Kristjan Kangur

Kristjan Kangur (born 23 October 1982) is an Estonian professional basketball player for Pallacanestro Varese of the Lega Basket Serie A. He is 2.02 m (6 ft 7½ in) tall, 100 kg (220 lbs.), and he can play at both the small forward and power forward positions.

Professional career

2000–2004

Kangur started his professional career in 2000, when he signed with Tallinna Kalev. He stayed with the team for the next three years winning the Estonian Championship titles in 2002 and 2003. He also won the Estonian Cup in 2001. Despite his young age Kangur was one of the top performers in the Estonian league averaging 11.2 points and 7.3 rebounds in the 2002–03 season and 15.7 points and 6.2 rebounds in the 2003–04 season.

2004–2009

Good performances in Estonia earned Kangur his first foreign contract in 2004 when he signed with Bayer Giants Leverkusen of the German Bundesliga where he spent the next two seasons. After two years in Germany he returned to Estonia and signed with Kalev/Cramo.^[1] He stayed with the team until the end of the 2008–09 season winning three Estonian Cups and one Estonian Championship. Kangur was a solid leader for Kalev during those three seasons. He averaged 11.4 points and 4.9 rebounds in the 2009 play-offs and was awarded the MVP of Estonian League Finals in the same year.^[2]

2009–2010

In July 2009 Kangur signed a deal with French Pro A top team ASVEL Basket.^[3] He averaged 5.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in his debut season of the Euroleague as well as 5.1 points and 2.0 rebounds in Pro A. Though Kangur won the French Supercup and Semaine des As with ASVEL, the season was a disappointment to the team as they narrowly missed out the Euroleague Top 16 phase and didn't reach to the playoffs of their domestic league.

2010–2012

Kangur fighting for the ball with Jeffrey Viggiano of Angelico Biella in January 2011.

Kangur signed with Italian top team Virtus Bologna just before the Italian league play-offs in May 2010.^[4] He played five games for the Bologna team averaging 7.6 points with a field goal percentage of 90% on two-pointers and 100% on three-pointers.^[5] For the 2010–11 season Kangur signed with Pallacanestro Varese.^[6] He was one of the top players in the team averaging 9.9 points and 5.4 rebounds in 32 games. In July 2011 Kangur signed a three-year deal with Italian powerhouse Montepaschi Siena but was loaned to Varese for the 2011–2012 season.^[7][8] In his second year in Varese he posted similar numbers with 10.9 points and 5.2 rebounds in 36 games and earned himself a place in Siena's roster.

2012–2014

During his tenure with Siena Kangur won both the Italian Cup and the Italian League and also reached to the Top 16 phase of the Euroleague. He showed high quality game on both sides of the court by being one of the top defensive players in the team and also hitting 23 three-pointers with 56.1% accuracy in the Euroleague Regular Season.

On 3 September 2013, he signed with Emporio Armani Milano.^[9] At Milan he was reunited with coach Luca Banchi who coached him last season at Siena, and also with fellow player David Moss with whom he played together in Siena and Bologna. On 21 October, Kangur had a back surgery in Milan which forced him off the court for almost two months. He played his first official game for Milano on 16 December against Victoria Libertas Pesaro in the Italian League. Kangur helped Milano to reach the 2013–14 Euroleague Quarter-finals where they lost to eventual champions Maccabi Tel Aviv. Kangur helped Milano to finish the season with the Italian title by defeating Montepaschi Siena thus ending Siena's seven-year winning streak at the Italian Championships. This was Milano's 26th domestic title and their first title since 1996.

2014–2016

On 11 August 2014, he returned after two years to Pallacanestro Varese.^[10] In November 2014 Kangur had a second back surgery and wasn't able to play until January 2015. All in all, the season was a disappointment for Kangur and the Varese team as they finished 11th in the Italian League.

On 11 October 2015, Kangur signed a two months deal with the Spanish team Laboral Kutxa Baskonia to replace injured Tornike Shengelia.^[11] He became the first ever Estonian basketball player who had played in the Spanish ACB League. Kangur was released from the team after his contract expired on 22 November.^[12] He represented Baskonia in six Euroleague games averaging 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds and in three ACB games averaging 3.7 points and 3.3 rebounds.

After the short stint in Spain, Kangur returned to Varese for the rest of the season. The team narrowly missed out of the Italian League play-offs, finishing 9th. Kangur and Varese also took part of the inaugural season of the FIBA Europe Cup. The team reached to the final where they were defeated by Fraport Skyliners of the Basketball Bundesliga with the score 62–66.^[13]

In June 2016, Kangur signed a new two-year deal with Varese.^[14]

Estonian national team

Kangur represented Estonia for the first time in youth level at the 2002 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship Qualifying Round. In his first game, he was the top scorer for Estonia with 18 points in 23 minutes against Denmark.^[15] Kangur also played at the 2003 Summer Universiade.^[16]

He made his debut for the Estonia national basketball team on 20 November 2002, at the age of 20. He scored 4 points in 8 minutes during EuroBasket 2003 Qualification Semi-Final Round game against Belarus.^[17] Since then, he has been a certain selection for the national team representing Estonia at the 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2015 EuroBasket qualification tournaments. His national team career high score is 26 points against Iceland in autumn 2012, during the EuroBasket 2013 qualification.^[18]

On 1 September 2013, Kangur and the Estonian national team gained a spot for the 2015 European Championships by beating Bulgaria in a two-legged final of the EuroBasket 2015 First Qualification Round.^[19] In September 2015, Estonia made its fifth appearance at the EuroBasket final tournament and the first since 2001. Kangur was the captain of the national team and played in all five games during the group stage averaging 7.4 points and 3.2 rebounds.^[20] Estonia won one game in Group D and was eliminated after the group stage.

From 2011 to 2016, Kangur was the captain of the Estonian national team. He withdrew from the team before the 2017 EuroBasket qualification tournament to treat his injuries and Gregor Arbet was named the captain of the national team.

Honours

Club

Tallinna Kalev

• Korvpalli Meistriliiga: 2001–02, 2002–03
• Estonian Basketball Cup: 2001

Kalev/Cramo

• Korvpalli Meistriliiga: 2008–09
• Estonian Basketball Cup: 2006, 2007, 2008

ASVEL Basket

• French Supercup: 2009
• Semaine des As: 2010

Montepaschi Siena

• Lega Basket Serie A: 2012–13
• Italian Basketball Cup: 2013

Emporio Armani Milano

• Lega Basket Serie A: 2013–14

Individual

• Estonian Basketball Player of the Year (8): 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
• KML Finals Most Valuable Player: 2009
• All-KML First Team: 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009
• All-KML Defensive Team: 2007, 2009
• KML Forward of the Year: 2007, 2009
• KML All-Star: 2004, 2007
• BBL All-Star: 2008

Career statistics

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

Domestic leagues

Estonia national team

References

External links

• Fan Page
• Euroleague.net Profile
• Italian League Profile (Italian)