Marko Popović (born 12 June 1982) is a Croatian

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 ...

executive and former professional basketball player. Standing at a height of , he played at the

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

and

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 ...

positions. He currently serves as a

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

for

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

of 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 ...

and the EuroLeague.

Early life

Born in

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serv ...

, Popović is the son of

Petar Petar ( sr, Петар, bg, Петър) is a South Slavic masculine given name, their variant of the Biblical name Petros cognate to Peter. Derivative forms include Pero, Pejo, Pera, Perica, Petrica, Periša. Feminine equivalent is Petra. P ...

, a retired basketball player and present-day coach. Marko started training in basketball in the youth school of

KK Zadar Košarkaški klub Zadar ( en, Zadar Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Zadar or simply Zadar, is a men's professional basketball club based in Zadar, Croatia. The club is a founding member and shareholder of the Adriatic Basketball Asso ...

, in 1991, but his family moved to

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

in 1994, when the father signed with Benston. Popović then entered the youth system of

Cibona Košarkaški klub Cibona, commonly referred to as Cibona Zagreb or simply Cibona, is a men's professional basketball club based in Zagreb, Croatia. The club is a founding member and shareholder of the Adriatic Basketball Association, and competes ...

, where he remained until 1997, when his family moved back to Zadar. Popović's cadet team won the national championship, and he was voted the MVP of the tournament.

College career

After Popović had a successful

2000 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2000 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was an international basketball competition held in Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa na ...

with Croatia's junior national team,

decided to offer him a seven-year contract, but he declined the offer, and instead went to an

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

college basketball team in the United States. He joined the

College of Southern Idaho College of Southern Idaho (CSI) is a public community college in Twin Falls, Idaho. It also has off-campus programs in Jerome, Hailey, Burley and Gooding. Until the foundation of the College of Western Idaho in 2007, CSI was one of only two ...

, where he stayed for a year.

Professional career

Popović played with the youth junior squad of

in the 1998–99 season, and also played in three games with the club's senior team that season. In the club's youth squad, he scored an average of 25 points per game, which earned him a spot in the top-tier level senior men's team of the club in the following season of 1999–00. After spending a year in the United States, playing college basketball at the

(

), he moved back to Zadar, Croatia, in 2001. In the 2002–03 ABA League season, Zadar surprisingly won the championship, after beating

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

in the finals. Popović played a major role in his team's success, and he was awarded with the MVP title of the leagues' final four tournament, which took place in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

. In 2003 he moved to

Pamesa Valencia Valencia Basket Club S.A.D., commonly known as Valencia Basket (), is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague, with home games played at the Fuente de San Luis. The club is spons ...

of the

Spanish ACB League 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 ...

for the 2003–04 season, where he stayed until February 2004, before moving back to Croatia again, this time to

, with which he won the Croatian League championship in the 2003–04 season. In 2005 Popović was signed by

Turkish League Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

team Efes Pilsen, and the next year, he moved to Žalgiris Kaunas of the Lithuanian League, with which he won both the 2006–07 and 2007–08 Lithuanian league championships. While playing with

UNICS Kazan BC UNICS (russian: БК УНИКС) is a professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia, that plays in the VTB United League, and formerly played in the EuroLeague. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 2022 ...

, he was named the Finals MVP of the 2nd-tier level European-wide league, the EuroCup, in 2011. In 2011 he returned to Žalgiris. After leaving Žalgiris in June 2013, Popović agreed to contract terms with the Russian

team

Khimki Moscow Region BC Khimki (russian: БК Химки) is a Russian professional basketball team that is based in Khimki, Moscow Oblast. The club's senior men's first team participates in the Russian Basketball Super League 1. The club's full official name is BC Kh ...

, as he signed a two-year deal with the club on 7 August 2013. On 16 June 2015, he left Khimki, after spending two seasons with the club. On 6 October 2015, he signed with the Spanish team

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 Fe ...

. In February 2017, he became the all-time EuroCup scoring leader, but was surpassed by

Bojan Dubljević Bojan Dubljević (born 24 October 1991) is a Montenegrin professional basketball player and the team captain for Valencia of the Spanish Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. He also represents the senior Montenegrin national basketball team in national ...

and

Rafa Martínez Rafael Martínez Aguilera (born 3 March 1982), known as Rafa Martínez, is a Spanish professional basketball player for Baxi Manresa of the Liga ACB. He also represented the Spain national team internationally. He plays the shooting guard pos ...

later same season. On 17 July 2018, he resigned with the Spanish club. After spending four seasons with Fuenlabrada, in May 2019 Popović announced he will retire from playing professional basketball at the end of the season.

National team career

Popović played for the Croatian men's junior national teams. With Croatia's under-18 team, he won a silver medal at the 2000 European Championship, which was held in his home town of

. Croatia lost that tournament's gold medal game by one point against the junior national team of France, which was led by

Tony Parker William Anthony Parker Jr. (born 17 May 1982) is a French-American former professional basketball player and majority owner of ASVEL Basket in LNB Pro A. Himself the son of a basketball pro, Parker started his career at Paris Basket Racing in ...

. Popović led the tournament in assists, with an average of 5.2 assists per game. He also led the

2002 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship The 2002 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship (known at that time as 2002 European Championship for Young Men) was the sixth edition of the FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. The cities of Kaunas, Alytus and Vilnius, in Lithuania, hosted the tournamen ...

in both scoring and assists. Popović joined the senior men's Croatian national team in 2002, and with the senior team, he played at the following

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

tournaments: in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, and finally in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. He also played at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

and at the 2010 World Championship.Marko POPOVIC (CRO) participated in 17 FIBA / FIBA Zones events.
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Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2001–02 , style="text-align:left;",

, 11 , , 4 , , 30.4 , , .402 , , .299 , , .813 , , 1.8 , , 4.0 , , 1.6 , , .0 , , 13.9 , , 13.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2003–04 , style="text-align:left;",

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, 17 , , 5 , , 20.0 , , .363 , , .339 , , .767 , , 2.2 , , 1.8 , , 1.1 , , .0 , , 6.8 , , 6.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2004–05 , style="text-align:left;",

, 17 , , 16 , , 31.8 , , .449 , , .386 , , .733 , , 2.2 , , 4.0 , , 1.9 , , .0 , , 15.4 , , 16.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2005–06 , style="text-align:left;", Efes Pilsen , 16 , , 13 , , 24.0 , , .478 , , .419 , , .776 , , 1.4 , , 3.1 , , 1.4 , , .0 , , 12.9 , , 12.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2006–07 , style="text-align:left;", Žalgiris , 7 , , 7 , , 34.4 , , .395 , , .273 , , .909 , , .9 , , 4.9 , , 1.4 , , .0 , , 15.1 , , 15.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2007–08 , style="text-align:left;", Žalgiris , 20 , , 0 , , 21.5 , , .432 , , .396 , , .839 , , 1.4 , , 2.0 , , 1.0 , , .0 , , 11.7 , , 10.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2011–12 , style="text-align:left;", Žalgiris , 14 , , 1 , , 22.2 , , .404 , , .387 , , .906 , , 2.1 , , 2.1 , , .4 , , .0 , , 12.5 , , 11.4 , - , 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 ...

, style="text-align:left;", Žalgiris , 21 , , 13 , , 24.0 , , .486 , , .439 , , .855 , , 1.4 , , 2.2 , , .7 , , .0 , , 13.4 , , 12.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", , 123 , , 59 , , 29.2 , , .434 , , .380 , , .821 , , 1.7 , , 2.8 , , 1.2 , , .0 , , 12.5 , , 12.0