Marko Tušek

Marko Tušek
Player information
birthday	17th July 1975
place of birth	Trbovlje, SFR Yugoslavia
size	203 cm
position	Power forward
Clubs as active
1991–1993 KK Triglav Kranj 1993–1998 KK Olimpija Ljubljana 1998 Atlantic City Seagulls ( USBL ) 1998–2000 Pepsi Rimini 2000–2002 Scavolini Pesaro 2002–2006 Lottomatica Rome 2006–2007 Armani Jeans Milan 2007 Unicaja Málaga 2007 ViveMenorca 2007–2008 UNICS Kazan 2008-2009 A.IR. Avellino 2009–2010 Cimberio Varese 2010–2011 Fileni Jesi 2011 Otto Caserta 2011–2012 Vanoli Cremona 2015 KK Zeta Golubovci 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000
National team
1993-2004	Slovenia

Marko Tušek (born July 17, 1975 in Trbovlje , SR Slovenia ) is a former Slovenian basketball player . The former national player took part in four European Championship finals and initially played professionally for clubs in his Slovenian homeland, before playing in Italy from 1998, except for one season where he briefly played in Spain and Russia . With KK Olimpija, Tušek won various Slovenian championships at the beginning of his career, the then FIBA European Cup 1994, later also known as the Saporta Cup. With his Italian club teams Tušek did not get any special title successes. In the first half of 2015, the almost 40-year-old was once again active for a club from the top Montenegrin league.

Career

Tušek first played with the club from the neighboring town of Hrastnik early in his youth in men's teams , before he moved to KK Triglav in Kranj in 1991 at the age of 16 . After failing with this team twice early in the first play-off round for the championship, he moved to the top club KK Smelt Olimpija in the capital Ljubljana , which had won the two championships since independence in 1991. After moving to the capital, he made his debut as an 18-year-old in qualifying matches in the men's national team in autumn 1993 and subsequently took part in the European Championship finals in 1995 and 1997 , in which the selection tended to disappoint and not the K. -o.-phases reached, but was eliminated after the group games, which was tantamount to missing the qualification for World Cup finals and the Olympic Games . The KK Olimpija subsequently won all national championships fairly unchallenged and was essentially only challenged in international competitions. After they failed to qualify for the FIBA Europa League in 1993/94 at Benfica Lisbon , Tušek's first season with this club was still able to name the team at the former FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup , after increasing the national championship competition for the FIBA Europa League, also called the FIBA ​​European Cup Competition, participate. After winning the group ahead of Taugrés Vitoria , these two teams also reached the final in Lausanne in 1994, which the Slovenes won 91:81 and thus won the club's first international title. In the following two years it was enough to qualify for the group stage for the 1994/95 Europa League and in the following 1995/96 season not and only to participate in the European Cup again without getting beyond the group stages of these two competitions. After changing the Europa League competition for the 1996/97 season Smelt Olimpija reached a third place in the group stage of the 24 best teams. Then they defeated KK Cibona Zagreb and Stefanel Milan in play-offs and were able to make up for the opponent's home advantage. At the Final Four tournament in Rome they lost the semifinals against the eventual title winner Olympiacos Piraeus around MVP David Rivers and came third in the competition after defeating ASVEL . In the following Europaliga season 1997/98 it was enough as Union Olimpija without Marko Milič and Radoslav Nesterović behind the German champions Alba Berlin to move into the last sixteen play-offs, which were lost to the Italian champions Benetton Treviso .

In the summer of 1998, Tušek tried to attract the interest of clubs in the highest-endowed professional league NBA , in which his former teammate Marko Milič already played, through the USBL summer league . He won with the Atlantic City Seagulls the championship this league, but in the 1998 NBA draft next to the German "Seven- was Footer " Dirk Nowitzki only his former teammate Rasho Nesterovic and his Georgian teammate Vladimer Stepania selected and Tušek was disregarded. As a result of the Bosman decision , Tušek moved to other European countries and played for Pepsi Basket from Rimini in the top division Lega Basket Serie A and in the Korać Cup . Internationally, they were eliminated from the club's first European Cup participation after the group phase, before they could defeat the German representative Bayer Giants Leverkusen twice in the group phase of the Korać Cup 1999/2000 and move into the knockout phase. After defeating Maccabi Haifa , they were eliminated in the round of 16 against Casademont Girona . Nationally, it was enough after a tenth place to 14th place in 2000. While Rimini then had to slow down and relegated bottom of the table in the following season, Tušek moved just a few kilometers further south along the Adriatic to regional rivals and old champions and European Cup winners of the 1980s from Pesaro . With the team trading as Scavolini, which only returned to the House of Lords in 1999 after a year in second division, Tušek lost the cup final against Virtus Kinder Bologna , who won the triple crown with MVP Manu Ginóbili and Tušek's compatriot Matjaž Smodiš at the end of the season . After the second main round place in 2001, the team lost in the semifinals series against the former champions Fortitudo Bologna . In the following season, Pesaro was subject to the defending champion children Bologna as the sixth in the main round in the quarter-finals. After Slovenia had survived the first group stage at the European Championship finals in 1999 without Tušek for the first time, the 2001 European Championship finals with Tušek were very unfortunate enough to retire after three games. After winning the second group game against Turkey , they lost to Latvia after extra time and were eliminated because of the poorer direct comparison after the Turks had surprisingly defeated the previously qualified Spaniards . At the following European Championship finals in Sweden in 2003 , Tušek and Slovenia should also survive the first group stage when he played for the fourth time. After Slovenia had only lost the last preliminary round match against France, they had to go into a qualifying round with a group third, which was surprisingly lost to Israel with just two points, so that Slovenia was eliminated again before the quarter-finals and again missed the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics . Subsequently, Tušek was only active for the men's selection in the summer of 2004 in European Championship qualifiers.

At the time of the 2003 European Championship finals, Tušek had already played one season in the Italian capital, Rome, for Virtus Lottomatica. The capital club under coach Piero Bucchi, who Tušek had been training in Rimini, invested under the new main sponsor remained strong and committed to Carlton Myers nor Anthony Parker , who, however, after half a year left the team already returned and Maccabi Tel Aviv returned. Nevertheless, they reached the second main round place at the end of the 2003 season, but lost the semi-final series for the 2003 championship against Fortitudo Skipper Bologna. The group stage in the highest-ranking European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2003/04 in the following season was disappointing and they were eliminated after only four wins in 14 games as the group bottom after the preliminary round. As the main round, they lost again to Skipper Bologna this time the play-off quarter-finals and thus missed a renewed participation in the Euroleague. As the sixth in the main round of the 2004/05 season, under the new coach Svetislav Pešić, defending champion Montepaschi Siena could be defeated in the first play-off round , but the semifinal series was again the end of the line against the former runner-up and later title winner Fortitudo Bologna. In addition to his son Marko Pešić, Pešić also steered Dejan Bodiroga to Rome, with whom he won the ULEB Euroleague 2002/03 at FC Barcelona . Nevertheless, it was again only enough to sixth place, where you could defeat Siena again in the first play-off round. In the semi-final series this time it was over against Benetton Treviso. Then Tušek moved to the Italian record champions Olimpia Armani in Milan , who, however, had remained without a title for ten years. After Tušek had consistently scored double-digit points per game in Rome, his shares in Lombardy fell and he left the club after the Hinserie in January 2007 and moved to the Spanish ACB league to reigning champions CB Unicaja in Málaga , where he succeeded Italy's returned compatriot Erazem Lorbek replaced. With this team, ten years after Rome in 1997, he also reached the Final Four tournament of the ULEB Euroleague 2006/07 in Athens, where Málaga secured third place in the domestic Spanish duel against TAU Cerámica after losing the semi-final to defending champion PBK CSKA Moscow . In the national championship, however, things did not go so well for the defending champion and they were eliminated as the main round eight against the same opponent without a win in the first play-off round.

At the beginning of the 2007/08 season Tušek played for last year’s fourth-bottom of the ACB League from Menorca . After five missions he left the club and moved from the Balearic Island to Russia to runner-up UNICS in Kazan . In the ULEB Cup 2007/08 they defeated the German representative Artland Dragons in the round of 16 and reached the Final Eight tournament in Turin, where they lost to Akasvayu Girona in the quarterfinals . In the national championship, UNICS was eliminated in the quarter-finals. Then 33-year-old Tušek returned to Italy and played in Campania for the cup winners A.IR. from Avellino , who had also got a place in the ULEB Euroleague 2008/09 , in which they were eliminated after the preliminary round after three wins in ten games. After you could not defend the title in the national cup competition, you missed out on the table in eleventh place in the play-offs for the championship. In the following season Tušek played with the first division returnee Cimberio from Varese in Lombardy, who achieved relegation at the end of the season in twelfth place. Nevertheless, Tušek played in the following season in the second division Legadue , after he moved to Aurora Fileni after Jesi at the end of 2010 . In his 13 missions, however, he could not prevent the team from finishing a relegation place as the penultimate at the end of the season. Even if Jesi kept the class by withdrawing other teams, Tušek played a league higher in the 2011/12 season. After four missions for Otto JuveBasket from Caserta in Campania, he returned to Vanoli Basket in Cremona in Lombardy in mid-December 2011 , where he played again with Marko Milič. However, the team missed the play-offs at the end of the season in tenth place.

Tušek made headlines again in the first half of 2015. First it became known that the 39-year-old had been active for the club KK Zeta from Golubovci between Podgorica and Lake Skadar in the highest Montenegrin league again in a league with an almost professional level. When asked, he said that he had settled privately in Montenegro, among other reasons, because after bad investments he had not paid the maintenance payments to his first wife in Slovenia and could no longer return to his homeland. Finally, it was reported that an international arrest warrant was issued on the matter in the summer of 2015 .

Web links

Commons : Marko Tušek  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Marko Tusek profile | Game center - player profile on the websites of the world association FIBA (English)
• TUSEK, MARKO - player profile on the websites of the Euroleague ( English )
• Marko Tušek - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)
• Legabasket: Marko Tusek - Profile on the Serie A website ( Italian )

Individual evidence

1. ^ European Cup for Men's Clubs (1994): Scoreboard - Final. FIBA Europe , accessed on December 13, 2015 (English, game statistics). 
2. ↑ EuroLeague Men (1997): Scoreboard - Final Four. FIBA Europe , accessed on December 16, 2015 (English, overview page). 
3. ↑ ACB.COM: Marko Tusek. Liga ACB , accessed December 13, 2015 (Spanish, player profile). 
4. ↑ Legaduebasket: Marko Tusek. Legadue , archived from the original on March 26, 2011 ; accessed on December 13, 2015 (Italian, player profile). 
5. ↑ Primož Salmič: Ekskluzivna izpoved Marka Tuška: Če je treba, grem tudi v zapor. ekipa24 , June 16, 2015, accessed on December 13, 2015 (Slovenian). 
6. ↑ Primož Salmič: Marko Tušek: Če me bodo hoteli poiskati, me bodo našli. ekipa24 , July 17, 2015, accessed on December 13, 2015 (Slovenian).