Margus Metstak (born June 16, 1961) is a retired Estonian 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 played mostly at the

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position.

Club career

Early career

Margus Metstak started his career at the age of 18 with

Tallinn Pedagogical Institute Tallinn University (TLU; et, Tallinna Ülikool, ''TLÜ'') is a public research university in Estonia. Located in the centre of Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn University is one of the three largest institutions of higher education ...

for whom he played in Estonian SSR Championships until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. However, he improved and went on to play professionally for Soviet Union top-flight team Kalev Tallinn. In 1982, only his second year as a professional, the team reached the semi-finals of the Soviet Basketball Cup and took the bronze medal.

Soviet champion

The biggest breakthrough came in 1991, when Kalev won the Soviet Union Basketball League and became the last official champions of the collapsed empire (in fact, there was a league functioning with the same association the following year, but with only clubs from

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

competing). Kalev won the regular season with 18–4 record. In quarter-finals they beat ASK Kyiv 2–0 (90:75, 100:91) and went on to play in the semi-finals against Latvian BK VEF Rīga. The Latvian team won the first game 94–87, but Kalev managed to win two games in a row (107:90, 113:96) and the series overall 2–1. In the finals Estonians won both games against

BC Spartak Saint Petersburg BC Spartak Saint Petersburg is a Russian professional basketball team that is based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. During the 2016–17 season, the club was named BC Kondrashin Belov (BCKB), after its former player Alexander Belov and its former head ...

and won the first and last Soviet championship for Kalev.

Foreign clubs

Metstak played briefly for

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

team NMKY Lahti in late 1990, before returning to Estonia in January 1991. Following the big triumph, he went back to Finland for a season, before making a brief move to Luxembourg's team Amicale Basket. After being one of the main figures of

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 ...

's successful

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 ...

in Germany, Margus Metstak received offers to play in Basketball Bundesliga for TSV Speyer and Paderborn Baskets, respectively. For the 2001–2002 season, at the age of 40, he earned his last contract from abroad, joining Polish side

Czarni Słupsk Czarni Słupsk, more commonly known as Grupa Sierleccy Czarni Słupsk because of sponsorship reasons, is a Polish basketball team, based in Słupsk, playing in Polish Basketball League (PLK). The home arena of the club was Hala Gryfia. History I ...

Last years

After the spell with the Polish team, the then 41-year-old center moved to TTÜ/A. Le Coq. Metstak played the last few years of his career with his hometown club, BC Pirita, as a semi-professional. He has been working as a coach for

TTÜ/Kalev TalTech Basketball is the basketball team of Tallinn University of Technology based in Tallinn, Estonia. The team plays in the Latvian–Estonian Basketball League. Their home arena is the TalTech Sports Hall. The team has won eight Estonian Ch ...

and re-established

BC Tallinna Kalev Tallinna Kalev/TLÜ is a professional basketball club based in Tallinn, Estonia. The team plays in the Latvian-Estonian Basketball League and Korvpalli Meistriliiga (KML). Their home arena is the Audentes Sports Centre. History The team was fou ...

National team

Metstak's national career started in 1981, when he represented Estonian SSR national team. In 1991, when Estonia regained their independence from

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, he was a regular

for the

1993 European Championships

Margus Metstak was on the squad for both the

and

EuroBasket 2001 The 2001 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2001, was the 32nd FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the 2002 FIBA World Championship, giving a be ...

competitions, the only times Estonia has qualified for that tournament. In 1993, the Estonian team surprised all of Europe, winning group D ahead of eventual European champion

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and strong ex-Yugoslavian side

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. In the knock-out stages they lost to Russia, beat Bosnia and Herzegovina and were beaten in the 5th-place game by Spain. This meant that Estonia would not qualify to the 1994 FIBA World Championship.

2001 European Championships

In 2001, 40-year-old Metstak scored 8.3 points and took 6 rebounds per game, when Estonia finished in the disappointing last place. Margus Metstak is to date the oldest basketballer to play at the EuroBasket.Kalvet, Madis.
Metstaki ajalooline saavutus EMil on Euroopas unustatud
. ''Postimees''. (2009-09-18). Retrieved on 2012-04

References

External links

Profile
at basket.ee

Books

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Metstak, Margus 1961 births Living people Centers (basketball) Estonian men's basketball players BC Tallinn Kalev players Estonian expatriate basketball people in Finland Estonian expatriate basketball people in Germany Estonian expatriate basketball people in Luxembourg Estonian expatriate basketball people in Poland People from Jõelähtme Parish KK Kalev players