Gert Kullamäe (born 3 June 1971) is an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

and a former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player who currently coaches

n team BC Pärnu Sadam. Kullamäe mostly played at the shooting guard position and was a great 3-point shooter. As a player he is a seven-time Estonian Champion and also a Soviet Union, Lithuanian, Belgian and Dutch champion.

Club career

Kullamäe was born in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

, and made his senior club debut with TPI (

Tallinn University of Technology Established in 1918, Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech; et, Tallinna Tehnikaülikool) is the only technical university in Estonia. TalTech, in the capital city of Tallinn, is a university for engineering, business, public administrati ...

) team in Estonian SSR Championship (today

Korvpalli Meistriliiga The Korvpalli Meistriliiga ( en, Basketball Champions League), known as the OlyBet Korvpalli Meistriliiga for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier level and most important professional basketball league in Estonia. It is controlled by the Es ...

). This happened in autumn 1985 when he was only 14 years and 4 months old. After some seasons, he signed with Kalev and he has played in

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

Championships;

Korać Cup Korać is a surname. Notable persons with that name include: * Dušan Korać (disambiguation), multiple people * Milorad Korać (born 1969), Serbian football player and manager * Radivoj Korać (1938–1969), Serbian basketball player * Vitomir ...

in 1990–91 and FIBA European Champions Cup in 1991–92. During this period Kullamäe won USSR Championship in 1991 and Estonian Championships in 1992 and 1993. Then he moved to Lithuanian

BC Zalgiris BC most often refers to: * Before Christ, a calendar era based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth * British Columbia, the westernmost province of Canada * Baja California, a state of Mexico BC may also refer to: ...

and won the Lithuanian Championship in 1994. In Lithuania he was coached by

Jaak Salumets Jaak Salumets (born 30 January 1949 in Paide) is a retired Estonian professional basketball player and coach who played mostly at the forward position. Salumets is also a former Estonian Reform Party politician who was a member of the Riigikogu ...

, ex-coach of Tallinn "Kalev" and the

Estonia national basketball team Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

. After a successful season with the Lithuanian club Kullamäe came back to Estonia and played for Kalev and "Kamee" teams in Meistriliiga. He won the Estonian Championships again in 1995 and 1998.

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 ...

voted him a Meistriliiga

MVP 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 ...

in 1998; 1999; 2000. Kullamäe signed a contract with Telindus Oostende in 2000–01 season and won the Belgian League with the team. After a serious knee injury and one season in an Estonian team "BC Hotronic" he moved back to Europe. Kullamäe signed to a

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

team

Brose Baskets Brose Bamberg is a German professional basketball team from Bamberg, Franconia / North Bavaria. The club has won the German Championship title nine times and the German Cup five times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketball ...

. With this team he won two German Championships silver medals and then moved to EiffelTowers. Kullamäe was voted Dutch Eredivisie All-Bosman Player of the Year in 2005 and 2006, he also won the Dutch Championship in 2006. In summer of 2006 Kullamäe came back to Estonia and joined

Tartu Ülikool/Rock University of Tartu basketball team ( et, link=no, Tartu Ülikooli korvpallimeeskond ), for sponsorship reasons known as Tartu Ülikool Maks & Moorits, is a professional basketball team based in Tartu, Estonia. The team plays in the Latvian–Es ...

. In 2007 and 2008 he won his 5th and 6th Estonian Championship title with Tartu team. He has also finished Baltic Basketball League on third place in 2008–09 season with Rock.

Coaching

In July 2009 he announced his retirement from active career and became an assistant coach in Tartu Rock. Kullamäe became head coach of Tartu in January 2012 after

Indrek Visnapuu Indrek Visnapuu (born 4 May 1976) is an Estonian basketball coach and former player, who last coached Audentes/Noortekoondis of the Korvpalli Meistriliiga (KML). Playing career Visnapuu made his Korvpalli Meistriliiga debut on 2 October 1993 w ...

resigned. Kullamäe left Tartu after the team missed out of the

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Estonian League finals. In January 2018 he became the head coach of Tallinna Kalev/TLÜ. Kullamäe resigned in January 2019 due to a disagreement with the club management. In May 2019 he became the head coach of TalTech. He resigned in December 2019 and became the assistant coach of BC Pärnu Sadam in February 2020. In November 2022 he became the head coach of BC Pärnu Sadam.

National team career

In the late 1980s, Kullamäe was a member of the U-17 USSR Basketball team (coached by

Modestas Paulauskas Modestas Paulauskas (19 March 1945) is a former Soviet and Lithuanian professional basketball coach and basketball player. As a player, he was the youngest EuroBasket MVP in history, being only 20 years old at the time he won the award. He is k ...

) and the U-19 USSR Basketball team (coached by Stanislav Eremin). He won a bronze medal with the USSR team at the

FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship The FIBA U16 European Championship, previously known as the FIBA Europe Championship for Cadets, is a youth basketball competition that was inaugurated with the 1971 edition. Through the 2003 edition, it was held every second year, but since th ...

in 1987. Kullamäe was a member of

between 1993 and 1995, 1998 and 2001, and in 2004 and 2007 (when he served as captain). His national team career-high score was 32 points, which was obtained during a match against Lithuania in autumn 1994, as part of the

EuroBasket 1995 The 1995 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1995, was the 29th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the 1996 Summer Olympics, giving a berth to ea ...

qualifying round. Kullamäe was also a member of the Estonian

EuroBasket 1993 The 1993 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1993, was the 28th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA Europe. It was held in Germany between 22 June and 4 July 1993. Sixteen national teams entered ...

squad. Estonia squad EuroBasket 1993
FIBA Europe

Season by season results as head coach

Abbreviations:
QF; quarter-finals.
T16; top sixteen.
L32; last 32.
RS; regular season.
QR2; qualification round 2.

Honours

Orders

EST Order of the White Star - 5th Class BAR

'' Order of the White Star, 5th Class:'' 2010

References

External links

Profile
at basket.ee
Profile
at bbl.net
German Fansite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kullamae, Gert 1971 births Living people BC Žalgiris players BC Oostende players Brose Bamberg players Estonian basketball coaches Estonian men's basketball players Estonian expatriate basketball people in Belgium Estonian expatriate basketball people in Germany Estonian expatriate basketball people in Lithuania Estonian expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands Korvpalli Meistriliiga players Heroes Den Bosch players Tallinn University of Technology alumni University of Tartu basketball team players Soviet men's basketball players Basketball players from Tallinn Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 5th Class Small forwards Shooting guards KK Kalev players