Özan Anton Odabaşı

Özan Anton Odabaşı — Biography

Özan Anton Odabaşı is a 2.06 m Finnish-Turkish basketball player who moved to Fenerbahçe Ülker at a young age and was named Rookie of the Year in the Finnish league. Born in Espoo, he announced in the summer of 2019 that he was leaving professional basketball.

He started in the Tapiolan Honka youth system and turned professional in 2012. That summer he joined Fenerbahçe Ülker and in 2013 he went back to Honka. He ended the 2013-14 Korisliiga season averaging 8.0 points and 3.9 rebounds per game and took the rookie award. That year, at the Adidas Nations tournament in Los Angeles, he wore the Team Europe shirt, averaging 13.8 points and 8.5 rebounds. In 2014-15 he played 12 games for Honka, with 13.3 points and 6.8 rebounds, before moving to Helsinki Seagulls during the season. In 2016 he joined Trabzonspor.

He played for Finland at under-16, under-18 and under-20 level. At the 2011 European U-16 Championship he was the team's top scorer with 15.7 points; at the 2015 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship Division B he averaged 17.7 points and 9.4 rebounds and was named the tournament MVP. When his contract ran out in the summer of 2018 he had offers but chose to take a year out to think about his future; in 2019 he said that basketball did not fit his own values and quit the sport.