Tragic death in Polish sport. The behind-the-scenes are shocking

Tragic news from the world of basketball. Zbigniew Marculewicz died at the age of 46. A figure very well known from league courts at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Zbigniew Marculewicz was a basketball player who played as a center/center. The greatest achievements in his career include promotion to PLK (the highest league in the country) in 2004 and playing in the Polish Cup final in 2006.
Zbigniew Marculewicz is dead, the tragic death of a former basketball player
Marculewicz was an expert in the basket game, especially good at fighting on the boards and blocks. It is no coincidence that he was PLK’s leader in block statistics in 2003.
During his career, Marculewicz played in clubs from Białystok, Tarnów, Starogard, Łódź and Tarnobrzeg. He spent his 11th season at PLK level. His best in terms of point statistics in the elite was 2001/02, in 38 games he recorded an average of 7.3 points, plus 3.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.
In total, Marculewicz appeared in over 280 official matches among the basketball elite, being a well-known figure in the country. This is hardly surprising, since he functioned in PLK itself for over a decade and also played at lower levels of the competition.
The former basketball player died on Sunday, October 13, in a house fire in the village of Nowodziel. The fire broke out in a wooden house. Unfortunately, Marculewicz could not be saved.
– When I saw smoke coming from the neighbors’ house, I immediately ran to help. The building quickly burst into flames. I saw Zbyszek’s sister taking their mother, Irena, out. “Save Zbyszek” she screamed at me. The smoke was so thick that you couldn’t breathe and you couldn’t see anything. The feeling of failure was terrible. But I don’t even know if I could get him out if I reached him. He was a big, two-meter tall guy. The fire brigade arrived quickly, but unfortunately not quickly enough for Zbyszek, admitted the Marculewicz family’s neighbor, Krzysztof Chlistowski, quoted by Sport.pl.
Zbigniew Marculewicz was 46 years old.