Artūras Karnišovas

Artūras Karnišovas

Personal information
Born	(1971-04-27) April 27, 1971 Klaipėda, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Lithuanian
Listed height	6 ft 8.5 in (2.04 m)
Listed weight	203 lb (92 kg)
Career information
College	Seton Hall (1990–1994)
NBA draft	1994 / Undrafted
Playing career	1987–2002
Position	Small forward
Career history
1987–1990	Statyba
1994–1995	Cholet
1995–1997	FC Barcelona
1997–1998	Olympiacos
1998–2000	Fortitudo Bologna
2000–2002	FC Barcelona
Career highlights and awards
FIBA EuroStars MVP (1997) European Player of the Year (1996)
Medals Men's basketball Representing Lithuania Olympic Games 1992 Barcelona National team 1996 Atlanta National team EuroBasket 1995 Greece National team

Artūras Karnišovas (born April 27, 1971) is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player.

Personal life and college career

Born in Klaipėda, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union, Karnišovas started his early career in Lithuania, with Statyba Vilnius, while in high school, and played there until 1990. Expressing an interest in playing and studying in the United States, Karnišovas earned an invitation to play college basketball at Seton Hall University following a recommendation of Šarūnas Marčiulionis to Seton Hall coach P.J. Carlesimo during the 1990 FIBA World Championship. Karnišovas was the first player from the USSR to play in an American college, and arrived there without knowing a single word of English. In four years playing for the Seton Hall Pirates, Karnišovas helped the team win two Big East Tournaments and qualify for four straight NCAA championships, being the only player in all squads.

Professional playing career

After trying and failing to draw interest from an NBA team, Karnišovas began playing overseas. His former coach Carlesimo attributed his lack of play in North America due to insufficient scouting and guaranteed financial return in Europe. Karnišovas is one of the few players to have been in Europe's four strongest championships, Spain (for Barcelona), Italy (Fortitudo Bologna), Greece (Olympiacos), and France (Cholet). He reached the Euroleague's Euroleague Final Four 3 times, and he led the 1998–99 Euroleague in free throw percentage (89.6%). He was chosen as FIBA’s European Player of the Year in 1994.

Lithuanian national team

Karnišovas helped lead the senior men's Lithuanian national basketball team to consecutive Bronze medals at the Summer Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996. He was also a first-team All-Star in the 1998 FIBA World Championship.

Post playing career

Karnišovas worked for the NBA's Basketball Operations office from 2003 to 2008, and afterwards became an international scout for the Houston Rockets for five years, while also directing the adidas Eurocamp - a preparation tournament for European players picked in the NBA draft - in 2011 and 2012. In 2013, he became the assistant general manager of the Denver Nuggets. Karnišovas is married to Gina, whom he met at Seton Hall, and they live in North Jersey with their two sons.

Career statistics

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

Note: The Euroleague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season. He also played in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable.

Euroleague

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG	PIR
2000–01	Barcelona	10	7	26.4	.500	.364	.831	5.0	1.3	.8	.2	13.9	15.3
2001–02	Barcelona	20	17	24.0	.512	.349	.789	3.7	1.4	1.4	.2	10.3	9.8

Awards and achievements

• Summer Olympic Games:  Bronze: 1992, 1996
• EuroBasket:  Silver: 1995
• FIBA EuroStars MVP: 1997
• 3x FIBA EuroStars participant: 1997, 1998, 1999
• European Player of the Year award by FIBA: 1996
• Spanish National Cup Champion: 2001
• Italian League champion: 2000
• Spanish League champion: 1996, 1997, 2001
• McDonald's Championship finalist: 1997 (most points scored - 19)