Aleksandar "Aleks" Marić (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...

: Александар "Алекс" Марић; born 22 October 1984) is an Australian-Serbian 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 (appro ...

player. Marić gained a reputation as a winner over the course of his successful European career, securing contracts with several basketball powerhouse outfits. Rising to stardom at

Partizan Belgrade Jugoslovensko sportsko društvo Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Југословенско спортско друштво Партизан, lit=Yugoslav Sports Society Partizan), commonly abbreviated as JSD Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, ЈСД Партизан, lin ...

in 2010, he was part of a Serbian Cup and Adriatic League championship winning team, as well as an All-EuroLeague First Team member. That breakout season earned him selection to the Australian national team for the 2010 World Championships and the 2012 London Olympics. In 2019, he became an assistant coach with the

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and play their home games at Qudos Ba ...

Early life and career

Marić began playing basketball as a youth in Sydney before attending the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

. He played high school basketball in the United States at Life Center Academy in

Burlington, New Jersey Burlington is a City (New Jersey), city situated on the banks of the Delaware River in Burlington County, New Jersey, Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the 2020 United States census, the c ...

. He then played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

with the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding t ...

from 2004 to 2008, where he was named second-team All-

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

in both 2007 and 2008.

College statistics

Professional career

Marić began his professional career in July 2008 with 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. Administered by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, w ...

club

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

. At the end of the season, on 30 June 2009, he exercised the option in his contract and decided to leave the club. On 7 July 2009, Marić signed multi-year deal with the Serbian club Partizan. During his first season in Partizan, Marić went from the status of a relatively unknown basketball player to one of a

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

star, all thanks to his great games throughout the season. In 93–92 win over Efes Pilsen in the EuroLeague, he scored 34 points, pulled 16 rebounds and had 49 performance index rating which was record of the season, along with Darjuš Lavrinovič who also had 49 in the same season. That made them 8th overall in PIR since the beginning of the

2000–01 Euroleague The 2000–01 Euroleague was the inaugural basketball season of the EuroLeague, under ULEB and its newly formed Euroleague Basketball Company authority. Overall it was the 44th season of the premier competition for European men's professional ...

season. He was named to the 2009–10

All-EuroLeague Team The All-EuroLeague Team is an EuroLeague awards, award for European professional club basketball system, Europe's premier level league, the EuroLeague, that is given to the league's top ten basketball players for each season, since the 2000–01 s ...

. With Partizan, he managed to win the Serbian national cup trophy (the

Radivoj Korać Cup The Radivoj Korać Cup ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Куп Радивоја Кораћа, Kup Radivoja Koraća) is the men's national basketball cup of Serbia. It is run by the Basketball Federation of Serbia and is named after Serbian basketball legend and ...

), as well as the Adriatic Championship in the amazing overtime finish. On 30 July 2010, Marić signed a two-year contract with the Greek club Panathinaikos. In his first season with the club, he won the

title in win over the Maccabi Tel Aviv. Later, he won and the

Greek Basket League The Greek Basketball League (GBL), and also known as the Stoiximan Greek Basketball League (GBL) for sponsorship reasons, is the Greek basketball league system, first tier level professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by the ...

championship. In his second season, he won the Greek basketball cup. On 27 July 2012, Marić signed with the

VTB United League The VTB United League () is an international professional men's club basketball league that was founded in 2009. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus and Kazakhstan. Since 2013, it is the first tier of Russian ...

club Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. On 2 September 2014, Marić signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv. On 25 December 2014, he was waived by Maccabi. The next day, he signed with the Turkish team Galatasaray Liv Hospital. On 3 March 2015, he left Galatasaray and signed with Petrochimi Bandar Imam of the Iranian Super League. On 29 April 2015, he left Petrochimi and signed with the Spanish club

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, a Spain, Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa. the island had a population of that constitut ...

for the rest of the 2014–15 ACB season. On 3 September 2015, Marić signed with the Montenegrin club Budućnost Podgorica for the 2015–16 season. After some miserable showings in the first few games of the

ABA League The ABA League, renamed the ABA League First Division in 2017, is the top-tier regional men's professional basketball league that originally featured clubs from former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedoni ...

, he led his team to an 80–61 win over Tajfun with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and was subsequently named the MVP of Round 5. On 4 April 2016, he left Budućnost and signed with Spanish club Rio Natura Monbus Obradoiro for the rest of the 2015–16 ACB season. On 29 June 2016, Marić signed a one-year deal (with a team option for a second year) with his hometown

of the National Basketball League. On 9 March 2017, Marić signed with Rio Natura Monbus Obradoiro for the rest of the 2016–17 ACB season. On 26 June 2017, Marić signed with Al-Muharraq of the

Bahraini Premier League The Bahraini Premier League is the main domestic football competition in the kingdom of Bahrain. Currently known as the Nasser bin Hamad Premier League, the first season was held in 1956-1957. The winners of the domestic championship qualify f ...

. He played one game for the team.

Australian national team

With the Australian junior national team, Marić won the gold medal at the 2003

FIBA Under-19 World Championship The FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup (formerly FIBA Under-19 World Championship) is the under-19 men's world basketball championship organised by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). From its inauguration in 1979, until 2007, it was ...

. He also played at the 2005

FIBA Under-21 World Championship The FIBA Under-21 World Championship was a men's under-21-only basketball competition organized by the International Basketball Federation The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizat ...

with Australia's junior national team. Media reports emanating from Serbia stated Maric had expressed a desire to play for the senior

Serbia national basketball team The Serbia men's national basketball team () represents Serbia in international men's basketball competition, and is controlled by the Basketball Federation of Serbia. Serbia is currently ranked second in the FIBA Men's World Ranking, FIBA World ...

, however this was later denied by Maric. Marić played for the senior Australia national basketball team at the

2010 FIBA World Championship The 2010 FIBA World Championship was the 16th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship contested by the List of men's national basketball teams, men's national teams. The tournament ran from 28 August to 12 Septem ...

in Turkey. Marić averaged 9.2 points and 4.3 rebounds over 6 games at the tournament. He also played with Australia at the 2012 Olympics in London where Australia lost 119–86 in quarterfinal matchup with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Post-playing career

In July 2019, Marić was appointed an assistant coach by the

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2009–10 , style="text-align:left;", Partizan , 18 , , 9 , , 25.5 , , .607 , , .000 , , .648 , , 8.4 , , 1.2 , , 1.2 , , .6 , , 14.6 , , style="background:#CFECEC;", 21.1* , - , style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;", 2010–11† , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2", Panathinaikos , 8 , , 0 , , 7.6 , , .556 , , , , .667 , , 3.5 , , , , .6 , , .4 , , 3.5 , , 6.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2011–12 , 22 , , 9 , , 7.1 , , .673 , , , , .560 , , 2.5 , , .1 , , .5 , , .1 , , 3.6 , , 4.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;", Lokomotiv Kuban , 23 , , 10 , , 17.2 , , .602 , , , , .588 , , 3.6 , , 1.0 , , .8 , , .6 , , 6.1 , , 8.0 , - , style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2", 2014–15 , style="text-align:left;", Maccabi , 8 , , 2 , , 8.8 , , .571 , , , , 1.000 , , 2.3 , , .5 , , .1 , , .4 , , 2.3 , , 3.9 , - , style="text-align:left;",

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

, 7 , , 2 , , 10.0 , , .385 , , , , .500 , , 2.9 , , .7 , , .1 , , , , 1.7 , , 2.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career , 86 , , 32 , , 14.1 , , .603 , , .000 , , .625 , , 4.1 , , .7 , , .7 , , .4 , , 6.3 , , 8.9

Personal life

Marić was born on 22 October 1984 in the suburb

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia to ethnic Serb parents from

Knin Knin () is a city in the Šibenik-Knin County of Croatia, located in the Dalmatian hinterland near the source of the river Krka (Croatia), Krka, an important traffic junction on the rail and road routes between Zagreb and Split, Croatia, Split. ...

SR Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), commonly abbreviated as SR Croatia and referred to as simply Croatia, was a ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

. He subsequently became a Serbian citizen. His grandfather Stevan was killed at his home during

Operation Storm Operation Storm ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Operacija Oluja, separator=" / ", Операција Олуја) was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory f ...

and his body was exhumed from a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

17 years later.

References

External links