American basketball player
Marcus James Brown
(born April 3, 1974) is a retired American professional
basketball
player. At 6'3" (1.91 m) tall, he played as a
shooting guard
. A three time
All-EuroLeague
selection, Brown has been mentioned as being one of the top U.S. players ever to play abroad. Brown ended his career as a
player-coach
with
?algiris Kaunas
in 2011.
[1]
Brown was the
EuroLeague
's career scoring leader since the year 2000, when he ended his career in October 2011. As far as United States players only are concerned, Brown remains one of league's higher scoring players in the competition since the year 2000, when the league's current organizer (
EuroLeague Basketball
) took over the competition.
College career
[
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]
Brown played
college basketball
at
Murray State University
, in the
Ohio Valley Conference
. In his senior season, he averaged 26.4 points per game, on 50 percent shooting from the field, and 42 percent shooting from
3-point range
. It was announced in October 2009, that Brown was named to the Murray State University Athletic Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame on February 6, 2010. That same night, his No. 5 jersey
was retired by Murray State
, and is hanging in the rafters at the
CFSB Center
.
Professional career
[
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]
Brown was selected with the 19
th pick of the 2nd round, in the
1996 NBA draft
, by the
NBA
club the
Portland Trail Blazers
. He played the
1996–97 NBA season
with the Trail Blazers
, where he averaged 4 points per game, in 9 minutes per game, while shooting 41 percent from 3 point range, in his rookie season. He then signed with the
Vancouver Grizzlies
for the
1997–98 season
, but he did not play in any regular season games for them.
After being released by the Grizzlies, during the 1997–98 NBA season, he signed with the
French League
club
EB Pau-Orthez
, for the remainder of the 1997–98 season. He averaged 20.5 points per game in the French League with Pau-Orthez, and led them to the 1998 French League championship. Unfortunately, Brown
tore
the
ACL
in his knee in the final game of the French playoffs.
Brown took off the entire 1998–99 season to rehab his knee injury. He then played in the NBA again, with the
Detroit Pistons
, at the start of the
1999–00 season
. The Pistons released him in 1999, after he played with the club in 6 regular season games. He then returned to the French League, where he signed with
CSP Limoges
for the remainder of the 1999–00 season. With Limoges, he won the French League championship, the
French Cup
title, and the
FIBA Kora? Cup
championship. He was named the
French League Foreign Player's MVP
.
After having a lot of success in the French League for 2 seasons, he then moved up to the higher level
Italian League
, where he signed with the Italian
EuroLeague
club
Benetton Treviso
for the 2000–01 season. With Benetton he played in the EuroLeague for the first time, and he averaged 19.9 points per game that season in the EuroLeague. After that season, he signed with one of the biggest clubs in the EuroLeague, the
Turkish League
club
Efes Pilsen
.
Over the next two seasons with Efes, Brown was very successful in Turkey, as he won the
Turkish Cup
, and 2
Turkish League
national championships. He was also named to the
2002?03
season's
All-EuroLeague Second Team
, after he averaged 19.6 points per game. Brown then moved to the
Russian Super League
powerhouse
CSKA Moscow
, where he signed a contract that made him the highest paid American basketball player in Europe at that time.
[2]
Over the next two seasons with CSKA, he was quite successful in Russia, as he won the
Russian Cup
, 2
Russian National Championships
, and the
Russian Super League A Player of the Year
award in 2004. He was also named to the
2003?04
season's All-EuroLeague First Team and to the
2004?05
season's All-EuroLeague Second Team, while he was a member of CSKA.
Brown then spent the next two seasons playing with
Unicaja Malaga
of the
Spanish ACB League
, where over those 2 years he would play alongside fellow ex-
NBA
players
Daniel Santiago
,
Pepe Sanchez
,
Jorge Garbajosa
, and
Ji?i Welsch
. He helped to lead Unicaja Malaga to its first ever
Spanish League
national championship, during the 2005?06 season.
[
citation needed
]
After spending two seasons with Malaga, Brown joined the
Lithuanian League
club
?algiris Kaunas
. With Zalgiris, in the 2007?08 season, Brown won the
Lithuanian League
national championship, the
Lithuanian Cup
title, and the
Baltic League
championship, all in the same season. He was also named
the MVP of the Lithuanian League playoff finals
that season.
On October 19, 2008, Brown was
loaned
from (
?algiris
) and signed with the
EuroLeague
club
Maccabi Tel Aviv
of the
Israeli League
, for the 2008?09 season, and with them he won yet another national domestic championship, in May 2009.
[3]
Brown rejoined (
?algiris
) in 2009, and helped the team win the
BBL Cup
.
[4]
In his final season, Brown helped ?algiris win the triple crown in Lithuania, winning the LKF Cup, LKL championship and the BBL.
On November 25, 2009, Brown became one of four players who had managed to make 300 or more
three point shots
in the EuroLeague at that time,
counting only records since the year 2000
.
[5]
Post-career honors
[
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]
On October 17, 2011, his former team,
?algiris Kaunas
, held a ceremony to honor Brown during the halftime of the opening night of the 2011?12 season, in the club's new
15,552 seat arena
in
Kaunas, Lithuania
.
In January 2013, the
Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame
announced that Brown would be honored as a member of the class of 2013 inductees which included Dallas Cowboy owner
Jerry Jones
.
[6]
Player profile
[
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]
Brown, who during his playing career, was a 6'3" (191 cm) tall
[7]
shooting guard
, scored
more points than any other U.S. player
in the
EuroLeague
, counting only
EuroLeague records since the 2000?01 season
, with 2,739 career points scored. He was also the league's leading scorer overall, since the year 2000, at the time that he retired from the league, in 2011.
A high-quality player, who was always able to make a big impact in top-level European teams, Brown played at the
EuroLeague Final Four
in
2004
,
2005
, and
2007
. He also earned
All-EuroLeague Team
selections in the 2002?03, 2003?04, and 2004?05 seasons. He was selected to the All-EuroLeague Second Team for the
2002?03
season, when he played for
Efes Pilsen
, and he was selected to the All-EuroLeague First Team for the
2003?04
season, and to the Second Team for the
2004?05
season, when he played for
CSKA Moscow
. He was nominated for the 2008
50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors
list, although he was not selected to the final list. He also nominated for the
EuroLeague 2000?10 All-Decade Team
, however he was not selected to the final list.
Personal achievements and awards
[
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]
Club titles won
[
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]
Career statistics
[
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]
EuroLeague
[
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]
References and notes
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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Player of the Year
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French Domestic MVP
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Foreign MVP
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Unified MVP
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