Marcelo "Marcelinho" Magalhães Machado (born 12 April 1975) is a former Brazilian professional basketball player. At a height of 2.01 m (6'7") tall, and a weight of 95 kg (210 lbs.), he played at the shooting guard and small forward positions, with small forward being his main position. He spent most of his career playing with Flamengo in Brazil's top-tier level NBB league, and he was also a long-time member of the senior men's Brazilian national basketball team.
Professional career
Early career and Europe
Machado, who was a long-time player of the Brazilian club Flamengo, started his career playing for Fluminense, a team from Rio de Janeiro, one of the greatest Flamengo's rivals. He emerged as one of the greatest hopes of Brazilian basketball as a career then idol Oscar Schmidt was ending, mainly due to the similarities of their game, a player who threw a lot of balls three and did many points. He was soon called to the national team to play the 1999 Pan American Games, in Winnipeg, Canada. The Brazilian team won the tournament, after a win over the American team. He went through teams like Botafogo, Tijuca, Ginástico (MG), Corinthians (PR), Crabs Rimini (ITA), Alerta Lobos Cantabria (ESP), Telemar/Rio de Janeiro, with whom Marcelinho won the Campeonato Brasileiro de Basquete, after a final series against Unitri/Uberlândia, which would be his next team, in 2005. After he played for Uberlândia, Machado went to Lithuania to defend the main team of the country, Žalgiris Kaunas. He stayed in Lithuania until 2007, helping Žalgiris win the national championship and cup, before he signed with Flamengo. He had just won his third Pan American Games, realized in Rio de Janeiro.
Flamengo (2007–present)
2007–2008 season: Flamengo's first national title
The arrival of Marcelinho to Flamengo created much expectation around the team, who had never won the Campeonato Brasileiro de Basquete, not even on the Oscar Schmidt Era. Together with Marcelinho, arrived to the team his brother, the guard Duda Machado, the guard Hélio Lima and other important players.
Machado lead the team to a one-defeat campaign in the regular season. Besides, he scored 46 points in a game, which the record in that season, and made averages of 24,4 points per game and 2,9 steals per game. Beside Duda, Hélio, the center Fernando Coloneze and the power forward Jefferson William, Marcelinho lead Flamengo to the final, against the champion of the previous season, Brasília, which would become the greatest rival of Flamengo in the national scene.
In the final series, Flamengo won by 3–0 and won its first national title.
2008–2009 season: The First NBB and the first MVP
On 28 January 2009, it was disputed the first game in NBB's history, between Flamengo and Pinheiros. Marcelinho played a great match, with 36 points in a 90–89 win, dueling with the Pinheiros' forward Marquinhos, his teammate in the Brazilian national team. Two days later, Machado scored 31 points and recorded 4 steals in a 96–87 win against Paulistano.
Keeping the previous season champion team's base, Flamengo acquired an important teammate to Marcelinho: the former NBA center Rafael "Baby" Araújo.
On 1 March, Marcelinho made 30 points and 5 assists, and led the team to a 103–97 win over Bauru, with 36 efficiency points. On 22 April, Machado almost got a double-double, with 25 points and 7 assists, leading Flamengo to the great difference in points, with a 99–49 win over Saldanha da Gama.
In the middle of the season, Marcelinho was chosen for the NBB All Star Game as the most voted player. He scored 25 points, but his team did not win the game.
Marcelinho led his team to 27–win streak, the greatest one in NBB's history, until the defeat in the Game 2 of the NBB Finals, against Brasília. In the Game 5, Baby got into a fight with one of the players of Brasilia and was excluded from the game. That way, fitted Marcelo take responsibility to decide for Flamengo. That happened, when Marcelinho scored 27 points and, beside his teammates, won the first NBB in the history, after 76–68 win.
At the end of the season, Marcelinho won the NBB Top Scoring Award, the NBB MVP Award and was chosen for the NBB All-First Team.
2009–2010 season: The Reign of MVP
Soon in the first game of the 2009–10 NBB season (NBB 2), Marcelo showed why he was chosen the MVP of the previous season. He scored 39 points against CETAF/Vila Velha, in a 99–70 win, on 1 November 2009. Flamengo had signed the forward-center Guilherme Teichmann, from Limeira, to replace Rafael Araújo, who had gone to Paulistano.
