Marcus Fizer

Darnell Marcus Lamar Fizer (born August 10, 1978) is an American professional basketball player.

High school career

Fizer played 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.

College career

Iowa State Cyclones head coach Tim Floyd became aware of Fizer's potential while coaching in Louisiana and interested Fizer in playing collegiate basketball at Iowa State University. Fizer became the first (and only as of 2015-16) McDonald's All-American to play for the Cyclones.

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). He led the Big 12 in scoring his sophomore and junior seasons. Following a Big 12 regular season title, Big 12 tournament title, and NCAA Tournament Elite Eight finish his junior year, Fizer elected to declare for the NBA Draft.

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

Professional career

Fizer was selected with the fourth pick of the 2000 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls, 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 with the Bulls. He never averaged more than 12.3 points per game. Fizer tore his ACL in late January 2003. In 2004 he was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats in the expansion draft. Not making their final roster, he signed as a free agent with the Milwaukee Bucks.

After one 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. Fizer scored 20+ points 17 times, with 10+ rebounds on 22 occasions in his four-year NBA career.

Fizer 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). In 2007 Fizer signed a two-year deal with the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the 2007–2008 season the Israeli Super League club reached the Euroleague championship game, eventually losing to CSKA Moscow. Fizer was unable to play in the later stages of the Euroleague due to a knee injury that led to the termination of his contract with Maccabi just before the 2008–2009 season started.

In February 2010, Fizer signed with the Guaynabo Mets of Puerto Rico, along with Antoine Walker. In 11 games he averaged 13.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.

In December 2011, Fizer signed with the Taiwan Mobile Clouded Leopards of Taiwan. He was later released after playing just one game with them, despite scoring an impressive 23 points, 13 rebounds and 2 assists.

In September 2012, Fizer joined Estudiantes de Bahía Blanca of Argentina. In 13 games he averaged 17.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.

Personal

Fizer was one of the most heavily tattooed players in the NBA. As of March 2006, he had 31 tattoos.

Off the court, he has served as a youth minister. Fizer said in an interview, "My uncle, who was my mother’s brother, was taking her to get an abortion, and I don’t know if he lost the car or what, but he lost control and crashed into a church. The members of the church helped them and the minister told them 'whatever you’re thinking about doing, don’t do it, because you’re carrying a minister' without her even showing signs of pregnancy."