Jaka Blažič (born June 30, 1990) is a Slovenian professional basketball player for Bahçeşehir Koleji of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL) and Basketball Champions League. He also represents the Slovenian national basketball team. Standing at , he plays the

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

and small forward positions.

Early life

Born in the town of Jesenice in a family of athletes—skiing coach father Dušan Blažič and mother Ksenija who had formerly played volleyball—young Jaka took up basketball early. His younger sister Pia is a professional volleyball player.

Professional career

Blažič started his professional career in 2007 with Triglav Kranj. From 2009 to 2011 he played with

Geoplin Slovan Košarkarsko društvo Slovan, commonly referred to as KD Slovan or simply Slovan, is a basketball team from Ljubljana, Slovenia. History The origins of the club are dating back to 1951, when Stane Urek suggested a formation of a basketball club ...

. In July 2011, he signed a three-year deal with

Union Olimpija Košarkarski klub Olimpija ( en, Olimpija Basketball Club) was a men's professional basketball club based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Olimpija has won 23 National League championships, including eight consecutive titles between 1992 and 1999. T ...

. On June 18, 2013, Blažič signed a three-year deal with the Serbian team Crvena zvezda. On September 14, 2015, he parted ways with the club. One day later, on September 15, 2015, he signed a three-year contract with the Spanish team

Baskonia Club Deportivo Saski-Baskonia, S.A.D., commonly known as Saski Baskonia (), also known as Cazoo Baskonia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball team that is based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the ...

. On July 3, 2017, Blažič parted ways with Baskonia. On July 16, 2017, Blazič signed with MoraBanc Andorra for the 2017–18 season. On August 9, 2018, Blazič signed a one-year deal with

FC Barcelona Lassa FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakist ...

of the

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 ...

and the EuroLeague. On July 20, 2019, Blazič signed a two-year contract with Cedevita Olimpija. On June 2, 2022, he has signed with Bahçeşehir Koleji of the Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL).

National team career

As a member of the senior men's Slovenian national basketball team, Blažič competed at the EuroBasket 2013 and

2014 FIBA World Cup The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the tournament previously known as the FIBA World Championship. Hosted by Spain, it was the last tournament to be held on the then-current four-year cycle ...

. He also represented Slovenia at the EuroBasket 2015 where they were eliminated by

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

in eighth finals. He was part of the national team at the

2017 EuroBasket EuroBasket 2017 was the 40th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe and held between 31 August and 17 September 2017. Beginning from 2017, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar ...

and

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

where Slovenia took gold and fourth place, respectively.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2011–12 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan=2,

, 10, , 1 , , 14.2 , , .350 , , .182 , , .600 , , 2.4 , , .4 , , .2 , , .0 , , 3.6 , , 2.3 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 10 , , 9 , , 28.3 , , .373 , , .278 , , .731 , , 4.0 , , 1.9 , , .5 , , .0 , , 12.4 , , 10.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan=2, Crvena zvezda , 10 , , 2 , , 19.7 , , .462 , , .345 , , .750 , , 3.5 , , 1.1 , , .9 , , .2 , , 10.3 , , 8.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , 24 , , 10 , , 21.4 , , .422 , , .309 , , .750 , , 2.8 , , 1.0 , , .5 , , .1 , , 9.1 , , 5.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan=2,

, 29 , , 3 , , 19.0 , , .432 , , .352 , , .793 , , 3.2 , , .6 , , .6 , , 0 , , 7.8 , , 6.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , 33 , , 7 , , 13.9 , , .397 , , .387 , , .560 , , 2.1 , , .5 , , .5 , , 0 , , 4.7 , , 3.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Barcelona , 25 , , 7 , , 13.7 , , .465 , , .387 , , .809 , , 2.3 , , .6 , , .4 , , .1 , , 5.2 , , 5.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", , 141 , , 39 , , 17.6 , , .418 , , .338 , , .743 , , 2.7 , , .7 , , .5 , , .1 , , 7.0 , , 5.7

Personal life

2014 traffic accident

In the early morning hours of Saturday, 4 October 2014, Blažič caused a traffic accident while

driving under the influence Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

, slamming his Volkswagen Golf into the back of a taxi vehicle while changing lanes at the corner of Nemanjina and Resavska streets in central Belgrade. No injuries were reported as the traffic patrol administered a breathalyzer test on the twenty-four-year-old KK Crvena zvezda basketball player, determining his blood alcohol level was above the 0.5 ‰ legal limit in Serbia. Several hours earlier, Friday evening 3 October 2014, Blažič had played in KK Crvena zvezda's opening game of the 2014–15 Adriatic League season versus Levski Sofia, an 85-55 blowout win in which he contributed 8 points including a spectacular dunk. Later in the day, after paying the RSD16,000 (~ €135) fine to the misdemeanor judge, Blažič publicly apologized "to the taxi driver whose car I hit, as well as to my club and its fans" while his club Crvena zvezda fined him according to its own disciplinary code of conduct by reportedly docking the amount of two monthly salaries from his pay.