Joe Arlauckas


Joseph John "Joe" Arlauckas is an American retired professional basketball player of Lithuanian descent. He played at the power forward position. Arlauckas is well known for holding the record for the most points scored in a modern-era single EuroLeague game, including only games played since the 1991–92 season. He scored 63 points in a FIBA European League game, while playing for Real Madrid, against Virtus Bologna, during the 1995–96 season, on February 26, 1996. Radivoj Korać holds the all-time EuroLeague single-game scoring record, at 99 points scored, counting all games played since the competition began during the 1958 season.

Early years

Arlauckas was born on 20 July, 1965, in Rochester, New York, USA. He was born to an immigrant father from Lithuanian, and to an Italian American mother. Arlauckas attended Thomas Jefferson High School, in Rochester, where he played high school basketball.

College career

Arlauckas played four years of college basketball in the NCAA Division I, at Niagara University, with the Purple Eagles. He attended school and played there from 1983 to 1987.

Professional career

NBA career

Arlauckas was drafted with the 74th pick of the 1987 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings, along with their first round draft pick Kenny Smith. In his first season in the NBA, the Kings had a poor regular season record of 24–58, which started with Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell's brief stint as the Kings' head coach.
During his sole season in the National Basketball Association, Arlauckas appeared in nine games, averaging four points per game, in roughly 10 minutes of play per game.

Europe

On December 14, 1987, Arlauckas was cut by the NBA's Kings. He then went to Italy, where he played for 6 months of time in the Italian top-tier level LBA with Snaidero Caserta. He went on to have a highly successful career playing in Spain, playing in the Spanish top-tier level ACB League.
In Spain, he played with Caja de Ronda, Taugrés, and Real Madrid, winning several individual and team accolades; with the latter, he formed one of European basketball's most fearsome front courts, along with center Arvydas Sabonis, and he notably won the championship of the top-tier level European league, the FIBA European League, with Real Madrid, in 1995, against Olympiacos. With Real Madrid, he also won the 2nd-tier level European league, the FIBA EuroCup, during the 1996–97 season.
On February 26, 1996, Arlauckas scored 63 points, a record in the modern era of the EuroLeague, against Kinder Bologna in Italy. Real Madrid won the game, by a score of 115–96. In six seasons out of ten played in Spain, Arlauckas averaged more than 20 points per game. He scored 7,543 points in the Liga ACB, for a scoring average of 20.7 points per game.
He retired in 2000, at the age of 35, after playing two years in Greece – playing one season apiece with the Greek top-tier level Basket League clubs AEK Athens and Aris Thessaloniki.

Post-playing career

After he retired from playing basketball, Arlauckas became a sports commentator, working for EuroLeague TV.

Honours and awards