Darnell Marcus Lamar Fizer (born August 10, 1978) is an American former 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.

High school career

Fizer played high school basketball at Arcadia High School in

Arcadia, Louisiana Arcadia is a town in, and the parish seat of, Bienville Parish in northern Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,919 at the 2010 census. Arcadia has the highest elevation of any incorporated municipality in Louisiana. Arcadia's name com ...

. As a senior, Fizer was selected to play in the

McDonald's All-American Game The McDonald's All-American Game is the all-star basketball game played each year for American and Canadian boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the concl ...

College career

Iowa State Cyclones The Iowa State Cyclones are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Iowa State University, located in Ames. The university is a member of the Big 12 Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding 16 varsity teams (6 men's and 1 ...

head coach

Tim Floyd Tim Floyd (born February 25, 1954) is a former American college basketball coach, most recently the head coach at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). He was formerly the head coach of several teams in the NCAA and the NBA. Floyd is also kn ...

became aware of Fizer's potential while coaching in Louisiana and interested Fizer in playing collegiate basketball at Iowa State University. Fizer became the first (and only as of 2017–18) McDonald's All-American to play for the Cyclones. Tim Floyd left Iowa State to coach the Chicago Bulls of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

after Fizer's freshman year and was replaced by

Larry Eustachy Larry Robert Eustachy (born December 1, 1955) is an American college basketball coach, most recently the head coach of the Colorado State Rams men's basketball, Colorado State Rams He was previously the head coach at Idaho Vandals men's basketbal ...

. While playing for both Floyd and Eustachy, Fizer accumulated many

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

and national accolades including All-Big 12 honorable mention (freshman), National first-team All-Freshman, first team All-Big 12 (sophomore and junior), Big 12 Player of the Year (junior),

Big 12 tournament The Big 12 Conference sponsors championships in 23 sports, 10 men's and 13 women's. The first conference championship awarded was the 1996 softball postseason tournament championship, which was won by Oklahoma. From 2011 through 2016, the foot ...

Most Outstanding Player (junior), and consensus first-team All-America (junior). He led the Big 12 in scoring his sophomore and junior seasons. Following a Big 12 regular season title, Big 12 tournament title, and NCAA Tournament Elite Eight finish his junior year, Fizer elected to declare for the NBA draft. Fizer is ranked fifth on ISU's career scoring list with 1,830 points recorded during his three seasons.

Professional career

Fizer was selected with the fourth pick of the 2000 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls, coached by Tim Floyd, the coach that recruited him to Iowa State. Many analysts suspected that the Bulls had drafted Fizer merely to trade him for another player, since the Bulls already had

Elton Brand Elton Tyron Brand (born March 11, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player and the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing college basketball for Duke, he was selecte ...

at the power forward position. However, no such trade ever took place, and Fizer spent the next four years with the Bulls. He never averaged more than 12.3 points per game. Fizer tore his ACL in late January 2003. In 2004, he was selected by the

Charlotte Bobcats Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populous ...

in the expansion draft. Not making their final roster, he signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

. After one season in Milwaukee, he failed to sign a free agent deal with another team. In November 2005, he signed with the

Austin Toros Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

of the

NBA Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. On March 8, 2006, Fizer signed a 10-day contract with the Seattle SuperSonics, but did not play any games for them. On March 31, 2006, he was named the

MVP for the 2005–2006 season. The same day, he was signed to a 10-day contract with the New Orleans Hornets. Fizer only played 3 games with New Orleans with averages of 6.7 points, 2.3 rebounds on 53% FG shooting. Fizer's final NBA game was played on April 19, 2006 in a 95 - 115 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Fizer recorded 9 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist. He appeared in 289 career

games, making 35 starts and averaging 9.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 1.2 apg, shooting .435 from the floor and .691 from the free throw line in 20.9 mpg. Fizer scored 20+ points 17 times, with 10+ rebounds on 22 occasions in his four-year NBA career. Fizer played for the gold medal-winning United States team at the 2001

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Australia while averaging 4.8 points and 3.0 rebounds, shooting .550 from the floor. In the summer of 2006 he signed a one-year contract with Polaris World Murcia of the Spanish league ACB. Then he played with Capitanes de Arecibo, in the Puerto Rico professional basketball league (BSN). In 2007 Fizer signed a two-year deal with the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the 2007–2008 season the Israeli Super League club reached the Euroleague championship game, eventually losing to CSKA Moscow. Fizer was unable to play in the later stages of the Euroleague due to a knee injury that led to the termination of his contract with Maccabi just before the 2008–2009 season started. In February 2010, Fizer signed with the

Guaynabo Mets Mets de Guaynabo is a Puerto Rican professional basketball team of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional based in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The team dissolved in 2015, but was reinstated with new ownership in 2019. The team was founded in 1935 as the ...

of Puerto Rico, along with Antoine Walker. In 11 games he averaged 13.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. In December 2011, Fizer signed with the

Taiwan Mobile Clouded Leopards The Taipei Fubon Braves () are a professional basketball team, that currently plays in the Taiwanese P. League+, since the league's foundation in 2020. From 2014 to 2019, they played in the semi-professional Super Basketball League (SBL). They ...

of Taiwan. He was later released after playing just one game with them, despite scoring an impressive 23 points, 13 rebounds and 2 assists. In September 2012, Fizer joined

Estudiantes de Bahía Blanca Club Estudiantes de Bahía Blanca is an Argentine sports club based in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province. The club is best known for its basketball team, that currently played in the main levels of Argentina, including Campeonato Argentino a ...

of Argentina. In 13 games he averaged 17.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.

Personal

Fizer has 31 tattoos. Off the court, he has served as a youth minister. Fizer said in an interview, "My uncle, who was my mother’s brother, was taking her to get an abortion, and I don’t know if he lost the car or what, but he lost control and crashed into a church. The members of the church helped them and the minister told them 'whatever you’re thinking about doing, don’t do it, because you’re carrying a minister' without her even showing signs of pregnancy."A TLN Exclusive Interview with Former #4 Pick Marcus Fizer
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NBA statistics

Regular season

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, 72 , , 13 , , 21.9 , , .430 , , .256 , , .727 , , 4.3 , , 1.1 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 9.5 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, 76 , , 20 , , 25.8 , , .438 , , .171 , , .668 , , 5.6 , , 1.6 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 12.3 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, 38 , , 0 , , 21.3 , , .465 , , .167 , , .657 , , 5.7 , , 1.3 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 11.7 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, 46 , , 2 , , 16.0 , , .383 , , .118 , , .750 , , 4.4 , , 0.9, , 0.3 , , 0.2 , , 7.8 , - , align="left" , , align="left" ,

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, 54 , , 0 , , 16.7 , , .455 , , .000 , , .680 , , 3.2 , , 1.2 , , 0.5 , , 0.2 , , 6.2 , - , align="left" , , align="left" , New Orleans/OKC , 3 , , 0 , , 13.0 , , .529 , , 1.000 , , .500 , , 2.3 , , 0.3 , , 1.2 , , 0.0 , , 6.7 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , , 289 , , 35 , , 20.9 , , .435 , , .191 , , .691 , , 4.6 , , 1.2 , , 0.5 , , 0.3 , , 9.6

References

External links