Jānis Strēlnieks (born 1 September 1989) is a Latvian 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 for

Obradoiro CAB Obradoiro Clube de Amigos do Baloncesto, S.A.D. (lit, Obradoiro Friends of Basketball Club), also known as Monbus Obradoiro for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball team based in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. They currently comp ...

of the

Liga ACB 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 ...

. He also represents the senior Latvia national team. Standing at tall, he mainly plays at the

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 basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...

position.

Professional career

Strēlnieks started his professional career in 2007, with Latvian team

Ventspils Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

, where he played for four years. In 2010, he was pursued by 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 ...

club Union Olimpija, which was then head coached by

Jure Zdovc Jurij "Jure" Zdovc (born 13 December 1966) is a Slovenian former professional basketball player and coach. He was most recently the head coach of Bursaspor of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). As a player, he was a tall point guard, who ...

. However, Ventspils didn't let him go to Slovenia. After all, in November 2011, he finally got a chance to play for coach Zdovc, as he was at the time coaching the Russian team Spartak Saint Petersburg, that had bought out Strēlnieks' contract from Ventspils. He spent the next two seasons with Spartak. One of the highlights of his time in Spartak, was making the EuroCup's 2012 Final Four. In August 2013, Strēlnieks joined the EuroLeague team Budivelnyk, signing a two-year contract with them. Strēlnieks enjoyed a successful season with Budivelnyk, that included winning the Ukrainian Super League championship, and playing in the

for the first time. However, after the season ended, he had to opt out of his contract, due to the unstable political situation in Ukraine at the time. In July 2014, he signed a one-year deal with the German club

Brose Bamberg Bamberg Baskets is a German professional basketball team from Bamberg, Franconia/North Bavaria. The club has won the German Championship title nine times and the German Cup six times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketball ...

. In the following three seasons, Strēlnieks won the German

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

with Bamberg. In the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons, Strēlnieks also played in the

with Brose. On 20 June 2017, Strēlnieks signed a two-year contract with

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

, of 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 ...

and the

. On 8 July 2019, Strēlnieks signed a two-year deal with

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

. On 11 June 2021, Strēlnieks officially parted ways with the Russian club. In 70 games (16 starts), he averaged 6.2 points, 1.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists. On 29 July 2021, Strēlnieks signed a one-year deal with Žalgiris Kaunas of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

and the

. On August 10, 2022, Strēlnieks joined

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

of the

on a one-year deal. On March 16, 2023, Strēlnieks suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon rupture injury. In 15 domestic league games, he averaged 8.9 points, 1.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists, playing around 21 minutes per contest.

National team career

Latvia junior national team

In 2007, Strēlnieks was a part of the Latvian Under-18 junior national team that won the bronze medal at the

2007 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2007 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was an international basketball competition held in Spain in 2007. Final ranking 1. 2. Greece 3. Latvia 4. Lithuania 5. Spain 6. France 7. Croatia 8. Turkey 9. Germany 10. Russia ...

, which was held in

Madrid, Spain Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. He made a game-winning basket in the last seconds of regulation against Lithuania's Under-18 junior national team, in the bronze medal game.

Latvia senior national team

Strēlnieks is a member of the senior Latvia national team. With Latvia, Strēlnieks played at the following tournaments: the

EuroBasket 2011 EuroBasket 2011 was the 37th men's European Basketball Championship, held by FIBA Europe. The competition was hosted by Lithuania. This was the second time EuroBasket had been held in Lithuania, the country having also hosted the 1939 champions ...

EuroBasket 2013 EuroBasket 2013 was the 38th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe. It took place from 4 September until 22 September 2013 in Slovenia. The number of participating teams was 24. France men's national basketball ...

EuroBasket 2015 EuroBasket 2015 was the 39th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe. It was co-hosted by Croatia, France, Germany, and Latvia, making it the first EuroBasket held in more than one country. It started on 5 Sept ...

, the Belgrade 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, and

EuroBasket 2017 EuroBasket 2017 was the 40th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe and held between 31 August and 17 September 2017. Beginning from 2017, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar ...

.EuroBasket 2017 profile
/ref>

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , align="left" , 2013–14 , align="left" , Budivelnyk , 10 , , 6 , , 22.5 , , .509 , , .464 , , 1.000 , , 1.4 , , 2.6 , , .9 , , .0 , , 8.1 , , 8.4 , - , align="left" , 2015–16 , align="left" rowspan=2 ,

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...

, 24 , , 4 , , 24.2 , , .476 , , .404 , , .913 , , 2.0 , , 3.3 , , .7 , , .1 , , 9.8 , , 10.7 , - , align="left" , 2016–17 , 22 , , 5 , , 25.1 , , .522 , , .459 , , .892 , , 2.2 , , 3.5 , , .6 , , .1 , , 11.7 , , 12.8 , - , align="left" , 2017–18 , align="left" rowspan=2 ,

, 34 , , 4 , , 19.9 , , .435 , , .382 , , .918 , , 1.3 , , 2.1 , , .6 , , .0 , , 7.5 , , 7.1 , - , align="left" , 2018–19 , 20 , , 5 , , 20.4 , , .495 , , .459 , , .868 , , 1.9 , , 2.0 , , .7 , , .1 , , 8.8 , , 8.3 , - , align="left" , 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan=2,

, 21 , , 6 , , 16.0 , , .538 , , .417 , , .921 , , 1.8 , , 2.0 , , .6 , , .0 , , 7.2 , , 8.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2020–21 , 26 , , 3 , , 13.4 , , .460 , , .417 , , .643, , 0.8 , , 1.6 , , .3 , , .0 , , 4.4 , , 3.2 , - , align="left" , 2021–22 , align="left" , Žalgiris , 23 , , 22 , , 20.5 , , .391 , , .337 , , .857 , , 1.7 , , 1.8 , , .7 , , .1 , , 6.5 , , 5.6 , - class="sortbottom" , align="center" colspan="2", Career , 180 , , 55 , , 20.0 , , .466 , , .410 , , .891 , , 1.6 , , 2.3 , , .6 , , .0 , , 7.9 , , 7.9

Personal life

His older brother, Artūrs, is also a professional basketball player.

References

External links

Jānis Strēlnieks
at baskethotel.com
Jānis Strēlnieks
at draftexpress.com *
Jānis Strēlnieks
at

eurobasket.com Eurobasket.com, also commonly referred to as "Eurobasket News", is a basketball-centered website that provides coverage of every professional and semi-professional club basketball league from around the world, as well as many amateur level lea ...

Jānis Strēlnieks
at euroleague.net (archive)
Janis Strelnieks
at euroleaguebasketball.net *

at fibaeurope.com
Janis Strelnieks
at realgm.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Strelnieks, Janis 1989 births Living people AEK B.C. players BC Budivelnyk players BC Spartak Saint Petersburg players BC Žalgiris players BK Ventspils players Bamberg Baskets players Latvian expatriate basketball people in Russia Latvian expatriate basketball people in Germany Latvian expatriate basketball people in Greece Latvian expatriate basketball people in Lithuania Latvian men's basketball players Olympiacos B.C. players PBC CSKA Moscow players Sportspeople from Talsi Point guards Scafati Basket players Shooting guards