Arvydas Macijauskas

Arvydas Macijauskas
Personal information
Born January 19, 1980
Klaipėda, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Nationality Lithuanian
Listed height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Listed weight 215 lb (98 kg)
Career information
NBA draft 2002 / Undrafted
Pro career 1997–2010
Position Shooting guard
Number 6, 7
Career history
1997–1999 Neptūnas (Lithuania)
1999–2003 Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania)
2003–2005 Tau Ceramica (Spain)
2005–2006 New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets
2006–2008 Olympiacos (Greece)
Career highlights and awards
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Arvydas "Kalashnikov" Macijauskas (born January 19, 1980) is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player. Standing at 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in), he played at the shooting guard position. He was one of the greatest Lithuanian players of the 2000s, winning many individual awards, club and national team trophies.

Starting his professional career in Neptūnas, he later played for some top Euroleague teams, such as Lietuvos Rytas, Tau Ceramica and Olympiacos, and even played with New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets for one season in the NBA. He also represented the Lithuanian national basketball team.

He announced a retirement from the professional basketball back in 2010, two years after his last club, Olympiacos, released him following a prolonged judicial litigation.

Early years

Early in his career, Macijauskas was a member of the Neptūnas junior team.[2]

Professional playing career

Macijauskas made his pro debut in 1996 with Neptūnas. He only played 3 games in his rookie season and spent most of the season with the Klaipėda University-Irvinga team. He spent three seasons with the Neptūnas and averaged 12.7 points on 53 percent shooting.

He played the next four seasons with Lietuvos Rytas and led them to two Lithuanian league titles in 2000 and 2002 and a Northern Europe League title in 2003. He was named the Lithuanian league MVP in 2002 and 2003. He averaged 15.3 points on 61% shooting in 143 games with the Rytas.

Macijauskas joined the Tau Ceramica for the next two seasons and helped them win a Spanish Cup in 2004. On December 17, 2003, he scored a career-high 40 points against Asvel Lyon. The team reached the Euroleague finals in 2005, but lost to Maccabi, which was led by a Lithuanian Final Four MVP Šarūnas Jasikevičius. Macijauskas was selected to the All-Euroleague First Team. He played in 42 Euroleague games over 2 seasons with TAU and averaged 18.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

Macijauskas signed with the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets in 2005. He was rarely used in his only season in the NBA, totaling 135 minutes and 44 points in 19 games.[3] He was bought out by the Hornets after the season. After returning to Europe, he criticized the Hornets and the NBA through the press. When asked if he put the last season behind him, Macijauskas responded: "I want to forget that year. Everything went wrong. A really bad coach, a bad franchise. At the end of the season, I didn't even think of returning to New Orleans next season. From the third game on, I was already sentenced to zero minutes for the rest of the year. The NBA isn't funny. Teams are (not) teams. There's not true commitment between the teammates."[4]

On July 20, 2006, Macijauskas signed with the Olympiacos. The deal was worth 9 million euros over four years. However, he suffered a devastating Achilles' tendon injury in September and missed the rest of the regular season.

Macijauskas was healthy for the next season and was named the Euroleague MVP for November 2007, shooting a staggering 80 percent from the field. However, his team came up short again. Olympiacos lost to eventual champion CSKA Moscow in the quarter-finals. Ironically, they were led by a Lithuanian again, Ramūnas Šiškauskas.

Later that year, Olympiacos sued Macijauskas for violating the contract terms (he injured his ankle during holiday). The club wanted to cancel the contract without paying a compensation.[5] However, the court made a decision in Macijauskas' favor. But Olympiacos appealed and eventually won the case in November 2009.[6] He played in 14 Euroleague games in 2 seasons with the Olympiacos and averaged 13.8 points and 2.1 rebounds.

In June 2010, he announced his retirement from basketball career because of health reasons.[7]

Coaching career

On June 19, 2010, he became the assistant coach of Perlas Vilnius,[8] but in August it was announced that he left Perlas due to personal reasons.

National team

Macijauskas was a member of the Lithuanian U-18 and U-20 national teams. He played at the 1998 European U-18 Basketball Championship and the 2000 European U-20 Championship.

Macijauskas led the Lithuania national team in scoring in the 2003 European Championship with 15.8 points per game. The Lithuanians prevailed to win the gold medals. However, Šarūnas Jasikevičius was named the tournament MVP.

He played at the 2004 Olympics, where the Lithuanians were fourth. He averaged 15.9 points on 54% shooting and scored a tournament-high 32 points against China in the quarter finals.[9]

Macijauskas also played at the 2006 World Championship, where the team finished seventh. He was a candidate for the Eurobasket 2009 in Poland, but at the last minute, he declared that he will not participate in the tournament.[10]

Personal life

Arvydas Macijauskas married Viktorija Buder on July 24, 2010.[11]

Career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

Note: The Euroleague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season, he also played in domestic competition.

Euroleague

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2003–04 Tau Cerámica 20 16 30.5 .492 .396 .910 2.5 2.1 1.6 .2 19.4 20.4
2004–05 Tau Cerámica 22 19 30.7 .479 .402 .915 2.3 2.8 1.5 .1 17.9 18.3
2006–07 Olympiacos 2 0 15.0 .455 .143 1.000 2.5 1.0 1.0 .0 7.5 5.0
2007–08 Olympiacos 12 9 23.2 .586 .379 .867 2.0 1.7 1.7 .2 14.8 17.9
Career 56 44 28.5 .500 .390 .903 2.3 2.2 1.6 .1 17.4 18.5

Notes

  1. ↑ "Arvydas Macijauskas Player Profile". Interbasket.net. 1980-01-19. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  2. ↑ "Arvydas Macijauskas Career Notes". Euroleague.net. 1980-01-19. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  3. ↑ "Arvydas Macijauskas Info Page". NBA.com. 1980-01-19. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  4. ↑ "Macijauskas mouthing off again". Newsok.com. 2006-10-27. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  5. ↑ Trial Macijauskas vs. Olympiacos postponed
  6. ↑ Olympiacos wins "Macijauskas case"
  7. ↑ "Shooting star Macijauskas ends comeback try". Euroleague.net. 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  8. ↑ http://sportas.delfi.lt/eurobasket2003/nzabarausko-asistentu-perlo-komandoje-dirbs-amacijauskas.d?id=34620825 N. Zabarauskas' assistant will be A. Macijauskas (Lithuanian)
  9. ↑ "Lithuania 95, China 75 Boxscore". En.basketball.doudiz.com. 2004-08-26. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  10. ↑ Delfi.lt - A. Macijausko rinktinėje nebus (Lithuanian)
  11. ↑ Snieguolė Dovidavičienė (2010-07-24). "Krepsininkas.Macijauskas.vede" (in Lithuanian). Alfa.lt. Retrieved 2012-01-25.

External links