By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Even an NBA veteran with heaps of experience might find it pretty challenging to successfully adapt to the trials and tribulations that a maiden voyage in European basketball can present to him. Especially if said player signs with the defending EuroLeague champion.
What Jason Thompson carried in his bags when he arrived in Istanbul to join Fenerbahce, was the basketball knowledge that derives from eight years and almost 600 games in the NBA. He had been tested thoroughly and for a long time in the best league on the planet but held no illusions that EuroLeague would be a cakewalk.
“I knew that coming in here. It wouldn’t be easy,” Thompson told Eurohoops. “For me personally, I’ve adjusted better in the second half of the season and I want to get improve more from here.”
The 31-year-old American forward/center signed with Fenerbahce this summer, arriving to fill the vacant spot left in the roster of the Turkish team after 2017 Final Four MVP Ekpe Udoh returned to the NBA for the Utah Jazz.
And it definitely wasn’t easy for him in the beginning. Actually, the first leg of the EuroLeague regular season included even some scoreless displays. It was a rough patch that Thompson hit before getting in sync with the team’s systems to become a steady source of points and rebounds. Starting from Round 15 and the match vs Real Madrid, the American forward/center had a stretch of four consecutive matches in which he scored in double figures, with an average of 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
His best performance in the season so far came against Panathinaikos. Thompson scored a team-high 14 points (on 7/8 shots) plus 7 rebounds to lead Fenerbahce to a key victory.
“You gotta learn. You are going to get the best from every team each night and you have to learn from this,” Thompson said to Eurohoops.
This learning process can be quite demanding and at the same time equally rewarding with Zeljko Obradovic as the tutor. Thompson realizes that he’s lucky to ball under not only the most celebrated coach in the history of European basketball but someone who is famous for elevating the game of his players to another level.
Former Fenerbahce players under Obradovic and current NBAers Bojan Bogdanovic, Nemanja Bjelica, Ekpe Udoh and Bogdan Bogdanovic are among those who bore witness and can certainly testify for that.
“I’m trying to absorb all the information he (Obradovic) gives me like a sponge,” Thompson said to Eurohoops. “This is someone who has 9 EuroLeague championships. With a guy like that, you can learn and get better each and every day. He’s a tough-minded coach obviously but what he does is getting the best out of his players. You see that each and every year. I hope he gets the best out of me too.”
Our discussion with the American forward/center took place after the road game of Fenerbahce against Olympiacos for Round 21 of the EuroLeague regular season. The Turkish team was coming into this great EuroLeague battle, a rematch of last season’s Final, eager to extend an impressive five-game winning streak in the competition. But they experienced a hard landing in “Peace and Friendship” arena of Piraeus by suffering nothing less than a blowout. Their heaviest loss in the season.
“It’s just tough,” Thompson said. “We are a really great and aggressive defensive team. And we didn’t show this obviously. For me, it’s the worst loss I’ve had during my European experience. Obviously, the only way to kind of knowing how to deal with this kind of things is by learning. We came back a bit in the second period, but it wasn’t enough. It’s not like us and it’s not how we play. It happens sometimes. But we will bounce back and play better.”
“Even if we had a winning streak now we have to find the way to get back on that track,” he added.
Fenerbahce didn’t have any answers against the 3-point assault that Olympiacos launched against them. Even though the Reds fired an unprecedented 13/17 from downtown, this doesn’t create an excuse for Thompson who believes that it was on his team to react and counter such a rampage.
“I don’t know if they are that great 3-point shooting team. But we had to adjust. And sometimes the opponent has that kind of shooting games, especially at home. Even though they had a losing streak, we knew they are still a tough team. They beat us at our place. It’s unfortunate for us because we know we can play better than that. We have to take care and learn from this.”
The arena was packed with of thousands of screaming fans. Thompson has seen it before in other EuroLeague matches this season. It was like that in Athens vs. Panathinaikos, in Tel Aviv against Maccabi or Vitoria where Fenerbahce beat Baskonia. Competing in this kind of atmospheres is yet another part of the European experience he’s getting accustomed to.
“You’re going to play in tough environments. We won in tough environments And we experienced such a tough loss in one. We’re going to watch the film and learn. It’s a long season. And we definitely don’t want to see games like this in the future.”