Ermal Kuqo (; born February 12, 1980) is a retired Albanian-Turkish 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 who played the majority of his career for

Efes Pilsen Anadolu Efes Biracılık ve Malt Sanayii A.Ş.'' (lit. Anadolu Efes Brewery and Malt Industries)'' produces and markets beer and malt and non-alcoholic beverages in Turkey, the United States, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), E ...

. He is also a basketball executive for the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. The ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

working as Director of International Pro Player Personnel. He is widely accepted as the greatest Albanian basketball player of all times. Kuqo was a part of the Turkish national team from 2004 until 2010, but in the summer of 2010 got granted the wish to play for his birth country Albania national team.

Professional career

Kuqo started his career in Tirana playing for

KB Tirana KB Tirana are an Albanian professional basketball team based in Tirana, which is the basketball branch of SK Tirana. They compete in the Albanian Basketball Superleague and in the Liga Unike. The club plays its home domestic games at the Fari ...

during the 1994-95 season in the Albanian Basketball League at the age of 14. He was one of the youngest professional players of the league at the time. At the age of 15, Kuqo moved away from Albania to Istanbul, Turkey where he signed a long term deal with Fenerbahçe. After having spent 4 years with the team from Istanbul, Ermal moved to the United States to continue his studies and play in college. 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 ...

Fort Scott Community College Fort Scott Community College is a Public college, public community college in Fort Scott, Kansas. It has satellite buildings in other cities in Crawford County, Kansas, Crawford County, including Pittsburg, Kansas, Pittsburg and Frontenac, Kansa ...

Fort Scott, Kansas Fort Scott is a city in and the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, Bourbon County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 7,552. It is named for Gen. Winfield Scott. The cit ...

and Seminole State College in

Seminole, Oklahoma Seminole () is a city in Seminole County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 7,488 at the 2010 census. Seminole experienced a large population growth in the 1920s due to an oil boom. History The city was platted in 1906 as a relocatio ...

, United States for a then young

Chris Beard (basketball) Christopher Michael Beard (born February 18, 1973) is an American basketball coach who is the head men's coach at University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). He also previously served as head coach at Texas, Texas Tech, Little Rock, Angelo State, and ...

who is now one of the most respected

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

college coaches in the United States. As he was immediately eligible to play in the

Ermal signed a National Letter of Intent to play at the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

after his successful season at

to play for the legendary coach

Bill Self Billy Eugene Self Jr. (born December 27, 1962) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball, Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Self has held various coaching roles at the collegiate level an ...

. But Bill Self left the

a couple of weeks after Ermal had signed his NLI and the University hired coach

Buzz Peterson Robert Bower "Buzz" Peterson Jr. (born May 17, 1963) is an American basketball executive who is the assistant general manager for the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has also coached college basketball, most re ...

. Ermal did not see himself fit in coach Peterson's system and immediately asked to be released from his commitment, a wish that the school did not grant. This forced Kuqo to go back to

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is the governing association of community college, State college (disambiguation), state college, and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 sepa ...

and he transferred to Seminole State College and reunite with

. Both coaches have repeatedly spoken highly of Kuqo throughout the years After his sophomore season at Seminole State College, Kuqo signed a Letter of Intent with

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

in the

to play for the legendary

Bobby Knight Robert Montgomery Knight (October 25, 1940 – November 1, 2023) was an American men's college basketball coach. Nicknamed "the General", he won 902 NCAA Division I men's basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement and sixth all- ...

, but because of his previous European pro career, he got ruled ineligible. After that he decided to come back to Europe and continue his career with the famous Dalmatian team

KK Split Košarkaški klub Split (), commonly referred to as KK Split or simply Split, is a men's professional basketball Sports club, club based in Split, Croatia, Split, Croatia. The club competes in the ABA League and the HT Premijer liga, Croatian Leag ...

(ex-Jugoplastika). After a frustrating season with the Žuti he finally had his breakout season with the Slovenian club

KK Pivovarna Laško KK, K.K., kK, k.k., or other sequences of two k's with or without punctuation may refer to: Arts and media *KK, the production code for the 1967 ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Faceless Ones'' * "KK" (song), a 2014 song by Wiz Khalifa * Kk. or Kirk ...

, averaging almost 13 ppg and 7 rpg in the

Adriatic 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 Macedonia, ...

. In the summer of 2003 Ermal signed a two-year contract with the Turkish powerhouse Efes Pilsen, coached by Oktay Mahmuti, where he had an immediate impact both in the

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 ...

as well as in the Basketball Super League (; BSL), establishing himself as one of the premier players of the team, winning back to back championships in 2004 and 2005. At the end of 2007-08 season Kuqo signed a two-year deal with Pamesa Valencia. He had a very up and down and inconsistent season, especially after

Neven Spahija Neven Spahija (born 6 November 1962) is a Croatian professional basketball coach, who is currently the head coach for Reyer Venezia of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He spent four years in the NBA as an assistant coach with the Atlanta Ha ...

took over from

Fotios Katsikaris Fotios Katsikaris (alternate spelling: Fotis) (Greek: Φώτιος Κατσικάρης; born 16 May 1967) is a Greek professional basketball coach and a former professional basketball player, he was most recently head coach for the Bàsquet Giron ...

in mid November. Most of the time coach Spahija preferred

Kosta Perović Kosta Perović ( sr-Cyrl, Коста Перовић; born February 19, 1985) is a Serbian former professional basketball player. He represented the Serbian national basketball team internationally. In the 2006 NBA draft he was a second-round se ...

and

Matt Nielsen Matthew Peter Nielsen (born 3 February 1978) is an Australian professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He served as an assistant coach for ...

playing together and was considering Kuqo to be a surplus to requirements. In late January he suffered a calf injury that put a stop to his playing time for at least a month, and that took Ermal out of the rotation. Even though he started the pre-season preparation with Valencia the next year, Kuqo and the team decided to part ways in early September and Kuqo after that signed a contract to come back to Efes Pilsen. After two frustrating seasons, his old coach Oktay Mahmuti offered Kuqo a contract to play for Galatasaray Spor Kulubu, offer which Ermal immediately accepted. He had a chance to show his best self playing for Galatasaray in 2010–11 season where together with

Preston Shumpert Preston Anthony Shumpert (20 August 1979), also known by his Turkish name of Mert Shumpert, is an American-born, naturalised-Turkish professional basketball player. He was twice named to the All-Big East first team while playing college basketball ...

they led the team in scoring at 11 ppg and took their team to their first playoffs final since 1990 where they lost to a powerful Fenerbahçe team 4-2. At the end of that season Ermal was selected as a unanimous All Turkish League selection and Turkish League Center of the year by the prestigious basketball website Eurobasket.com. In June 2011, Ermal agreed to a two-year contract to play again for his former team

. On July 12, 2013 Ermal signed a contract to play for

Dimitrios Itoudis Dimitrios Itoudis (alternate spelling: Dimitris) (, born September 8, 1970) is a Greek professional basketball coach who is currently the head coach for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Premier League and the EuroCup. He formerly coached the Greec ...

at Banvit BK, now Teksüt Bandırma. He was the team's co-captain and stayed with the team for one year. During the season Banvit won the regular season and was the number 1 seed for the playoffs, but later lost to the eventual champions, Galatasaray in the semifinals. In the summer of 2014, Kuqo signed with Darüşşafaka & Doğuş for the 2014–15 season, once again reuniting with his former coach Oktay Mahmuti and serving as the team's captain. In June 2015, he signed with

Türk Telekom Türk Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. () is a state-owned Turkish telecommunications company. Türk Telekom was separated from Turkish Post (PTT) in 1995. Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services for PSTN, GSM, and wideband I ...

for the 2015–16 season. On August 27, 2016 he announced his retirement from basketball via his

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account.

National team career

In the summer of 2004, facing a choice of national teams he selected

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, which gave him the opportunity to compete in the highest level competitions, such as

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 ...

and

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

. Ermal's Turkey national team career reached its peak in the

2006 FIBA World Championship The 2006 FIBA World Championship was the 15th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. The tournament was hosted by Japan and held from 19 August to 3 September 2006. It was co-organised b ...

where they reached the 6th place. Ermal's best game in the tournament came against

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

where he scored 24 points and secured his team's win and also the 6th rank of the tournament. After playing for the Turkish side in two European Championships (2005, 2007) and a World Championship (2006), in 2010 he decided to ask FIBA to grant him permission to play for his native country of Albania. He led Albania in scoring in the summer of 2010 in FIBA's Division B games averaging 19 points per game. He represented the Albania national team for 4 years.

Post-playing career

Kuqo started to work closely with the

media department after finishing his playing career and is a regular fixture on the league's website's Experts Round Table series for the last 4 seasons. He was one of the Euroleague Ambassadors during the

EuroLeague Final Four The EuroLeague Final Four is the final four format championship of the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague professional club basketball competition. The Euroleague Basketball Company used the final four format for the first time in 2002, fo ...

held in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

in 2017 and took active part during the activities set up during the event. Ermal was the host of one of the

2017 promo mini documentaries featuring Istanbul as the only player to have played for all Euroleague teams of 2016–17 season from

. The documentary featured Ermal having conversations with several prominent names leading and representing Turkish basketball in several hotspots around the city of Istanbul. The highlight of the documentary is the casual dinner with two of the greatest coaches in the history of the Euroleague,

Željko Obradović Željko Obradović ( sr-cyrl, Желимир "Жељко" Обрадовић, ; born 9 March 1960) is a Serbian professional basketball Coach (basketball), coach and former professional player who is the head coach for KK Partizan, Partizan of the ...

and

David Blatt David Michael Blatt (; born May 22, 1959) is an Israeli-American professional basketball executive. He is also a former coach and player. Blatt played point guard at Princeton University from 1977 to 1981 and played in the Maccabiah Games for ...

. The mini-film has had over 100k views on Youtube.The Insider EuroLeague Documentary Series presented by Turkish Airlines: "Istanbul: Hoops Hub"
/ref> On August 27, 2016, he announced his retirement from professional basketball, Kuqo accepted an offer to become a scouting consultant for the

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA). On September 30, 2018, he was promoted to full-time international scout for the Los Angeles Clippers. On July 1, 2019, he was promoted to director of international pro scouting personnel for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Personal life

Kuqo's father Robert and uncle Artan are basketball icons in his home country

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. Kuqo came to

when he was 15. He gained

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

citizenship in 1997 and because of Turkish laws had to change his last name to Kurtoğlu. He used his Turkish last name Kurtoğlu when he played in the Turkish league, but in the

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 ...

and other European competitions he played as "Kuqo". Ermal is married and has a son. He is fluent in

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

Spanish 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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

Awards and achievements

* Albanian Junior Championship Champion - '94 * Slovenian League All-Star Game -'03 * Turkish President Cup Winner - '05, '06,'09 * Turkish League Regular season Champion -'04, '05, '09 * Turkish League Champion - '04, '05 * Turkish League All-Stars Game - '05, '07, '08, '11*, '13; (*did not participate due to injury) * Turkish Cup Winner - '06, '07 * Eurobasket.com All-Turkish League Center of the Year - '11 * Eurobasket.com All-Turkish League 1st Team - '11 * Eurobasket.com All-Turkish League Domestic Players Team - '11

Professional career

National team career

Post-playing career

Personal life

Awards and achievements

References

External links