Scoring king Marcus Brown retires 0

After filling the baskets across Europe for the past decade, Euroleague Basketball’s all-time leading scorer Marcus Brown is walking away from the game at age 37. Brown will be honored on Monday night by his former team, Zalgiris Kaunas, at the Euroleague Opening Game against another of his six Euroleague clubs, CSKA Moscow.

Brown rewrote the Euroleague record books during his 11 seasons with Benetton Basket, Efes Pilsen, CSKA, Unicaja, Zalgiris and Maccabi Electra. He leaves the Euroleague with 2,715 points in his career and a 15.3 points per game average, which is second-best among the top 15 all-time scorers.

“I want to say to all the fans in every country and all the folks at the Euroleague, thanks from the bottom of my heart for supporting me,” he said in a statement released by his agent. “I also give a special thanks to what could be the best basketball fans in Europe, BC Zalgiris and all of the Lithuanians. This is no doubt an emotional time for me.”

He is also the competition’s career leader in free throws made (688) and ranks among the top 10 in three-pointers made (sixth, 323), assists (ninth, 457) and steals (10th, 184). Brown reached the Euroleague Final Four on three occasions and was a three-time Euroleague selection. During his career he also amassed nine national championships in France, Turkey, Russia, Spain, Israel and Lithuania and the Baltic League twice in addition to his only continental title, the 1999 Korac Cup, which he lifted with Limoges.