005/06 and returned to the top division with just one defeat this season , Bayreuth could not improve at first and fell from third place in the previous year to sixth place.

For the 2006/07 season Logi Gunnarsson left Germany again and moved to the Finnish capital Helsinki to Torpan Pojat in the Korisliiga . After a fourth main round place, they were eliminated early in the play-offs for the championship. At the end of the season, Logi Gunnarsson moved in mid-April 2007 to the second Spanish division Española de Baloncesto for the former first division club from Gijón . In a play-down series, the third-bottom Gijón could not prevent the relegation to the third division against the penultimate Gandía Bàsquet. In the LEB 2 of the 2007/08 season Gijón missed the return to the second division in third place with Logi Gunnarsson. Before the club finally dissolved after the following season, Logi Gunnarsson moved back to his home club in Iceland. For the 2009/10 season, however, he returned to the central European mainland and played in the French National 1 for the second division relegated from Saint-Étienne . However, this clearly missed the return to the professional leagues with a balanced season record. With the Swedish club Vikings from Solna , Logi Gunnarsson retired after a balanced main round balance in the Basketligan in the first round of the 2011 championship play-offs. Back in France, Logi Gunnarsson played in the 2011/12 season for the BC 49 in Angers again in the third division national 1. After 2012, Logi Gunnarsson was only active in Iceland for his home club UMF Njarðvík, who after 13 championships between 1981 and 2006 could no longer follow up on earlier title successes.

In the Icelandic national team, Logi Gunnarsson completed 121 appearances up to the summer of 2016, making him one of the “top ten” most frequently used players. While the men's selection could only celebrate notable successes at the games of the small states of Europe , in the summer of 2014 you could meet with the experienced former Bundesliga professionals Jón Arnór Stefánsson , who also played in the NBA , and Jakob Sigurðarson and the then BBL professional Hörður Vilhjálmsson qualify for the first time for a final round of the European Championship. At the 2015 European Championship finals , the Icelandic selection played their first final game against hosts Germany , for which Logi's former teammates Anton Gavel and Heiko Schaffartzik competed in the Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena .

Web links

• KKÍ.is: Logi Gunnarsson: Ferillinn í úrvalsdeild - Profile and statistics on the websites of the Icelandic Association ( Icelandic )
• Logi Gunnarsson - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)
• easyCredit BBL - Logi Gunnarsson - player profile on the easyCredit Basketball-Bundesliga website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} A-landslið karla: Leikjafjöldi leikmanna. KKÍ , accessed September 5, 2015 (Icelandic, list of record-breaking national players). 
2. ↑ FEB.es: Gunnarsson, Logi. Federación Española de Baloncesto , accessed September 5, 2015 (Spanish, player profile with statistics). 

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .