Mateusz Ponitka
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| Player information | ||
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| birthday | August 29, 1993 | |
| place of birth | Ostrów Wielkopolski , Poland | |
| size | 198 cm | |
| position |
Small Forward / Shooting Guard |
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| NBA draft | not selected ( 2015 ) | |
| Club information | ||
| society | Zenit St. Petersburg | |
| league | VTB | |
| Jersey number | 20th | |
| Clubs as active | ||
2009–2012 AZS Politechnika Warszawska 2012–2013 Asseco Prokom Gdynia 2013–2015 Telenet Oostende 2015–2016 Stelmet Zielona Góra 2016–2017 Karşıyaka SK 2017–2018 CB 1939 Canarias 2018–2019 Lokomotive Kuban Since 2019 Zenit St. Petersburg    
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| National team | ||
| Since 2012
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Poland | |
Mateusz Ponitka (born August 29, 1993 in Ostrów Wielkopolski , Kalisz Voivodeship ) is a Polish basketball player . Ponitka was considered a great talent early on when he was named one of the five best players of the tournament after winning the silver medal at the U17 World Cup in 2010. In 2013 he left his native Poland, where he had won the national championship once, and joined the Belgian champions Telenet Oostende, with whom he was able to defend the national double from winning the championship and cup competition in 2014.
Career
Ponitka learned to play basketball in the youth teams in the local club in his hometown. With the Polish national school team, Ponitka reached fourth place at the U16 European Championship in neighboring Lithuania , with which the Poles qualified for the U17 World Championship. Ponitka then moved to the capital Warsaw , where he was already in the men's team for AZS Politechnika. At the U17 World Cup in Hamburg , Poland won all games by no less than ten points before the final, except for the game against Canada, in which a 75:70 was enough to win. Among them was an overwhelming 79:33 success over host Germany, who had previously been unbeaten in two games and ended up in eighth place out of twelve participating teams. Only in the final did the Poles have to admit defeat 80: 111 to the also previously unbeaten US-Americans, who won every tournament game by no less than 30 points. Together with his teammate Przemysław Karnowski , Ponitka was chosen as the second best basket shooter with an average of 19 points per game in the "All-Tournament First Team" of the top five players in the U17 World Cup finals.
In the 2010/11 season Ponitka reached the championship in the I ligi and promotion to the professional league Tauron Basket League with the AZS Politechnika . Here the team from the capital continued to play only with Polish players without legionnaires . However, they only achieved six wins this season in 24 games and immediately relegated to penultimate place in the table. In March 2012, Ponitka moved towards the end of the season to the series champion Asseco Prokom from Gdynia , who was able to successfully defend his title in the play-offs . Together with his youth national team mate Karnowski, the 19-year-old Ponitka made his first appearance in the Polish men's national team when qualifying for the 2013 European basketball championship in summer 2012 . After successfully qualifying, Karnowski went to the United States to study at Gonzaga University to complete his basic basketball training in the NCAA college league , while Ponitka stayed in Poland. However, after moving to a new hall, Asseco Prokom suffered from a lack of spectator support and a declining commitment from the main sponsor. Three years after the team with David Logan , Ronald Burrell and Jan Jagla had reached the quarter-finals in the highest European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2009/10 , they only won two out of ten preliminary round games in the ULEB Euroleague 2012/13 . In the national championship, too, after winning nine titles in a row, including five at the old location in Sopot , the team did not even reach the semi-finals, but was eliminated in the first play-off round.
At the European Championship final tournament in 2013, Karnowski and Ponitka were the two youngest players in the Polish final squad of national coach Dirk Bauermann from Germany . Despite a well-staffed team including NBA professional Marcin Gortat , the Poles only achieved their first victory in their fifth game in the final and meaningless group game against hosts Slovenia . In his first international men's finals, Ponitka scored almost four points per game with a good 15 minutes of playing time. After the European Championship, Ponitka switched to the Belgian double winner BC Telenet from Ostend . In qualifying for the ULEB Euroleague 2013/14 , the Belgian champions only failed in the final on host Lietuvos rytas Vilnius , who was coached by Bauermann, who did not continue his position as Polish national coach . In the Eurocup 2013/14 the team won twice in the intermediate round against the Polish champions Stelmet Zielona Góra , whose roster was Ponitka's three years younger brother Marcel Ponitka . But this was not enough to advance in a group with the two later finalists UNICS Kazan and Valencia Basket Club . In the national competitions, however, Telenet Oostende was able to defend its two titles.
After Pontika was not selected by any NBA team in the 2015 NBA Draft , he moved back to Poland on August 4, 2015 to the Polish champion Stelmet Zielona Góra . With Stelmet he won the Polish Supercup in 2016 and was then elected MVP. He was also awarded the Eurocup Rising Star 2015-16 internationally . With Stelmet he also won the Polish championship in 2016 and was named the most valuable player of the season in the Polish league. He competed in the NBA Summer League for the Denver Nuggets in the summer of 2016 but could not recommend himself for the final roster.
In the summer of 2016, Pontika moved to Karşıyaka SK in Turkey . There he signed a two-year contract. After a year in Spain with CB 1939 Canarias , he moved to the Russian top club Lokomotiv Kuban in the summer of 2018 . For Lokomotiv he was among other things in the European club competition EuroCup on the field and scored an average of 9.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per match in 18 games. At the beginning of July 2019 he signed a two-year contract with another Russian team, Zenit St. Petersburg .
Web links
- PONITKA, MATEUSZ - player profile on the ULEB website ( English )
- archive.fiba.com: Players - Mateusz PONITKA (POL) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b GER - All-Tournament-Five consists of two players each USA and Poland and one Canadian. (No longer available online.) FIBA , July 11, 2010, archived from the original on August 9, 2014 ; accessed on August 8, 2014 (media information). 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.
- ↑ GER / POL - host Germany with 33:79 defeat against Poland without a chance. (No longer available online.) FIBA , July 5, 2010, archived from the original on August 9, 2014 ; accessed on August 8, 2014 (match report). 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.
- ↑ Mateusz Ponitka: - Fajnie zagrać przeciw Marcelowi. (No longer available online.) Stelmet Zielona Góra , February 19, 2014, archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; Retrieved August 8, 2014 (Polish). 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.
- ↑ 2015-16 Eurocup Rising Star Trophy winner: Mateusz Ponitka, Stelmet Zielona Gora
- ^ Mateusz Ponitka signs a two-year deal with Pinar Karsiyaka
- ↑ Lokomotiv gets former All-EuroCup selection Ponitka
- ↑ https://www.euroleague.net/news/i/9rysxqe7rni6l8l5/zenit-lands-ponitka-on-two-year-deal
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ponitka, Mateusz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish basketball player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 29, 1993 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ostrów Wielkopolski , Poland |