Sandis Valters (born 31 August 1978) is a retired professional basketball shooting guard, who last played for BK Ventspils. He is member of

Latvia national basketball team The Latvia men's national basketball team ( lv, Latvijas basketbola izlase) represents Latvia in international basketball. They are organized and run by the Latvian Basketball Association. Latvia has reached the European Basketball Championshi ...

. His father is a former Soviet basketball star,

Valdis Valters Valdis Valters (born August 4, 1957) is a retired Latvian professional basketball player. He played at the point guard position for the senior USSR national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest players to have played the game in Europe in ...

, and his younger brother,

Kristaps Valters Kristaps Valters (born September 18, 1981) is a Latvian former professional basketball player. After retiring he became a coach, and is currently working as a head coach for Valmiera/ORDO. Playing career Valters first played professionally i ...

, also plays professional basketball.

Professional career

He first played professionally in 1994, for BK Brocēni, where he won his first five Latvian league titles. In 2001, after Brocēni disappeared, Valters moved to their successor BK Skonto, where he spent two seasons. In 2003, Sandis signed with Germany's team TBB Trier, where he had great season. Next season he also started in Germany, playing for team from Wuerzburg, but later in 2005 moved to Ukrainie, where he finished season with

BC Azovmash MBK Mariupol ( uk, МБК «Маріуполь»") (former name: BK Azovmash)is a Ukrainian professional basketball club. It was founded in 1990 in the city of Mariupol in South-Eastern Ukraine. Mariupol was one of the strongest teams in Ukraine ...

. For the 2005–06 season Valters had offers from Greece, Israel and Russia, but he opted to return to the Riga, where he signed lucrative contract with then up-and-coming team ASK Rīga. Valters also served as the captain of team. His best season with ASK was in 2006–07 as he led his squad to Latvian league title, while Valters was named finals most valuable player. During that season Valters was selected in every tournament's All-Star game ( LBL,

BBL A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...

and FIBA EuroCup) that his club participated in. In July 2008 Lithuanian powerhouse

BC Lietuvos Rytas Rytas Vilnius is a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in Vilnius, Lithuania. The club was founded in 1997 from another club, Statyba, and has become one of the most successful Lithuanian basketball clubs. Rytas have won two EuroCup Ba ...

wanted to sign Valters, but ASK did not let him go. In early 2009 Valters had to leave ASK as the club went through financial problems, so he signed for the remainder of the season with the Italian team from

Imola Imola (; rgn, Jômla or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical r ...

. An injury during the Eurobasket 2009 preparation game with Latvian national team forced Valters to miss the first half of the 2009–10 season. In January 2010 he signed with VEF Rīga, where he played for next two and a half seasons, winning two Latvian league championships. In one of those finals Valters was named as most valuable player. On 19 September 2012, Valters signed a two-year contract with BK Ventspils. In his first season with Ventspils, he helped to win the

Baltic Basketball League Baltic Basketball League (BBL) was the Baltic states basketball league founded in 2004. The league mainly focused on teams from the Baltic states, but teams from Sweden, Russia, Kazakhstan, Finland, and Belarus have participated in the Balti ...

championship. At the end of the 2013–14 season, Valters won his 9th Latvian League championship.

International career

Valters was a regular member of the

and has played in two

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 ...

(

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

and

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

) tournaments. One of his best games with the national team was in 2005 against Spain, when he erupted for 28 points, hitting six three-pointers, including buzzer beating three-pointer at the end of regulation.fibaeurope.com
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valters, Sandis 1978 births Living people ASK Riga players BC Azovmash players BK VEF Rīga players BK Ventspils players Latvian men's basketball players Shooting guards Basketball players from Riga