Mateusz Ponitka

Mateusz Ponitka
	Ponitka with Bahçeşehir Koleji
No. 20 – Bahçeşehir Koleji
Position	Small forward / Point guard
League	Basketbol Süper Ligi; EuroCup
Personal information
Born	29 August 1993 (age 31); Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland
Nationality	Polish
Listed height	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight	206 lb (93 kg)
Career information
NBA draft	2015: undrafted
Playing career	2009–present
Career history
2009–2012	AZS Warsaw University of Technology
2012–2013	Asseco Prokom
2013–2015	Oostende
2015–2016	Zielona Góra
2016–2017	Karşıyaka
2017–2018	Tenerife
2018–2019	Lokomotiv Kuban
2019–2022	Zenit Saint Petersburg
2022	Reggio Emilia
2022–2023	Panathinaikos
2023–2024	Partizan
2024–present	Bahçeşehir Koleji
Career highlights and awards
	All-Liga ACB Second Team (2018); All-VTB United League Second Team (2019); FIBA Intercontinental Cup champion (2017); EuroCup Rising Star (2016); All-EuroCup Second Team (2016); 2× Belgian League champion (2014, 2015); 2× Polish League champion (2012, 2016); Polish League MVP (2016); All-Polish PLK Team (2016); Polish Supercup MVP (2015); Polish Supercup winner (2015); Turkish League All-Star (2017);
Men's basketball
Representing Poland
U17 World Championship

Mateusz Ponitka (born 29 August 1993) is a Polish professional basketball player for Bahçeşehir Koleji of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL) and the EuroCup. He also represents the senior Poland national team in international competitions. Standing at a height of 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), he plays at the small forward position.

His brother Marcel Ponitka is also a professional basketball player who capped for the Polish national team.^[1]

Professional career

Early years

Ponitka started playing basketball in UKS Kasprowiczanka Ostrow Wielkopolski, before moving in 2009 to AZS Warsaw University of Technology. In his first season as a professional player, he appeared in 27 games of the Polish 2nd-tier League, averaging 7.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 18 minutes per game. He also appeared in four games of the Polish Cup, averaging 9 points per game. In September 2010, Ponitka took part in the Basketball Without Borders camp, held in Barcelona.^[2] He was named the MVP of the camp.^[3]

In the 2010–11 season, he had a bigger role in the team, which reflected on his stats. In April 2011, he took part in Nike Hoop Summit held in Portland, Oregon. He was the leading scorer of the World Select Team with 17 points in a 92–80 loss to the USA Team.^[4] Over the season, he averaged 11.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals over 34 games. His team eventually won the championship, this way promoting to the Polish League in the following season.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2011–12 season, due to his good performances, he was voted for the Polish League All-Star game with the most votes.^[5] In the game, he was the third scorer in his team with 13 points.^[6] In his final season with AZS Warsaw University of Technology, he averaged 13.6 points and 4.6 rebounds.^{[citation needed]}

Asseco Prokom

On March 27, 2012, Ponitka signed a three-year deal with the Polish team Asseco Prokom.^[7] He also had an option to leave the team after two seasons. In the new team, his minutes were very limited, and the player had the averages of 2.6 points and 1.4 rebounds for the rest of the season. However, his team won the Polish League championship, by defeating Trefl Sopot with 78-67 in the final series.^[8] In the 2012–13 season, his role in the team increased, as he averaged 8.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game over the season. He also played in the EuroLeague, averaging 8.8 points and 3.5 rebounds over 10 games.^{[citation needed]}

Telenet Oostende

On August 4, 2013, he signed a three-year contract with the Belgian team Telenet Oostende.^[9] In the 2013–14 and 2014-15 season his team won the Belgian League championship.^[10]

He went undrafted in the 2015 NBA draft.

Zielona Góra

On August 4, 2015, he signed a contract with the Polish team Stelmet Zielona Góra.^[11] Ponitka was named the EuroCup Rising Star of the 2015–16 season.^[12]

Pınar Karşıyaka

On August 8, 2016, he signed a two-year deal with Turkish club Pınar Karşıyaka.^[13]

Lokomotiv Kuban

On July 13, 2018, he signed with Russian club Lokomotiv Kuban.^[14]

Zenit

On July 4, 2019, Ponitka signed a two-year contract with BC Zenit Saint Petersburg.^[15] In his debut season with the club, Ponitka averaged 9.1 points and 4.6 rebounds over 18 EuroLeague games, in a season that was cut short due to COVID-19 pandemic. In second season with the club, he averaged 8.4 points, career-high 3.2 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game.

Ponitka stayed for 2021–22 season with the club as well. Although his playing time stayed the same, his scoring dropped by half almost and he finished the EuroLeague season with averages of 4.6 points, 2.6 assists and 5.2 rebounds over 20 games.

Pallacanestro Reggiana

On August 17, 2022, he signed a three-month deal with an option until the end of the season with Reggio Emilia of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA).^[16] However, he didn't stay more than a month with the club.

Panathinaikos

On September 23, 2022, Ponitka signed a one-year deal with Panathinaikos of the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague. In a total of 27 EuroLeague games (6 starts), he averaged 8.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.9 turnovers, playing around 25 minutes per contest. Additionally, in 29 domestic league matches, he averaged 9.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1 steal and 2.4 turnovers, playing around 23 minutes per contest. On July 5, 2023, he parted ways with the Greek club.

Partizan

On July 13, 2023, Ponitka signed a two-year contract with the Serbian powerhouse Partizan Belgrade.^[17] Over 2023–24 season, Ponitka averaged career-low 2.4 points and 2.2 rebounds over 26 EuroLeague games. The season was deemed to be unsuccessful for Partizan as they finished the season without lifting any trophy.^[18] On June 29, 2024, he announced he was parting ways with Partizan.

National team career

Ponitka was part of the Poland U-17 national basketball team which took the silver medal at the 2010 FIBA Under-17 World Championship held in Germany. In the final game, he scored 14 points against the United States, but his team lost by huge margin, 111–80.^[19] He played against athletes like Bradley Beal, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, James Michael McAdoo, Andre Drummond, Quinn Cook, Marquis Teague and others. He was named to the All-Tournament Team.^[20]

In 2011, he was part of the U-18 team which took sixth place at the 2011 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship held in Poland. Over nine tournament games, he averaged 15.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.^[21]

He officially debuted for the senior national team on 3 August 2012, in the friendly game against Montenegro. Even he played for nearly 23 minutes, he scored just 4 points.^[22]^[23] He was a member of the team at the 2013 FIBA EuroBasket held in Slovenia. He averaged 3.6 points and 1.4 rebounds over five tournament games.^[24]

He represented the Polish national team at the 2015 FIBA EuroBasket and 2017 FIBA EuroBasket. He also participated in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, where he scored 26 points against China. Down 1, Ponitka came up with a key steal on Chinese star Zhou Qi with 3 seconds left, being fouled in the process and sending the game into overtime, where Poland would later triumph in an upset 79–76 overtime win over the hosts.^[25]

Ponitka played at EuroBasket 2017, where he averaged 12.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, while Poland did not advance past the preliminary round.^[26]

Ponitka returned at EuroBasket 2022 for Poland. In the quarter-finals against heavily favoured Slovenia, he guided Poland to a 90–87 upset win to reach the first semifinals in 51 years.^[27] Ponitka finished with 26 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists to become the fourth player in EuroBasket history to record a triple-double.^[27]^[28]

Career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	PIR	Performance Index Rating
Bold	Career high

EuroLeague


Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG	PIR
2012–13	Gdynia	10	4	22.2	.486	.323	.381	3.5	.8	1.0	.0	8.8	7.8
2015–16	Zielona Góra	10	10	31.5	.505	.250	.676	7.9	2.2	1.1	.2	12.0	17.9
2019–20	Zenit	18	15	24.3	.492	.324	.708	4.6	1.6	.8	.3	9.1	12.2
2020–21		34	26	26.0	.484	.306	.785	5.2	3.2	1.0	.1	8.4	14.1
2021–22		20	18	25.7	.414	.269	.583	5.2	2.6	.6	.1	4.6	9.6
2022–23	Panathinaikos	27	6	25.2	.434	.372	.802	5.2	2.4	1.1	.1	8.4	13.0
2023–24	Partizan	26	14	13.9	.410	.238	.889	2.2	.7	.4	.0	2.4	3.1
Career		145	93	23.5	.465	.308	.734	4.7	2.1	.9	.1	7.2	10.9

EuroCup


Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG	PIR
2013–14	Oostende	15	2	20.3	.476	.355	.625	3.2	1.7	1.0	.1	8.9	9.4
2014–15	Oostende	16	14	19.6	.477	.333	.667	3.6	1.3	.9	.3	8.3	8.8
2015–16	Zielona Góra	10	10	29.8	.562	.476	.694	6.5	2.1	1.1	.4	13.5	17.3
2018–19	Lokomotiv Kuban	18	16	25.1	.575	.364	.827	4.8	1.7	1.2	.4	9.6	13.9
Career		59	42	23.2	.521	.372	.717	4.4	1.6	1.0	.3	9.7	11.9

Basketball Champions League


Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2016–17	Karşıyaka	19	18	28.2	.462	.367	.707	4.7	1.7	1.3	.4	10.8
2017–18	Canarias	16	16	22.0	.514	.333	.800	3.7	2.1	.9	.1	11.1
Career		35	34	25.3	.483	.354	.756	4.3	1.9	1.1	.3	10.9

Domestic leagues

Year	Team	League	GP	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2009–10	Politechnika	I Liga	27	19.0	.458	.373	.609	3.6	.6	1.3	.2	7.4
2010–11	Politechnika	I Liga	34	25.4	.429	.301	.609	4.7	1.4	1.6	.1	11.7
2011–12	Politechnika	PLK	30	25.4	.533	.294	.671	4.6	1.3	1.4	.3	13.6
2011–12	Gdynia	PLK	16	8.9	.515	.375	.286	1.4	.2	.3	.1	2.6
2012–13	Gdynia	PLK	34	20.8	.410	.272	.707	4.2	.6	.8	.3	8.7
2013–14	Oostende	PBL	43	19.6	.449	.364	.653	2.9	1.2	1.6	.1	9.7
2014–15	Oostende	PBL	38	21.6	.525	.375	.702	3.2	1.5	1.1	.3	12.7
2015–16	Zielona Góra	PLK	41	23.4	.523	.383	.761	5.2	2.7	1.1	.2	10.5
2016–17	Karşıyaka	TBSL	28	31.2	.502	.297	.708	4.7	2.2	1.7	.2	13.2
2017–18	Canarias	ACB	33	25.2	.552	.273	.784	5.6	1.4	.8	.1	13.7
2018–19	Lokomotiv Kuban	VTBUL	29	24.4	.638	.407	.750	4.7	2.0	.9	.1	9.4
2019–20	Zenit	VTBUL	13	20.3	.507	.348	.750	4.1	1.7	.4	.1	8.1
2020–21	Zenit	VTBUL	19	21.6	.552	.410	.652	3.7	2.4	1.2	.2	8.6
2021–22	Zenit	VTBUL	11	21.7	.436	.429	.607	3.5	4.6	1.0	—	5.2
2022–23	Panathinaikos	HEBA A1	27	23.3	.519	.375	.752	4.4	3.1	1.0	.1	9.8
2023–24	Partizan	KLS	4	22.5	.615	.571	.667	2.7	2.7	1.0	.2	7.5
2023–24	Partizan	ABA	29	16.9	.596	.421	.846	3.3	1.7	.9	.0	6.1