By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Returning to Spain’s Liga Endesa much more experienced, Latvian small forward Rodions Kurucs joined Coosur Real Betis.
Kurucs, 24, penned a one-year contract, the team based in Seville announced Tuesday.
Following the early ending to his 2021-22 campaign at Partizan NIS, he played for the Latvia senior national team in the 2023 FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers and is set for more World Cup Qualifiers action this week as the team coached by Luca Banchi shifts from Group A to Group I to host Turkey Thursday and visit Great Britain Sunday. In addition, he averaged 5.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks per contest over four appearances with the Toronto Raptors in the 2022 NBA2K23 Summer League held in Las Vegas.
In 2018, the Brooklyn Nets picked him up with the 40th overall selection of the NBA draft. Jumping into the NBA, he logged 139 games played, including 123 with the Nets until he was traded to the Houston Rockets midway through the 2020-21 season. One more trade, to the Milwaukee Bucks, followed later in the 2020-21 season. Opting to move his talents back to Europe, he joined Partizan but fell out of the rotation of Zeljko Obradovic and eventually parted ways with the team based in Belgrade.
Before the chance to play in the NBA, Kurucs joined powerhouse FC Barcelona, coming out of VEF Riga. At the Catalan club, he registered all five appearances in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and previous ACB appearances.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL