Luka Žorić

Luka Žorić
Luka Žorić (2013)
Player information
birthday	5th November 1984
place of birth	Zadar, SFR Yugoslavia
size	210 cm
position	Center / Power Forward
Club information
society	Real Betis Seville
league	League ACB
Jersey number	11
Clubs as active
1999–2001 KK Borik 2001–2002 KK Cibona Zagreb 2002 KK Zabok 2002–2003 KK Karlovac 2003–2004 KK Dubrava 2004–2005 BS Energy Braunschweig 2005 KK Dubrovnik 2005–2006 KK Union Olimpija Ljubljana 2006 KK Dubrovnik 2006–2007 KK Šibenik 2007– 2008 Cibona Zagreb 2008 KK Zabok 2008–2011 KK Zagreb 2011–2013 Unicaja Málaga 2013–2015 Fenerbahçe Ülker 2015–2016 KK Cedevita Zagreb Since 2016 Real Betis Sevilla 00000 00000 00000 00000 0
National team
Since 02008	Croatia

Luka Žorić (born November 5, 1984 in Zadar , SR Croatia ) is a Croatian basketball player . At the beginning of his career, Žorić played for various clubs in mostly short intervals in the two top divisions in Croatia, including just under one season in the basketball league 2004/05 for the German first division club BS Energy Braunschweig . From 2008 he played for a long time for KK Zagreb, with whom he was Croatian cup winner twice and Croatian champion in 2011. After the championship he moved to the Spanish ACB league for CB Unicaja from Málaga .

Career

Žorić made first games in the senior division from 1999 for the then third division club KK Borik Puntamika from his hometown of Zadar. In 2001 he was signed by the renowned club KK Cibona from the capital Zagreb , which the 17-year-old Žorić, however, awarded to the second division team from Zabok during the season . Then Žorić gained further experience until 2007 with various Croatian first and second division clubs in Karlovac , Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Šibenik . In the 2004/05 season Žorić was also active in Braunschweig, but was used by coach Henrik Dettmann only in one game of the first division team BS Energy. In March 2005 he returned to Croatia. He then played a few games for the Slovenian double winner KK Union Olimpija at the beginning of the following season 2005/06 in Ljubljana .

In 2007, the now almost 23-year-old Žorić returned to Cibona Zagreb, who, however, missed another national championship in 2008 as defending champions. Žorić, who failed to break through at Cibona again, switched to KK Zabok again at the beginning of the following season in symmetry of his first stay at Cibona. Here he played big with over 20 points and almost 10 rebounds per game and was brought back to the capital after five championship games, but this time by Cibona's local rivals and cup winners KK Zagreb. At KK Zagreb he was one of the top performers and made the leap into the Croatian national team here . In the finals of the 2010 World Basketball Championships and the 2011 European Basketball Championships , however, only back places were occupied. With KK Zagreb he was able to win the Croatian double from championship and cup victory in the following year 2011 after another cup victory in 2010. In the ABA league , KK Zagreb only missed entry into the Final Four tournament in 2011 because of the poorer direct comparison . Žorić was the most effective player in the Adriatic League on six match days and was named " Most Valuable Player " of the main round of this league.

After the Croatian double in 2011, Žorić moved to the higher endowed Spanish ACB league to CB Unicaja from Málaga . In the 2011/12 season they narrowly missed the play-offs for the Spanish championship after finishing ninth in the main round . In the highest European club competition EuroLeague , they entered the intermediate round of the 16 best teams in 2012 and 2013. Although Žorić was able to prevail through some individually strong performances against his renowned colleagues Fran Vázquez and Kosta Perović as " Starting Center ", Málaga once again missed the play-offs for the Spanish championship as ninth in the main round in the ACB 2013 league. At the 2013 European Championship finals , the Croatian selection only lost the opening game against defending champions Spain until the semi-finals . Due to two relatively clear defeats against Lithuania and finally again Spain, they ultimately missed winning the medal in fourth place.

Then Žorić moved to the 2013/14 season in the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi to Fenerbahçe Ülker in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul , where he played under the legendary coach Željko Obradović . Somewhat surprisingly, however, they were eliminated in the Top 16 round of the EuroLeague 2013/14 , although they won the national championship in the Türkiye Basketbol Ligi 2013/14 in the final series against defending champion and local rival Galatasaray SK , who did not play in the decisive seventh final game . In the following EuroLeague 2014/15 Fenerbahçe was able to convincingly qualify as second in the second round for the quarter-final play-offs, in which they qualified for the Final Four without defeat against defending champion Maccabi Electra . After two defeats against the hosts and eventual title winners Real Madrid and PBK ZSKA Moscow , they finished fourth. In the Turkish championship defending champion and main round first Fenerbahçe surprisingly dropped out in the semifinals against the eventual title winner Pınar Karşıyaka . Under coach Obradović Žorić had not been able to play in the foreground and was in the Turkish league in his second season only less than 13 minutes per game used, in which he could achieve less than five points and three rebounds , whereupon Žorić finally the Left club after the end of the season.

After the Croatian national team with Žorić was eliminated in the round of 16 against European champions France at the 2014 World Cup finals in Spain , the selection at the 2015 European Championship finals again failed surprisingly in the round of 16 against the Czech Republic around Jan Veselý , who had previously ousted Žorić at Fenerbahçe . Žorić himself played in the EuroLeague 2015/16 in his Croatian homeland for the third Zagreb club and national champion KK Cedevita, who reached the round of the 16 best teams, but there after only four wins tied with Žorić's former club Unicaja Málaga the last Place of the intermediate round group reached. After the third place in the main round of the ABA League 2015/16 , the team missed the final four against defending champion KK Roter Stern Belgrade again. In the national competitions, the team around Žorić again won the double of championship and cup. For the 2016/17 season Žorić returned to Spain in the ACB league, where he plays in Seville for the professional team now operating under the umbrella of Real Betis .

Web links

Commons : Luka Žorić  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Zoric, Luka - Player profile on the website of the Euro League (English)
• Luka Zoric - player profile on the websites of the Liga ACB (Spanish)
• Luka Žorić - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Luca Zoric (BS Energy Braunschweig). (No longer available online.) Statistics.Basketball-Bundesliga.de, 2005, archived from the original on February 29, 2016 ; accessed on August 22, 2013 (player profile). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Euroleague Profiles: Luka Zoric, Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul. EuroLeague , November 29, 2013, accessed October 3, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Zoric, Luka - Turkish Basketball League Player: 2014-2015 Season. TBLStat.net, accessed on October 3, 2016 (English, individual seasonal statistics). 
4. ^ Cedevita lands experienced forward Zoric. EuroLeague , July 28, 2015, accessed October 3, 2016 .