Donatas Zavackas (born 23 April 1980) 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 (appro ...

executive and former player, who is the sports director for Wolves Twinsbet of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) and the EuroCup. He 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 ...

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

. Standing at , he played the

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers and are typi ...

position.

College career

During his successful career at Pitt, Zavackas was known as one of the most intelligent, hardworking team players in the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

. Zavackas was a key component in Head Coach Ben Howland's transformation of the Panthers into a level of league elite status. The season before Zavackas arrived, Pitt finished the Big East season in 11th place with a 5–13 record (14–16 overall). During Zavackas' four years the Panthers captured two regular season Big East Titles, played in three Big East tournament (BET) Championship games and captured one BET Championship. Pitt also played in one National Invitation Tournament and two NCAA Tournaments (advancing to the Sweet 16 round both times) with Zavackas at

position. Zavackas scored 1,099 points for the Panthers which currently places him 31st on Pitt's All Time scoring list. His .807 free throw percentage is good enough for 5th place in Panther history. Unfortunately, many Pittsburgh fans only remember Zavackas for removing his shoes and refusing to play in the waning minutes of an NCAA Tournament game. That game, versus Marquette, would be his last career college game.

Professional career

After winning third place in the Lithuanian League (LKL) with

Šiauliai Šiauliai ( ; ) is a city in northern Lithuania, the List of cities in Lithuania, country's fourth largest city and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, sixth largest city in the Baltic States, with a population of 112 581 in 202 ...

, he moved to

Lietuvos Rytas ''Lietuvos rytas'' (lit. 'Morning of Lithuania') is a Lithuanian daily newspaper. History and profile "Lietuvos rytas" was established in 1990 on a basis of newspaper "Komjaunimo tiesa". The paper is printed in Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is ...

, where he became the LKL champion in 2009. In this club he gained reputation of overly emotional player. In August 2010, he signed a one-year contract with the German club EnBW Ludwigsburg. In June 2011, he extended his contract with Ludwigsburg for one more season. In February, 2012 he moved to BK VEF Rīga, signing a two-year contract with a team. On September 2, 2013, he signed a one-month contract with the EuroLeague powerhouse CSKA Moscow, to work with the team during preseason period. Later that month he moved to the German team Telekom Baskets Bonn. On December 30, 2013, he signed with the Italian team Vanoli Cremona for the remainder of the season. In August 2014, he signed a two-year deal with his former team Neptūnas Klaipėda. On August 16, 2016, Zavackas signed with Consultinvest Pesaro of the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

. On October 9, 2017, Zavackas retired and became the sports director of Neptūnas Klaipėda.

EuroLeague career statistics

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2009–10 , style="text-align:left;",

, 10 , , 9 , , 24.9 , , .379 , , .400 , , .826 , , 3.1 , , 1.1 , , .9 , , .2 , , 7.9 , , 6.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , style="text-align:left;", Neptūnas , 10 , , 9 , , 25.9 , , .594 , , .571 , , .750 , , 5.1 , , 1.8 , , .7 , , .0 , , 12.0 , , 13.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career , 20 , , 18 , , 25.4 , , .496 , , .480 , , .788 , , 4.1 , , 1.5 , , .8 , , .1 , , 10.0 , , 10.2

References

External links

Donatas Zavackas
at euroleague.net

at FIBA.com

at pittsburghpanthers.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Zavackas, Donatas 1980 births Living people BC Dnipro players BC Neptūnas players BC Rytas players BC Šiauliai players Besançon BCD players BK VEF Rīga players Bree BBC players KK Włocławek players Lega Basket Serie A players Liège Basket players Lithuanian men's basketball players 21st-century Lithuanian sportsmen Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Poland Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Ukraine Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Latvia Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in Germany Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in the United States Riesen Ludwigsburg players Pallalcesto Amatori Udine players Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball players Power forwards Basketball players from Klaipėda Telekom Baskets Bonn players Vanoli Cremona players Victoria Libertas Pallacanestro players St. Vincent–St. Mary High School alumni