Ante Žižić
| No. 41 – Cibona Zagreb | |||||||||||||
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| Position | Center | ||||||||||||
| League |
Croatian League Adriatic League | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born |
January 4, 1997 Split, Croatia | ||||||||||||
| Nationality | Croatian | ||||||||||||
| Listed height | 2.12 m (6 ft 11 1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||||
| Listed weight | 117 kg (258 lb) | ||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||
| NBA draft | 2016 / Round: 1 / Pick: 23rd overall | ||||||||||||
| Selected by the Boston Celtics | |||||||||||||
| Playing career | 2012–present | ||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||
| 2012–2013 | Split | ||||||||||||
| 2013–2014 | Ribola Kaštela | ||||||||||||
| 2014–present | Cibona Zagreb | ||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||
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Medals
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Ante Toni Žižić (born 4 January 1997) is a Croatian professional basketball player for Cibona Zagreb. He was selected 23rd overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2016 NBA draft.
Career
His first team was KK Split in the 2013–14 season, but he played for the junior team there in which he only played 3 games. He moved to the KK Cedevita junior team this time playing 5 games. To start the 2014–15 season he played for KK Velika Gorica. He moved to Cibona for the rest of the season. In that year, he averaged 7.5 points, 0.3 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.9 blocks in 15.5 minutes per game. His breakout season was in the 2015–16 season. He was named the 2015–16 ABA League Top Prospect. In that season, he averaged 13.4 points, 8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 25.7 minutes per game.[1] He was selected with the 23rd overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.[2] He would, however, decide to continue playing for Cibona for at least one more season a few weeks after being drafted by the Celtics.
On 11 October 2016, Žižić was named MVP of the fourth week of the 2016–17 ABA League after scoring 37 points and grabbing 20 rebounds in Cibona's win against MZT Skopje Aerodrom by the final score of 89–85, that was decided after two overtimes.[3]
Family
His older brother Andrija was also a professional basketball player, and was a teammate of his in Cibona in the 2015–16 season.[4] He played over 100 Euroleague games with the likes of Barcelona, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, and even winning a Euroleague championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and participated in many tournaments with the Croatian National Team at both the junior and senior level. Ante was actually inspired by his brother to play basketball since he used to go to his games back when Andrija was a player. His brother is 17 years older than him, and he is now the sporting director for Cibona.
References
- ↑ "2015/16 Top Prospect: Ante Žižić". aba-liga.com. 9 March 2016.
- ↑ "Boston Celtics 2016 Draft Results". NBA.com. 24 June 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- ↑ "Round 4 MVP: Ante Žižić (Cibona)". ABA-liga.com. 11 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
- ↑ "Brother vs. Brother, Andrija vs. Ante" (in Croatian). Slobodna Dalmacija. 10 May 2013.