Marius Grigonis (born 26 April 1994) is a Lithuanian 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 for

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

of the

Greek Basket League The Greek Basket League (GBL), often also referred to as the Greek A1 Basketball League, or Greek Basketball Championship (originally called Panhellenic Basketball Championship), and also known as the Stoiximan Basket League for sponsorship reaso ...

and the EuroLeague. Standing at a height of , he plays at 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 ...

position.

Early career

Before starting his professional career, Grigonis played in the NKL with the Žalgiris-Arvydas Sabonis school for four seasons. He was an important contributor to the team during his debut season, and established himself as a leader by his third season. He won

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

s during his last two seasons with the Sabonis school team.

Professional career

On 15 May 2013, Grigonis was brought into the main Žalgiris roster for a game against

BC Nizhny Novgorod BC Nizhny Novgorod (russian: БК «Нижний Новгород»), commonly known as simply Nizhny Novgorod, also known as Pari Nizhny Novgorod for sponsorship reasons, is a Russian professional basketball club from the city of Nizhny Novgorod ...

in the

VTB United League VTB United League (russian: Единая Лига ВТБ) is an international professional men's club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that was founded in 2008. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus an ...

Playing in Spain (2013–2017)

For the 2013–14 season, Grigonis was loaned to the

Spanish second division Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

team Peñas Huesca. He was included in the All-LEB Oro team. On 14 August 2014, Grigonis signed a two-year deal with

Bàsquet Manresa Bàsquet Manresa, S.A.D., also known as Baxi Manresa for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Manresa, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and Basketball Champions League. Their home arena is the Pavelló Nou Congost ...

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 ...

. After spending two seasons with Manresa, he signed a "2+1" deal with

Iberostar Tenerife Club Cantera Base 1939 Canarias S.A.D., also known as Lenovo Tenerife for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball team that is based in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Domestically, the team plays in the top level league i ...

on 28 July 2016. He was named the Final Four MVP of the

Basketball Champions League The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Intercontin ...

2016–17 season. On 13 July 2017, Grigonis parted ways with Tenerife.

ALBA Berlin (2017–2018)

On 13 July 2017, he signed a three-year deal with German club

Alba Berlin Alba Berlin is a German professional basketball club that is based in Berlin, Germany. The club was founded in 1991, and is today the largest German national basketball club by membership figures. Alba Berlin hosts its home games at the Mercedes ...

Return to Žalgiris (2018–2021)

On 3 July 2018, Grigonis returned to Žalgiris Kaunas when he signed a three-year contract. His season was cut short due to an injury in November 2019. Grigonis averaged 11.5 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in the first 10 games of the 2019–20 season. On 8 July 2020, he re-signed with the team.

CSKA Moscow (2021–2022)

On 12 June 2021, Grigonis signed a three-year contract with

champions and EuroLeague giant

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow (russian: ЦСКА Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was a central piece ...

. He averaged 8.5 points, 1.9 assists, and 1.4 rebounds per game. On 28 February 2022, upon the outbreak of the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, he left the team. The team accused him of violating his contract.

Panathinaikos (2022–present)

On 14 July 2022, Grigonis signed a two-year contract with

of the

and the EuroLeague, after a settlement agreement between the Greek club and

National team career

Grigonis represented Lithuania in the U–16, U–18, U–19 and U–20 youth tournaments. He led his team to two silver medals and a bronze medal while participating in four tournaments. During the

2012 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2012 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was the 29th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. 16 teams featured the competition, held in Lithuania and Latvia from 9 to 19 August 2012. Spain were the defending champions. The top 5 teams ...

semifinal game, he scored the winning shot against Serbia. As a result of his contributions to the team's success, he was chosen to be included in the All–Tournament Team. In 2014, coach

Jonas Kazlauskas Jonas Kazlauskas (born 21 November 1954) is a Lithuanian professional basketball coach and former player. He was most recently the head coach of the Guangdong Southern Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Playing career Kazlauskas ...

included Grigonis in the preliminary 24–player candidate list for the senior national basketball team. Though, he was invited to the national team training camp for the first time only in 2016 and immediately qualified into the Olympic roster.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Žalgiris Kaunas , 34 , , 18 , , 20.4 , , .466 , , .442 , , .935 , , 2.1 , , 1.9 , , .6 , , .2 , , 8.7 , , 9.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Žalgiris Kaunas , 10 , , 10 , , 25.5 , , .447 , , .386 , , .846 , , 2.6 , , 2 , , .5 , , .1 , , 11.5 , , 11 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Žalgiris Kaunas , 34 , , 34 , , 27.3 , , .481, , .456 , , .944 , , 2.1 , , 3.3 , , .8 , , .1 , , 13.4 , , 13.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 16 , , 3 , , 19.2 , , .429 , , .444 , , .955 , , 1.4 , , 1.9 , , 0.6 , , .0 , , 8.5 , , 7.4

References

External links

Marius Grigonis
at euroleague.net
Marius Grigonis
at acb.com

at fiba.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Grigonis, Marius 1994 births Living people 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup players Alba Berlin players Basketball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Kaunas Bàsquet Manresa players BC Žalgiris players BC Žalgiris-2 players CB Canarias players CB Peñas Huesca players Liga ACB players Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Germany Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Greece Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Russia Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Spain Lithuanian men's basketball players Olympic basketball players of Lithuania Panathinaikos B.C. players PBC CSKA Moscow players Shooting guards Small forwards Sportspeople from Kaunas