Kristaps Valters (born September 18, 1981) is a Latvian 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. After retiring he became a coach, and is currently working as a head coach for
Valmiera/ORDO.
Playing career
Valters first played professionally in 1998, for
ASK/Brocēni/LMT. In 2000, Valters signed his first foreign contract, with
Antalya Büyükşehir Belediyesi
Antalya Büyükşehir Belediyesi Spor Kulübü (''English: Antalya Greater Metropolitan Municipality Sports Club''), commonly abbreviated as Antalya BB is a basketball team based in the city of Antalya in Turkey. Their home arena is the Dilek Saba ...
, but played there only one season. He then returned to the
Latvian Basketball League, signing a two-year contract with the newly created team
Skonto.
In 2003, he played in the
NBA Summer League for the
Cleveland Cavaliers alongside number #1 pick in that draft
LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest p ...
. In the fall of that year, he returned to Europe and played for
Panionios
Panionios G.S.S. Football Club (Greek: ΠΑΕ Πανιώνιος Γ.Σ.Σ.), the ''Pan- Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'' (Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis'') ...
. Valters did not stay there for long and in December 2004, he returned to play for
Skonto.
From 2004 to 2006, he played for the Germany's
Basketball Bundesliga club
EWE Baskets Oldenburg
Baskets Oldenburg, for sponsorship reasons EWE Baskets Oldenburg, is a professional basketball club that is based in the city of Oldenburg, Germany. The club plays in the Bundesliga. The club's name is derived from the team's main sponsor EWE AG ...
. Then he went to
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
and played for
Pallalcesto Amatori Udine
Pallalcesto Amatori Udine, better known by the sponsorship name Snaidero Udine, was an Italian professional basketball club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
In 2011, following the dissolution of the club, a new team, APU Udine, was founde ...
. During the season in Italy he was named as Week 8 MVP of
ULEB Cup.
In 2007, he signed a contract with
Scafati Basket
Scafati Basket, known for sponsorship reasons as Givova Scafati, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Scafati, Campania. The club competes in the top level Italian professional basketball league, the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA).
Hi ...
, but never played there because he was injured and the team terminated his contract. In November 2007, Valters signed with Russian team
Triumph Lyubertsy.
In the summer of 2008, he signed a contract with
Liga ACB team
Fuenlabrada
Fuenlabrada () is a city and municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,586, making it the region's fourth most populated municipality.
Placename
The etymology of ''Fuenlabrada'' comes from the contra ...
and had a breakout season. The team wanted to retain Valters and offered him a three-year contract for about two million dollars, but Valters opted to sign a two-year contract with
DKV Joventut in July 2009 replacing
Ricky Rubio.
In August 2010, he returned to
Baloncesto Fuenlabrada
Baloncesto Fuenlabrada, S.A.D., known as just Fuenlabrada and also Carplus Fuenlabrada because of sponsorship reasons,, is a professional basketball team based in Fuenlabrada, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and plays their home games at F ...
, where he had another great year by leading his underdog squad to the ACB League's play-offs. For the 2011–12 season he signed with
Unicaja Málaga
Unicaja is a Spanish savings bank based in Málaga and chartered as a caja de ahorros providing retail banking services. The banks full name is ''Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Ronda, Cádiz, Almería, Málaga y Antequera'' after th ...
, helping team to reach Euroleague's Top16. Kristaps ended season in Malaga as ACB's leading three-point shooter.
Prior to 2012–13 season Valters joined German squad
Artland Dragons, but later returned to Fuenlabrada, where he finished the season.
For the 2013–14 season Valters moved to Turkey, signing with
TED Ankara Kolejliler and guiding his team to
Eurocup Quarterfinals. During the season Valters delivered some very impressive outings that included 26 points and 7 assists in a road win over
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 ...
on January 29, 2014. Valters capped season with a 31-point and 6 assists performance, shooting 9-10 from three in a win over
Pınar Karşıyaka
Pınar is a common feminine Turkish given name. In Turkish, "Pınar" means "Spring" (of water), and/or "Fountain". Notable people called Pınar include:
Given name
* Pinar Heggernes (born 1969), Turkish-born Norwegian computer scientist
* Pına ...
on 7 May 2014.
On December 3, 2014 he signed with
Türk Telekom
Türk Telekom is a state-owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was separated from Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995.
Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wide-band Internet. The Türk ...
. On February 20, 2017, Valters signed with the Latvian team
Valmiera
Valmiera (; german: link=no, Wolmar; pl, Wolmar see other names) is the largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of . As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2020 – 24 879. It is a state cit ...
. On May 1, 2017, Valters announced that he has to retire from playing due to health problems.
Kristaps Valters: "Spēlētāja karjera, visticamāk, ir beigusies"
National team career
Valters was a member of the senior Latvian national team in four EuroBasket tournaments ( 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2009).
Personal life
Valters' father Valdis, is a former Soviet Union basketball star, and his brother, Sandis
Sandis is a Latvian masculine given name which may refer to:
*Sandis Buškevics (born 1977), Latvian basketball player
* Sandis Ģirģens (born 1980), Latvian politician
*Sandis Ozoliņš (born 1972), Latvian hockey player, formerly in the Nation ...
, also played professional basketball.
References
External links
Eurobasket.com Profile
ACB.com Profile
TBLStat.net Profile
Euroleague.net Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valters, Kristaps
1981 births
Living people
Antalya Büyükşehir Belediyesi players
Artland Dragons players
Baloncesto Fuenlabrada players
BC Zenit Saint Petersburg players
Baloncesto Málaga players
EWE Baskets Oldenburg players
Joventut Badalona players
Latvian men's basketball players
Latvian expatriate basketball people in Spain
Latvian expatriate basketball people in Turkey
Liga ACB players
Panionios B.C. players
Point guards
Basketball players from Riga
TED Ankara Kolejliler players
Türk Telekom B.K. players