By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
If someone back in the beginning of the EuroLeague season told Paris Basketball star guard TJ Shorts that his team would be leading the standings by Round 14, he probably wouldn’t have taken them seriously.
“I’d probably say you are crazy,” Shorts admitted to Eurohoops after a huge win over Olympiacos Piraeus on the road. “Obviously I’d be lying to think we would go on a run like this. Its been incredible.”
“We’re just staying in the moment though. We’re not trying to get ahead of ourselves,” Shorts added. Paris is now riding a phenomenal 10-0 wave to become the first team in the competition to reach 11 wins.
This is just beyond impressive for a team that is competing in the EuroLeague for the first time in club history and an organization that was founded just six years ago.
Shorts and Paris set themselves atop of the standing after yet another outstanding victory, this time against previously undefeated at home Olympiacos. They were up even 20 points in the fourth period before a comeback by the Reds.
Despite being inexperienced in this kind of EuroLeague situations and facing not only a stacked team but a roaring crowd, Paris reacted, held on and took this massive dub. Shorts finished with 21 points and eight assists, a few days after he was named the official EuroLeague MVP of the Month for November.
He had already established himself in the MVP conversation early on.
“I probably say it sounds about right,” Shorts mentioned on how he would react if he was told that he’d an MVP contender in his maiden EuroLeague season. “My coaches and my teammates put me in an incredible positions to be able to do what I do. I’m playing with a lot of confidence… now the whole of Europe is seeing me on the big stage.”