Catching up with Marcos: After another strong year in Russia, Knight looks ahead to 12th season in pros

Another year, another strong season playing basketball overseas for Marcos Knight. 

The West Laurens product just wrapped up his 11th year in international pro ball, and a second competing with Russia-based club UNICS Kazan, which this season finished as runner-up in the playoffs of the VTB United League. 

After compiling the league’s best record to finish the regular season in first place, the team just missed in its bid to go back-to-back, falling short of CSKA Moscow in five games in its final series. 

But Knight, who returned to run things back along with most members of the squad that won it all in the summer of 2023, said he enjoyed the experience of playing a second year with the group and achieving some new milestones for the organization. 

“We lost in the finals, unfortunately, but it was still a great season,” he said. “We did a lot of great things. We did some things, historically, that the club has never done before. So it was an overall great season, and a great year… They’re a great group of guys and I enjoyed playing with them.” 

Knight stopped by The Courier Herald this week to chat about his recent season, and upcoming youth camp, which will run from July 25-27 at West Laurens. 

UNICS, located in Kazan (roughly 12 hours east of Moscow), is his ninth stop on the European pro circuit, after stints with teams in Germany, Spain, Turkey and France. 

Knight, the league’s second-leading scorer in the club’s championship campaign of ’22-23, put up a mark of 13.6 points per game this past year that again ranked him in the top 25. 

He also logged a team-high 15 or more in five different games, while adding adding rates of 3.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.4 steals per contest to his stat line. 

The 6-foot-2 guard is set to turn 35 in September, but continues plugging along at a nice clip with no plans on slowing down. 

“I’m just blessed to be able to continue to do what I love to do,” Knight said.  

If there’s been a secret to the longevity, it’s likely his year-round fitness program put together by Knight’s brother Trantell (better known as “Tweety”), a teammate both in high school at West Laurens and in college at Middle Tennessee, who is now his personal trainer. 

“He keeps my body in shape in-season and out of season,” he said. “He’s been with me since we both were small playing against each other. He knows my body better than anybody else. He knows what I need to be successful.” 

Another highlight of the past season for Knight was having his son along for a portion of it, an experience he calls “a blessing” that provided him some invaluable exposure to the international style of play and a chance to observe the lifestyle and habits of the world’s top players. 

“One of the most important things to me is training up my son the right way to play the game correctly,” Knight said. “With him seeing the way that I grind and the way I work out, it can be beneficial to him as well.” 

Offseasons, in overseas leagues just as for the NBA, tend to be rather short, though this year, most players will get a slightly extended break because of a delay to the fall re-start for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. 

Knight, who spends much of his time off with family in his hometown of Rentz, plans on taking in as much of that hoops action as possible when games begin later this month

Then it’s on to a brand new season, which he remains grateful for another of as his pro journey continues. 

“I can’t do any of this without God, my family or my teammates,” Knight said. “Keeping God first is the most important thing to me, for sure.”