Kaspar Kambala

--- CONTENT ---
Kaspars Kambala (* 13). December 1978 in Riga) is a former Latvian basketball player and boxer.

Career

Basketball
Kambala, who scored 98 points in a youth match in his home country, made his debut in the first division of Latvia in 1993 at the age of 14. He left Riga in 1996 and moved to the United States at Homestead High School, Wisconsin. He stayed there for a year, after which the 2.05-meter-tall inner player belonged to the team of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He studied casino economics. In 113 games for the college team, Kambala scored an average of 15 points, his highest score in the UNLV shirt was 37 points in November 2000 against the University of Louisville. With a total of 921 rebounds, he was in fourth place in the top list of the university team when he left it in 2001. With 507 hit free throws, he set an UNLV record.

Kambala’s first club as a professional basketball player was Efes Pilsen Istanbul (2001 to 2003). He won the Turkish Championship with the team in 2002 and 2003. At the end of October 2002 he scored 41 points in a Euroleague match against FC Barcelona, thus setting the league record. In the 2003/04 season, Kambala was a player of Real Madrid, reached the final with the Spanish capital team in the European club competition ULEB Cup, but lost this to Hapoel Jerusalem, although the Latvian showed a good performance with 20 points. In the Spanish league ACB he brought it for Real in the 2003/04 season on averages of 16.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per encounter.

Kambala moved to Russia, where he played 2004/05 for Unics Kazan. From 2005 to 2007 he was under contract with Fenerbahçe Istanbul. From 13 December 2006 to 12 February 2008 he was banned for doping. In the doping sample given by Kambala, traces of a degradation product of cocaine were found. An objection of Kambala against the ban was rejected. After the expiration of his doping ban and a trip to professional boxing, he was signed by the Russian club BC Yenisey Krasnoyarsk at the end of December 2008. He remained in Krasnoyarsk until 2010, switching to Lukoil Akademik Sofia in Bulgaria for the 2010/11 season. In May 2011, Kambala was signed by Mahram Tehran (Iran). His next stops were Türk Telekom Ankara (2011/12, Turkey), DSI Era Ankara (2013 to 2015, Turkey), BK Barons Riga (2014/15, Latvia), Adanaspor (2015/16, Turkey) and Yakın Doğu Üniversitesi SK (2016/17, Northern Cyprus). In 2019 he gave a short guest appearance at BK Jūrmala in his home country.

With Latvia’s national team, Kambala took part in the European Championships in 2001, 2003 and 2009. At the European Championships 2001 he was with 19 points per game on the fourth place in the basket hunter list of the tournament. At the European Championships 2009, he punched the German Steffen Hamann’s elbow in the face and was then frightened