Diego Kapelan (born July 8, 1987) is a Bosnian-Canadian 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 who last played for Ionikos Nikaias of the Greek Basket League. He played college basketball for

McNeese State McNeese State University is a public university in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Founded in 1939 as Lake Charles Junior College, it was renamed McNeese Junior College after John McNeese, an early local educator. The present name was adopted in 1970. ...

Early life and high school

Kapelan was born in Bihać, a city located in what is now known as

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, to Zdravko and Hedita Kapelan. He attended

King George Secondary School King George Secondary School is a public secondary school located in the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The school is located in the West End, with two elementary schools feeding in. Some students are from other areas of Vanco ...

, a small high school in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia. As a senior, Kapelan averaged 32 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists per game and was named team

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

(MVP) for his fourth straight season, leading his team to a lower mainland championship. He also ran cross country, winning a provincial title, and played

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

College career

In his freshman season for

, Kapelan averaged 7.3 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.5 assists in 17.8 minutes per game. On February 9, 2008, he scored 24 points with 7 three-pointers in a 74–71 loss to Nicholls State. Kapelan averaged 11.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 0.7 assists per game as a sophomore. On February 18, 2009, he scored 37 points with a school-record 9 three-pointers to defeat

Northwestern State Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSU) is a public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the Univer ...

. In his junior campaign, Kapelan averaged 12.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game. In January 2010, he was named player of the week in the

Southland Conference The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it pa ...

, shortly after scoring 31 points with 8 three-pointers against

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

. As a senior, Kapelan averaged 14.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game. He scored a career-high 39 points with 9 three-pointers in a February 19, 2011 win over Northwestern State. He earned second-team All-Southland honors.

Professional career

Kapelan played for

Zrinjski Mostar Zrinjski Mostar is a sports association from the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was formed in 1905. Member clubs *Football: **HŠK Zrinjski Mostar *Basketball: **HKK Zrinjski Mostar (men's) **ŽKK Zrinjski Mostar (women's) *Han ...

of the Bosnian League and

Balkan League The League of the Balkans was a quadruple alliance formed by a series of bilateral treaties concluded in 1912 between the Eastern Orthodox kingdoms of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, and directed against the Ottoman Empire, which at the ...

in the 2011–12 season. Through 18 games, he averaged 14.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. Kapelan scored a season-best 28 points on November 5, 2011, in an 85–77 win over Brotnjo. In January 2012, he left Zrinjski Mostar to sign with ETB Wohnbau Baskets of the ProA, the German second-tier league. Through 13 games in Germany, Kapelan averaged 16.8 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game. For the 2012–13 season, he joined

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC ( el, Απόλλων Λεμεσού, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Divisi ...

of the

Cypriot League The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

and FIBA EuroChallenge. Through 23 Cypriot League games, he averaged 12.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game, and through 6 EuroChallenge games, he averaged 9.7 points per game. On January 8, 2013, Kapelan scored 25 points in a 96–92 win over

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

. On March 8, 2013, he moved to Kolossos Rodou of the Greek Basket League. After 7 games, he was averaging 6.4 points in 12.7 minutes per game. On January 30, 2014, after 3 games for Kolossos Rodou in the 2013–14 season, Kapelan returned to German team ETB Wohnbau Baskets. He scored 28 points on March 1, in a 109–103 win over VfL Kirchheim Knights. On May 28, 2014, Kapelan signed with WBC Wels of the Austrian League. Through 32 games, he averaged 13.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. Kapelan scored 34 points with 6 three-pointers in a December 13 loss to

Swans Gmunden Basket Swans Gmunden is an Austrian professional basketball club that is based in Gmunden. Their home arena is Volksbank-Arena Gmunden. The club has won the Austrian Bundesliga five times; the last championship was in 2021. To add to that, the Sw ...

. He took part in the league All-Star Game and led his team to the finals, while earning all-league honorable mention accolades from basketball website

Eurobasket.com Eurobasket.com also commonly referred to as "Eurobasket News", is a basketball-centered website that provide coverages of every professional and semi-professional leagues around the world. Although primarily focusing on European basketball, th ...

. On September 16, 2015, Kapelan signed with

Ourense Ourense (; es, Orense ) is a city and capital of the province of Ourense, located in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Camino Sanabrés path of the Way of St ...

of the LEB Oro, the second-tier Spanish league. Through 35 games, he averaged 14.1 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game. On November 20, 2015, he scored 25 points with 6 three-pointers in a 71–62 win over Miraflores. Kapelan remained with Ourense for the 2016–17 season, averaging 11.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game through 38 appearances. On August 16, 2017, he signed with LEB Oro team

Melilla Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was par ...

. After 48 games, he was averaging 11.3 points per game, leading Melilla to the playoff finals. Kapelan, on July 14, 2018, signed with Šiauliai of the Lithuanian Basketball League. He left the team after only 6 games, scoring a season-high 11 points in a September 22 loss to Levski Sofia in

Basketball Champions League The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Intercontin ...

qualification. In November, Kapelan joined the St. John's Edge of the National Basketball League of Canada. On November 18, 2018, in his Edge debut, he scored a team-best 22 points with 6 three-pointers in a 107–103 loss to the London Lightning. In March 2019, he left the Edge to sign with Mexican team Soles de Mexicali for the 2018–19 LNBP playoffs. On December 8, 2020, he signed with Real Murcia of the Spanish LEB Oro. He subsequently spent the next season with Portuguese club CD Povoa. On September 13, 2022, Kapelan signed with Greek club Ionikos Nikaias. In 9 league games, and in spite of an injury-plagued season, he averaged 10.3 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists, playing around 23 minutes per contest.

National team career

Kapelan is a dual citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Canada. He joined the Bosnian national team in preparation for

EuroBasket 2011 EuroBasket 2011 was the 37th men's EuroBasket, European Basketball Championship, held by FIBA Europe. The competition was hosted by Lithuania. This was the second time EuroBasket had been held in Lithuania, the country having also hosted t ...

but did not make the final roster. Kapelan joined Canadian team 3D Global Sports for the

2017 William Jones Cup The 2017 William Jones Cup was the 39th staging of William Jones Cup, an international basketball tournament held in Taipei, Taiwan. Men's tournament Participating teams Team standings Source: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 ...

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

, Taiwan. He was named MVP after averaging 18 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assists while shooting 53.3% from the three-point line.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapelan, Diego Living people 1987 births Basketball players from Bihać Apollon Limassol BC players BC Šiauliai players Bosnia and Herzegovina men's basketball players Canadian expatriate basketball people in Argentina Canadian expatriate basketball people in Germany Canadian expatriate basketball people in Greece Canadian expatriate basketball people in Lithuania Canadian expatriate basketball people in Mexico Canadian expatriate basketball people in Spain Canadian expatriate basketball people in the United States Canadian men's basketball players Canadian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Club Melilla Baloncesto players Club Ourense Baloncesto players Gimnasia y Esgrima de Comodoro Rivadavia basketball players Flyers Wels players Vancouver Bandits players Fundación CB Granada players Ionikos Nikaias B.C. players Kolossos Rodou B.C. players McNeese Cowboys basketball players Point guards Shooting guards Soles de Mexicali players St. John's Edge players King George Secondary School alumni