By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Imagine growing up in Europe’s most sparsely populated country, surrounded by ice and lava fields. A hostile place in the vast majority of its territory for everyday life, the daily routine. But with basketball, that occupies your childhood and adolescence.
That could be a good summary of what Elvar Mar Fridriksson experienced in Njarðvík, the southern district of Reykjanesbær where his dad Friðrik Pétur first played and then coached. That’s his surroundings, almost a natural choice. “I was always around basketball. Everything was just about basketball when I was growing up, I was kind of lucky with that”, he says to Eurohoops.
Finding his sporting love soon, he could combine it with spending time alongside his best friend. “Martin [Hermannsson] is from Reykjavik, but our parents are really good friends and our fathers played together. So we’ve known each other since we were born. We’ve been close”, the Icelandic point guard said about his countryman, who shared one year of college experience with him in Brooklyn.
Starting his professional career at home in the Icelandic league, the now 29-year-old playmaker went on to experience several curious chapters, meeting enriching teammates who helped him grow as a basketball player and as a man. All the way from the southwestern region of Iceland.
World Cup regrets over missed shot in Tbilisi
Talking about adding life knowledge to his cabinet, during his senior year at Barry University, he shared the room with Sunday Dech, who’s coming off an outstanding 2023 FIBA World Cup with South Sudan. “He came last season from Australia to Lithuania to visit me. I knew everything about his journey, we both could share the similarities of coming from basically a non-basketball country. He gave me a South Sudan jersey, so I was supporting him during the World Cup”, he commented.
They could have met somewhere in Manila, Okinawa, or Jakarta, but fate wrote a different page of the history books for them. “We were both in the position to be able to qualify for the World Cup. But he only did. And I was very happy for him. It was amazing to see him live that dream”, Elvar Fridriksson said about being so close to bringing his country to the first-ever World Cup participation.
After participating in EuroBasket 2015 and 2017, the Icelandic national team needed to win by four points or more in the decisive clash against Georgia on the road to qualify following a tough qualification round which included Spain and Italy as well.
With 5.0 seconds left in the game and Iceland up by three (80-77), guess who had the shot to lock the qualification and write history? Yes, exactly: the man who was having a 25-point night with 5/10 from downtown. Wide open on the left side of the court, Elvar Fridriksson let it fly…
…in and out. “We played amazing in that group stage to be able to put ourselves in the position of qualifying. If I had made that, we would have been in the World Cup. My only regret is not making that shot. But you can’t control that, you live and learn”, the Icelandic leader expressed.
Final seconds of Georgia vs. Iceland (FIBA World Cup Qualifiers). Iceland needed to beat Georgia by 4 points or more to qualify over them, but only won by 3 points pic.twitter.com/ysdEUGnKx8
— hoops bot (@hoops_bot) February 27, 2023
For the Icelandic national team, a new challenge awaits, being inserted in Group B of the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket Qualifiers, and trying to come back to the competition after not making it in 2022. They will face Italy once again after battling out with the Azzurri on the way to the World Cup.
Other than Gianmarco Pozzecco’s team, Iceland needs to beat either Turkey or Hungary to compete for the best three spots, which give the direct ticket to Latvia, Cyprus, Finland, or Poland. “It’s a very tough group. Turkey is a way bigger basketball country and they have higher-level players, so that would be tough. The same counts for Italy”, Elvar Fridriksson first commented about the favorites.
However, the final opponent could have been worse. “We aim to beat Hungary. I think we have a good chance of giving EuroBasket a shot again because I think Icelandic basketball is growing; more and more players are being successful in Europe”, PAOK’s playmaker continued, underlining Martin Hermannsson’s absence.
Forced to miss basically two years of action, with some rare appearances here and there in Valencia, one of the most talented players in Iceland’s history was difficult to replace. “When you’re from Iceland, such a small basketball country, if we miss the one that’s playing at the highest level it’s very hard. If we have everyone ready to go, hopefully, we’re going to give it a shot”, he said.
At the end of the day, the Icelandic national team has been proven to have the guts to compete with better teams on paper in terms of talent and players’ availability. “We just always go out there with nothing to lose. We always have this underdog mentality which brings us to play harder, with a lot of energy, and a different style than the one other teams are playing. I always like our chances when we get together as a group because we make a pretty good team”, Elvar Fridriksson commented.
Despite Martin Hermannsson’s absence, there was somebody else standing out for his size and touching ability, as Tryggvi Hlinason has been huge for Iceland. “He changed the dynamic of the national team to compete against bigger teams because we’ve never had a big guy that is this good; he helps the team so much and makes everything easier for us. We’re able to compete against those teams, without him it would be very tough to even compare ourselves to any of these teams”, he said about the 26-year-old center.
Providing a monster double-double of 34 points and 21 rebounds in the home clash won against Italy in OT, he captured a lot of attention. “He’s such a force, both offensively and defensively. We would never been able to compete against Italy in this group without [Tryggvi] Hlinason. We were able to give him two good games just with him being our main guy in the middle to control everything. It’s just amazing to play with him, and he’s a great guy too. He helps us a lot”, he added about him.
Making “Magic” in the Basketball Champions League
Moving on to the clubs he played for, Elvar Fridriksson made a name for himself especially in Lithuania, being named the LKL League MVP after ending the season as the assists leader of the competition with BC Šiauliai. He also came back to the Baltic country playing for Rytas Vilnius in 2022-23.
However, his first proficient experience outside of Iceland came in Sweden, where he was named the Basketligan Guard of the Year and won the championships in 2020 with the season being interrupted by the pandemic. He did this all with Boras Basket, a team that may not be surrounded by large popularity but that saw Magic Johnson wearing its jersey back in the 1999-00 season for a bunch of games, and winning all of them. During that span, the club changed its name to “Magic M7 Borås”.
Despite not having any kind of connection with the Los Angeles Lakers legend, the 29-year-old playmaker had the opportunity to see something of what he did while being there. “Our physio was with the team for a lot of years and he was there when Magic [Johnson] came to Sweden: I think he was the only guy who was around the team back then. He was showing us some clips when he was there, and it was obviously huge for the club”, Elvar Fridriksson shared about his time in Scandinavia.
Having reached success in northern Europe, he still made the jump to Greece to start a new chapter in Thessaloniki. And moving from Rytas Vilnius to PAOK, he even found some similarities. “There are some things that I can relate to. The playing style I would say in some ways was pretty similar. We had a Greek coach [Georgios Dedas] who played at PAOK, who’s from here and I could see some similarities”, he commented on the transition from Lithuania to the Greek team.
Playing alongside Marcus Foster last season, he then found another high-level backcourt companion in Andrew Harrison, who also played in the NBA. “They’re both good very experienced, they played all over the world at the highest level. It’s just an honor for me to be able to share the court with them. I’m enjoying having teammates like that”, Elvar Fridriksson added about the two Americans.
All eyes, however, have been on him since the start of this year’s Basketball Champions League, posting the third-ever triple-double in the history of the competition after EWE Baskets Oldenburg’s Chris Kramer in January 2017 and Neptunas Klaipeda’s Arnas Butkevicius in November 2017. Against? PAOK.
The Icelandic playmaker put up 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in the road victory against Galatasaray, and didn’t even realize it. “I came to the locker room and somebody told me I had a triple-double. I had no idea. I didn’t even know I was able to grab 11 rebounds from my height, so that was very surprising”, he joked about it but praised the qualities of their opponents.
Getting the victory in Turkey against such a historic competitor wasn’t an easy task. “They have a great team and it was a big motivation for us. We came into the game as underdogs going into a tough away court, and we were motivated just to start the Champions League in the right way. We gained confidence, we were able to take the lead, and we never looked back after that. We were able to play fast-paced and good defense. I feel like we played one of our best games this season so far, even though it was that early in the season”, he commented.
📊 19PTS I 11REB I 10AST
HISTORY! Elvar Fridriksson becomes the third player to record a triple-double in the #BasketballCL! 👏 pic.twitter.com/ztl8TPXILc
— Basketball Champions League (@BasketballCL) October 18, 2023
Standing at 3-1 next to Hapoel Jerusalem in Group G, the Greeks lost their only game so far in this year’s Basketball Champions League against Benfica. “I would say they’ve been the most unpredictable to face. They play up-tempo, get out of their place, and break plays when they see the opportunity”, he said about the Portuguese side before touching on “three teams with different characteristics”.
Commenting about the Israeli side, for example, he praised one of the most dangerous forwards in the history of the competition. “We struggled with keeping Levi Randolph down, and he’s had an amazing Champions League season so far. I played against him also in Belgium for one season [with the Antwerp Giants]. I think he’s a high-level player, so it was very tough to manage to make him have a quiet game”, the Icelandic player added about the American scorer.
The level of the group talks by itself. “It’s just a lot of high-quality players. I knew it was going to be a lot of really tough games, and we still have two very tough games to play [against Hapoel Jerusalem on the road and Galatasaray at home]. So we’ve got to focus more on ourselves to get through those games. If we make a collective effort, we give ourselves a chance to win. We at least need one more win to go through to the Round of 16, which is our goal”, he then commented.
Averaging 11.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game, Elvar Fridriksson has been huge for PAOK in the Basketball Champions League, but he likes to get credit for the collective effort. “We’re growing as a team and I feel like everyone is doing their part. We have a deep roster, and a lot of players can contribute to the team: that’s what makes squads good. It’s not only one or two players, everyone is putting something in so we can make a collective work. That’s what we’re aiming for”, he concluded.
Coming all the way from Iceland, Elvar Mar Fridriksson has been going through a lot. Probably way more than what an average basketball player would discover throughout his whole career. That’s what made him a better player, one who’s able to enter the history of the Basketball Champions League, and who aims to put his non-basketball country on the map. So far, so good.
You might not know 🇮🇸’s Elvar Fridriksson yet, but we suggest watching this.
Simply beautiful basketball, every step of the way. 🍿#FIBAWC | #WinForIceland x @kkikarfa pic.twitter.com/JHaN7xqUre
— FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 🏆 (@FIBAWC) July 1, 2022
PHOTO CREDIT: Basketball Champions League