Zoran Erceg (Serbian Cyrillic: Зоран Ерцег; born 11 January 1985) is a Serbian former professional basketball player. He represented the Serbian national basketball team internationally. Standing at 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m), he played the power forward position.

Zoran Erceg
Erceg with Galatasaray in October 2013.
Personal information
Born (1985-01-11) 11 January 1985 (age 39)
Pakrac, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
NationalitySerbian
Listed height2.11 m (6 ft 11 in)
Listed weight112 kg (247 lb)
Career information
NBA draft2007: undrafted
Playing career2002–2015
PositionPower forward
Number4, 7, 14, 17
Career history
2002–2003Polet Novi Bečej
2003–2008FMP
2006Borac Čačak
2008–2011Olympiacos
2009–2010Panionios
2011–2012Beşiktaş
2012–2013CSKA Moscow
2013–2015Galatasaray
Career highlights and awards

Professional career

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Early years

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Erceg started playing professionally with Polet Keramika Novi Bečej in 2002, before going to FMP in 2003. In 2006 he was shortly loaned to Borac Čačak.

Olympiacos (2008–11)

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He signed a 5-year contract with the Greek team Olympiacos Piraeus in June 2008.[1] In December 2009, Erceg was loaned to Panionios for the rest of the 2009–10 season.[2]

Beşiktaş (2011–12)

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In August 2011, he signed a one-year deal with the Turkish team Beşiktaş.[3] With them, he won every competition they participated in, the Turkish League championship, Turkish Cup and a third-tier European competition EuroChallenge. His games in Beşiktaş attracted the interest of many European big clubs.

CSKA Moscow (2012–13)

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On 29 June 2012 he signed a three-year contract with the Russian team CSKA Moscow.[4] During his stint in CSKA, Erceg has mostly came off-the-bench, producing 6.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. He won the Russian League championship and the VTB United League.

Galatasaray (2013–15)

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Despite having a three-year contract, Erceg terminated it and signed a two-year contract with Galatasaray Liv Hospital in July 2013.[5][6] In the new team, Erceg had bigger role than in his previous team. In April Euroleague game overtime loss against his former team CSKA Moscow, he set career-high and also team record 35 points, while also adding 9 rebounds and 2 steals.[7] He finished season with career-highs of 11.2 points and 4.9 rebounds over 25 games. In the 2014–15 season his role in the team increased even more. He had a season-high 32 points in a double overtime 110–103 victory over Crvena zvezda.[8] He also hit a 30 feet far buzzer-beater to put the game in an overtime.[9] For such performance, he was named the Euroleague MVP of Round 6, for the first time in his career.[10]

National team career

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Erceg played with the senior Serbian national basketball team at the EuroBasket 2007.

He represented Serbia once again at the EuroBasket 2015 under head coach Aleksandar Đorđević.[11] In the first phase of the tournament, Serbia dominated in the toughest Group B with 5-0 record, and then eliminated Finland and Czech Republic in the round-of-16 and quarterfinals, respectively. Erceg had his best performance scoring 20 points against Czech Republic in the quarterfinal game. However, Serbia was stopped in the semifinal game by Lithuania 64–67,[12] and eventually lost to the host team France in the bronze-medal game 68–81.[13] Over 9 tournament games, Erceg averaged 8.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game on 52.4% shooting from the field.[14]

Career statistics

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Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

EuroLeague

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2008–09 Olympiacos 20 1 11.8 .583 .445 .559 2.1 .3 .5 .1 5.0 4.5
2010–11 16 4 17.8 .413 .297 .875 3.1 .5 .4 .4 5.9 5.7
2012–13 CSKA 15 5 14.4 .457 .375 .917 2.5 .5 .7 .1 6.2 6.5
2013–14 Galatasaray 25 23 27.5 .400 .333 .925 4.9 1.6 .6 .2 11.2 13.2
2014–15 22 22 30.7 .408 .388 .899 4.3 .9 1.2 .1 15.0 15.4
Career 98 55 22.5 .427 .363 .854 3.6 .8 .7 .2 9.1 9.7

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "B92: Erceg u Olimpijakosu". B92.net (in Serbian). June 12, 2008. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  2. ^ "Zoran Erceg to Panionios". Sportando.com. December 4, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  3. ^ "Besiktas signs Zoran Erceg". Sportando.com. September 6, 2011. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  4. ^ "CSKA MOSCOW signs big man Erceg". Euroleague.net. June 29, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  5. ^ "Zoran Erceg leaves CSKA Moscow, set to join Galatasaray". Sportando. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  6. ^ "Galatasaray announced Zoran Erceg". sportando.com. 1 August 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  7. ^ "Top 16, Round 13 bwin MVP: Dimitris Diamantidis, Panathinaikos Athens". euroleague.net. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  8. ^ "Erceg, Arroyo star in Galatasaray's 2OT win over Crvena Zvezda". euroleague.net. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  9. ^ "EL: Erceg ukrao pobedu Zvezdi!". b92.net (in Serbian). Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  10. ^ "Regular season Round 6 bwin MVP: Zoran Erceg, Galatasaray Liv Hospital Istanbul". euroleague.net. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  11. ^ "AMBITIOUS SERBIA UNVEIL POWERFUL 12-MAN SQUAD". eurobasket2015.org. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  12. ^ "LITHUANIA END SERBIAN STREAK, RETURN TO FINAL". eurobasket2015.org. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  13. ^ "FRANCE REWARD HOME SUPPORT WITH BRONZE". eurobasket2015.org. 20 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  14. ^ "Player profile: Zoran Erceg". eurobasket2015.org. FIBA Europe. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
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