Ognjen Kuzmić

Ognjen Kuzmić (Serbian Cyrillic: Огњен Кузмић, pronounced [ǒɡɲen kûzmit͡ɕ]; born May 16, 1990) is a Serbian professional basketball player for Crvena zvezda of the Adriatic League and the EuroLeague. He also represented the senior Serbian national basketball team internationally. Standing at 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in), he plays at the center position. He was selected with the 52nd overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors and won the 2015 NBA Championship with that team.

Ognjen Kuzmić
Kuzmić with Crvena zvezda in November 2022.
No. 32 – Crvena zvezda Meridianbet
PositionCenter
LeagueBasketball League of Serbia
ABA League
EuroLeague
Personal information
Born (1990-05-16) May 16, 1990
Doboj, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina
SFR Yugoslavia
NationalitySerbian / Bosnian
Listed height2.14 m (7 ft 0 in)
Listed weight116 kg (256 lb)
Career information
NBA draft2012: 2nd round, 52nd overall pick
Selected by the Golden State Warriors
Playing career2007–present
Career history
2007–2008Borac Banja Luka
2008–2010Korihait
2010Korikobrat
2010–2011Čelik Zenica
2011–2013Málaga
2011–2012→ Axarquía
2012–2013→ Joventut
2013–2015Golden State Warriors
2013–2015→ Santa Cruz Warriors
2015–2016Panathinaikos
2016–2017Crvena zvezda
2017–2019Real Madrid
2019–presentCrvena zvezda
2020→ FMP
Career highlights and awards
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals
Men's basketball
Representing  Serbia
EuroBasket
Silver medal – second place2017 Turkey

Professional career

Kuzmić started his senior career in Borac Banja Luka and the first basketball steps began in Findo Doboj. After one season, he left to play for Korihait in the Finnish league. In 2010, he returned to Bosnia to play for KK Čelik Zenica.

In 2011, he signed with Unicaja Málaga but played the 2011–12 season with farm team, Clínicas Rincón Benahavís of the Spanish Second League. He also played two games with Unicaja.

In 2012, Unicaja Málaga loaned him to Joventut Badalona.[1]

On September 27, 2013, he signed with the Golden State Warriors.[2] During his rookie and sophomore seasons, he had multiple assignments with the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA Development League,[3][4] earning a mention to the All-NBA Development League Defensive Third Team and winning a D-League championship during the 2014–15 season.[5][6] To add to his D-League title, he was part of Golden State's championship winning team who defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2015 NBA Finals. Kuzmić failed to appear in any post-season action due to a recurring left ankle injury.[7]

On July 27, 2015, he signed a two-year deal with the Greek club Panathinaikos.[8] On April 21, 2016, he left PAO.[9]

On July 19, 2016, Kuzmić signed a three-year contract with Crvena zvezda.[10] Kuzmić was named MVP for the month of January in the 2016–17 EuroLeague season.[11]

On July 26, 2017, Kuzmić signed a two-year deal with Real Madrid.[12] In October 2017, he tore the ACL in his left knee and was sidelined for the rest of the season.[13] He returned on the court in 2018–19 season, but soon injured his right ankle and missed considerable time.[14] After recovering from injury, he fell out of Real Madrid's rotation and appeared in only 12 games till the end of the season.

On July 3, 2019, Kuzmić signed a two-year contract for Crvena zvezda.[15][16] On October 24, 2019, Kuzmić made a season debut against Barcelona, less than four months after sustaining severe injuries in traffic accident.[17] In February 2020, he was loaned to FMP for the rest of the 2019–20 season.[18] On July 27, 2023, Kuzmić renewed his contract through 2025.

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  †  Won a EuroLeague championship
† Denotes season in which Kuzmić won an NBA championship

Regular season
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2013–14 Golden State 2104.4.385—.4551.0.1.1.2.7
2014–15† Golden State 1604.5.667—1.0001.1.4.1.11.3
Career 3704.4.520—.6001.0.2.1.1.9

Playoffs
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2014 Golden State 302.7———1.3.0.0.0.0
Career 302.7———1.3.0.0.0.0

EuroLeague
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG PIR
2015–16 Panathinaikos 251813.8.480—.6824.1.3.4.35.16.1
2016–17 Crvena zvezda 303020.7.549—.7077.01.01.0.69.413.9
2017–18† Real Madrid 204.8.333——2.0.0.0.01.0.5
2018–19 516.8.364—.6002.6.0.2.42.22.0
Career 624916.3.519—.6955.3.6.7.46.89.3

National team career

Being a Bosnian Serb, Kuzmić was eligible to play for either Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia. In May 2013, he turned down a call-up from Bosnia and Herzegovina's head coach Aleksandar Petrović for their EuroBasket 2013 training camp.[19]

In May 2014, Kuzmić publicly stated his desire to play for the Serbian national team.[20][21] In June 2014, national team head coach Aleksandar Đorđević included him on the preliminary 29-player list for the twelve 2014 World Cup roster spots.[22] Three weeks later, in early July 2014, Kuzmić further made Đorđević's shortened list of 20 players invited for the training camp,[23] however, a fibula injury he picked up during the 2014 NBA Summer League ruled him out.[24]

EuroBasket 2015

The following summer at EuroBasket 2015, Kuzmić represented Serbia for the first time at a major tournament.[25] In the first phase of the tournament, the team led by head coach Aleksandar Đorđević dominated its round-robin group with a 5-0 record, and then eliminated Finland and Czech Republic in the round-of-16 and quarterfinal games, respectively. However, they were stopped in the semifinal game by Lithuania 67–64,[26] and later lost 68–81 to the host team France in the bronze-medal game.[27] Over 9 tournament games, Kuzmić averaged 3.1 points and 3.0 rebounds on 50% shooting from the field.[28]

EuroBasket 2017
See also: 2017 Serbia men's EuroBasket team

Kuzmić also represented Serbia at the EuroBasket 2017 where they won the silver medal, after losing in the final game to Slovenia.[29] Over 9 tournament games, he averaged 7.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.

On 1 July 2019, Kuzmić was selected to the Serbia 18-man preliminary roster for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.[30] On 15 July 2019, he was excluded from consideration due to the unpredictability of the recovery from the traffic accident he had been involved in a day earlier.[31] Nikola Jovanović was called up in Kuzmić's place.[31]

Personal life

2019 traffic accident

In the morning hours of 14 July 2019 on the Banja Luka-Prijedor state road near the village of Ramići, Kuzmić was involved in a serious traffic accident. Driving his Porsche SUV, the twenty-nine-year-old professional basketball player reportedly collided with a BMW vehicle going in the opposite direction while traveling at a high speed.[32] He sustained life-threatening injuries in the accident, breaking his maxilla and mandible head bones (upper and lower jaws), as well as his chest.[33] He was immediately placed in induced coma and airlifted via helicopter to the Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade.[33] Reportedly, thirty-year-old Bosnian professional boxer Dražan Janjanin was a passenger in the car that collided with Kuzmić's car.[34]

Three days later, on 17 July 2019, Kuzmić underwent a surgery in which surgeons removed severe maxillofacial injuries.[35] The next day after the surgery, 18 July 2019, he woke up from the coma.[36] On 25 July 2019, Kuzmić was discharged from the hospital to home care.[37][38]

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ognjen Kuzmić.

References
  1. Badalona adds size with Ognjen Kuzmic
  2. Warriors Sign 2012 Second Round Pick Ognjen Kuzmic to Contract
  3. "2013-14 NBA Assignments". NBA.com. Archived from the original on 2014-07-03. Retrieved 2014-01-18.
  4. 2014-15 NBA Assignments Archived June 28, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "NBA Development League Announces 2014-15 All-League Teams". NBA.com. April 22, 2015. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  6. "Title Wave: Santa Cruz Wins NBA D-League Championship". NBA.com. April 26, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  7. Warriors C Ognjen Kuzmic cleared to play in conference finals
  8. "Panathinaikos inks center Kuzmic to two-year deal". Euroleague.net. 27 July 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  9. "Kuzmic and Pavlovic replaced and released". Eurohoops.net. 21 April 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  10. "Novi centar Crvene zvezde - Ognjen Kuzmić!". kkcrvenazvezda.rs (in Serbian). 19 July 2016. Archived from the original on 23 July 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  11. "Turkish Airlines EuroLeague MVP for January: Ognjen Kuzmic, Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade". 30 January 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  12. "Real Madrid lands center Kuzmic". Euroleague.net. 26 July 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  13. "Madrid's Kuzmic out long term". euroleague.net. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  14. "Ognen Kuzmic still out due to ankle injury". eurohoops.net. 13 November 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  15. "Zvezdin toranj u narednim sezonama – Ognjen Kuzmić!". kkcrvenazvezda.rs. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  16. "Ognjen Kuzmić is back at Crvena zvzeda mts". aba-liga.com. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  17. "KOŠARKAŠKO ROĐENJE Emotivni Kuzmić se vratio još jači posle nesreće i poručio navijačima - VERUJTE U OVU EKIPU". blic.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  18. "Zvezda poslala Čovića i Kuzmića u FMP". b92.net. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  19. Kuzmić ne želi nositi dres Bosne i Hercegovine u Sloveniji
  20. NBA pojačanje: Ognjen Kuzmić igra za Srbiju!
  21. Šljivak, M. (13 May 2014). "Kuzmić izabrao Srbiju ispred BiH". sportsport.ba (in Serbian). Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  22. "SP: Đorđević objavio širi spisak". B92.net. 6 June 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  23. "Đorđevićevih 20 odabranih bez Bobija Marjanovića!". telegraf.rs. 1 July 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  24. Pupovac, Mihael (21 July 2014). "Kuzmić otpao, Dangubića muči koleno!". MVP.rs. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  25. "AMBITIOUS SERBIA UNVEIL POWERFUL 12-MAN SQUAD". eurobasket2015.org. 2 September 2015. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  26. "LITHUANIA END SERBIAN STREAK, RETURN TO FINAL". eurobasket2015.org. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  27. "FRANCE REWARD HOME SUPPORT WITH BRONZE". eurobasket2015.org. 20 September 2015. Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  28. "Player profile: Ognjen Kuzmic". eurobasket2015.org. FIBA Europe. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  29. "Slovenia overcome injuries to claim historic title in Dragic's swansong". FIBA.basketball. 17 September 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  30. "Stars Jokic, Marjanovic, Bogdanovic and Teodosic headline 18-man Serbia squad". fiba.basketball. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  31. "PROMENA na spisku "orlova": Kuzmića menja Jovanović". mondo.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  32. K., A. (14 July 2019). "Ognjen Kuzmić teško povređen u saobraćajnoj nesreći!". b92.net (in Serbian). Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  33. K., A. (14 July 2019). "Kuzmića zbog ozbiljnosti povreda prebačen u Beograd". b92.net (in Serbian). Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  34. "ISPOVEST BOKSERA KOJI JE UČESTVOVAO U NESREĆI: Svetla su se odjednom pojavila ispred nas, iz Kuzmićevog auta se čula glasna muzika i krkljanje". novosti.rs. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  35. "Ognjen Kuzmić uspešno operisan". b92.net (in Serbian). Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  36. "Kuzmić izašao iz kome". b92.net. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  37. "Zvezda: Velika pobeda Kuzmića". b92.net. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
  38. "Ognjen Kuzmić na kućnom lečenju". novosti.rs. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
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