Βy Stelios Toromanidis/ info@eurohoops.net
The quality American guard will try his luck in Europe’s top club competition for the second time after his admittedly successful stint in the colors of Baskonia in the 2016-2017 season.
His return to the Old Continent is a positive development for the competition’s prestige and Eurohoops looks back on the 25-year-old player’s career so far.
From baseball to basketball
Shane is the scion of a sporting family, with his father, Barry Larkin, being a Hall of Famer with the Cincinnati Reds in baseball, which, incidentally, is more popular than basketball in the USA.
This is the reason Efes’s new acquisition initially tried to play baseball. Despite that, his progress was not impressive and so he turned to basketball, where his talent was apparent from the beginning.
His accomplishments in Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando (18.8 points, 6.3 assists, 6.4 rebounds and 3.5 steals on average in his last season) did not go unnoticed by experts on the other side of the Atlantic and, as a result, he was included in the most talented point guards of his age and ended up playing with the Miami Hurricanes.
His college years, the high selection in the draft and the injury that kept him back
Larkin’s very good performance was continued in the two seasons he played in college (2011-2013). After a few months of adjustment, he became a key member of his team, helping them have two successful seasons.
In fact, in 2012-2013 the Hurricanes finished in the top spot of their conference and reached the Sweet Sixteen in March Madness, where they lost 71-61 to Marquette. Throughout their course, the small (1.80m) guard was catalytic and almost irreplaceable in the line-up, which made him register for the Draft of 2013.
There, he was selected with a very high pick – the 18th pick, actually – by the Atlanta Hawks and was traded to Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks. Despite that, he was unfortunate as he broke his ankle during a Summer League practice and was out of action for four months. As a result, he made his debut in the NBA in November 2013.
His first season in the magical world did not go as planned. Aside from his 48 appearances with the Mavericks, he often played in the NBA Development League and the Texas Legends.
His statistical improvement and his crossover to the EuroLeague
In the 2014-2015 season, Larkin was traded to the New York Knicks. The team may have only played a supporting role that season, but the American guard got some playing time and a role and, as a result, there was a small improvement in his competitive and statistical image.
The same thing happened the following season, this time in the colors of the Brooklyn Nets, with who Larkin got career highs both in points (20 against the Washington Wizards) as well as assists (14 against the Detroit Pistons) during the season.
After the 2015-2016 season, Larkin made an important decision regarding his career by moving to the EuroLeague. Baskonia showed him how much they wanted him by offering him a leading role, while, even though he had some offers from NBA teams, he chose to try his luck in Europe since, like he said, he saw it as an opportunity to improve his game even further and gain experiences from another league.
His impressive performance in Baskonia and the return to the NBA
His great potential could be seen from the very first moment in the EuroLeague as well as the Spanish league, with the basketball fans of the Old Continent being enthusiastic about what they saw.
Together with Beaubois, Hanga, Shengelia, Voigtmann and the rest of Baskonia’s players, they made up an excellent squad that offered a lot of spectacle. In Europe’s top club competition, they reached the playoffs where they lost to CSKA Moscow in 3-0, while in the ACB, even though they finished second in the regular season (23-9) behind Real Madrid (25-7), in the end, they were knocked out in the post season’s semifinals by Valencia in 3-1.
Larkin was named to the All-Spanish League Second Team with 14.1 points and 4.9 assists on average. At the end of the season, he got an offer by the Basques to renew, but he chose to return to the best league in the world.
The season at Boston and the return to Europe with a leading role
Following his European experience, he was acquired by the Boston Celtics and for one season he was Kyrie Irving’s teammate and played in the finals of the Eastern Conference against LeBron James’s Cleveland Cavaliers. His limited playing time, thanks to the Celtics’ very good backcourt, didn’t leave him satisfied and so he decided to return to the EuroLeague, this time for Efes, who offered him a leading role and the chance to play alongside Rodrigue Beaubois once again.