Artūrs Mārtiņš Žagars (born 21 April 2000) is a Latvian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

BC Wolves BC Wolves is a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in the city of Vilnius. The team competes in the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). History 2022-23 season The organisation was founded on 2 June 2022, with the name Wolves referri ...

of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

(LKL), on a loan from Fenerbahçe Beko. Standing at , he primarily plays at the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

position.

Early career

Žagars spent much of his early career playing for Latvian club BS DSN Riga.

Professional career

In 2017, Žagars signed a long-term contract with Spanish club

Joventut Badalona Club Joventut Badalona, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional basketball club based in Badalona, Catalonia, Spain, playing in the Liga ACB and the EuroCup. Known to their fans as ''La Penya'' (in English, ''The Club''), it is one of only two teams ...

. On 11 March 2018, Žagars made his

Liga ACB The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system. Administrated by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, wi ...

debut, scoring two points in seven minutes versus Baskonia. In November 2018, Žagars suffered a torn ligament in his ankle and was sidelined until early March 2019 after undergoing surgery. On 19 April 2019, Žagars declared for the

2019 NBA draft The 2019 NBA draft was held on June 20, 2019. It took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, i ...

. On 16 February 2021, Žagars was loaned to Estonian powerhouse Kalev/Cramo. On 12 January 2022, he was loaned to

Löwen Braunschweig Löwen, literally meaning "lions", may refer to: Places *Leuven or , the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium *Lewin Brzeski or , a town in Brzeg County, Opole Voivodeship, Poland Sports *Fra ...

of the German

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

. On 20 July 2022, Žagars signed with

Nevėžis Kėdainiai The Nevėžis () is the sixth longest river in Lithuania and one of the main tributaries of the Nemunas. Its length is , and it flows only within the geographical confines of Lithuania.Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

(LKL). In 22 league matches, he averaged 15.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.1 steals per contest. On 18 September 2023, Žagars signed a three-year contract with Turkish giants Fenerbahçe. He was subsequently loaned to Lithuanian club

for the 2023–24 season. Already at the beginning of October, Žagars suffered a severe injury to the lateral ligament of his knee. Due to the injury, Žagars will have to miss at least five months.

National team career

Žagars was named to the All-Star Five of the

2018 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2018 FIBA U18 European Championship was the 35th edition of the FIBA U18 European Championship. The competition took place in Riga, Ventspils and Liepāja, Latvia, from 28 July to 5 August 2018. Participating teams * * (Winners, 2017 FIBA ...

in Riga after averaging 18.9 points, 6.3 assists, and 1.9 steals per game, while leading the Latvian national under-18 team to its first finals appearance and silver medal at the tournament. Žagars represented Latvia during the

2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be the 19th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams. The tournament will be the second to feature 32 teams. For the first time in its history, the World Cup will be ...

which achieved 5th place during its debut. Moreover, Žagars achieved the world cup's all-time record of assists by dishing out 17 assists in a game versus

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. In recognition of his individual play, Žagars was named to the All-FIBA World Cup Second Team.

Career statistics

EuroCup

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="3",

, 10 , , 3 , , 10.4 , , .385 , , .333 , , .750 , , .7 , , 1.8 , , .5 , , .0 , , 2.7 , , 2.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 7 , , 0 , , 4.6 , , .222 , , .200 , , .667 , , .1 , , .6 , , .1 , , .0 , , 1.0 , , 0.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , 3 , , 0 , , 15.0 , , .467 , , .286 , , .500 , , .3 , , 2.0 , , .3 , , .0 , , 5.7 , , 3.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;", Vilnius Wolves , 1 , , 1 , , 24.0 , , .383 , , .400 , , .1000 , , 1.0 , , 4.0 , , .0 , , .0 , , 10.0 , , 7.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career , 21 , , 4 , , 10.1 , , .352 , , .310 , , .727 , , .5 , , 1.5 , , .3 , , .0 , , 2.9 , , 1.5

References

External links

Artūrs Žagars
at acb.com
Artūrs Žagars
at proballers.com
Artūrs Žagars
at realgm.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Žagars, Artūrs 2000 births Living people Basketball Löwen Braunschweig players Basketball players from Riga BC Kalev/Cramo players BC Nevėžis players BC Wolves players CB Prat players Joventut Badalona players Latvian expatriate basketball people in Estonia Latvian expatriate basketball people in Germany Latvian expatriate basketball people in Lithuania Latvian expatriate basketball people in Spain Latvian men's basketball players Liga ACB players Point guards Shooting guards 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup players