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Darnell Marcus Lamar Fizer (born August 10, 1978 in Inkster, Michigan) is an American professional basketball player. Fizer was one of the most heavily tattooed players in the NBA. As of March 2006, he had 31 tattoos.^[1] He signed a two-year contract ($900,000 a year) with European power house Maccabi Tel Aviv on June 20, 2007, but he did not finish his first season in the team because of an injury he suffered in February 2008, and the contract was terminated by the team on September 19, 2008. After two months Maccabi decided to sign him again, and on January 28, 2009 his second stint with the team came to an end. On February 7 he signed a contract with Capitanes de Arecibo.

[edit] High School career

Fizer played his high school basketball at Arcadia High School in Arcadia, Louisiana. As a senior, Fizer was selected to play in the McDonald's All-American Game.^[2]

[edit] College career

Cyclone head coach Tim Floyd became aware of Fizer's potential while at a previous coaching stop in Louisiana and was able to use that connection to interest Fizer in playing his collegiate basketball at Iowa State University. In the process, Fizer became the first McDonald's All-American to wear the Cyclone uniform.^[3]

Tim Floyd left Iowa State to coach the Chicago Bulls of the NBA after Fizer's freshman year and was replaced by Larry Eustachy. While playing for both Floyd and Eustachy, Fizer accumulated many Big 12 Conference and national accolades including: All-Big 12 honorable mention (freshman), National first-team All-Freshman, first team All-Big 12 (sophomore and junior), Big 12 Player of the Year (junior), Big 12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player (junior), and consensus first-team All-America (junior).^[2] Additionally, he lead the Big 12 in scoring his sophomore and junior seasons.^[2] Following a Big 12 regular season title,^[4] Big 12 tournament title,^[4] and Elite Eight NCAA Tournament finish^[4] his junior year, Fizer elected to declare for the NBA Draft.^[2]

Fizer is ranked fifth on ISU's career scoring list with 1,830 points recorded during his three years spent at ISU.

[edit] Professional career

Fizer was selected with the fourth pick of the 2000 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls.^[3] coached by Tim Floyd, the coach that recruited him to Iowa State. Many analysts suspected that the Bulls had drafted Fizer merely to trade him for another player, since the Bulls already had Elton Brand at the power forward position. However, no such trade ever took place, and Fizer spent the next four years struggling to find a niche with the Bulls. He never averaged more than 12.3 points per game. In 2004 he was made available to the Charlotte Bobcats in their expansion draft. Not making their final roster, he signed as a free agent with the Milwaukee Bucks. After one disappointing season in Milwaukee, he failed to sign a free agent deal with another team. In November 2005, he signed with the Austin Toros of the NBA Development League. On March 8, 2006, Fizer signed a 10-day contract with the Seattle SuperSonics, but did not play any games for them. On March 31, 2006, he was named the NBA Development League MVP for the 2005–2006 season. The same day, he was signed to a 10-day contract with the New Orleans Hornets.

He appeared in 289 career NBA games, making 35 starts and averaging 9.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 1.2 apg, shooting .435 from the floor and .691 from the free throw line in 20.9 mpg, and has scored 20+ points 17 times, with 10+ rebounds on 22 occasions in his four-year NBA career. He played for the gold medal-winning United States team at the 2001 Goodwill games in Brisbane, Australia while averaging 4.8 points and 3.0 rebounds, shooting .550 from the floor. In the summer of 2006 he signed a one-year contract with Polaris World Murcia of the Spanish league ACB. Then he played with Capitanes de Arecibo, in the Puerto Rico professional Basketball league (BSN).^[5] In 2007 Fizer signed a two year deal with Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the 2007–2008 season the Israeli Super League club reached the Euroleague championship game, eventually losing to CSKA Moscow. Fizer, however, was unable to play in the later stages of the Euroleague due to a knee injury that also got his contract terminated by Maccabi just before the 2008–2009 season.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Marcus Fizer NBA Profile
• Euroleague.net Profile
• Basketpedya.com Profile
• Marcus Fizer Statistics at Basketball-Reference.com
• Marcus Fizer NBADL Profile
• Marcus Fizer ACB Profile