By Antigoni Zachari / info@eurohoops.net
The world around us changes drastically. Rarely do things remain the same. Time and continuity always clash, especially when it comes to sports. Hundreds of players come and go in between teams every year, though there are some whose names become synonymous with their clubs.
7DAYS EuroCup presents the chance to observe the cases of five of such players, veterans who have been aging like fine wine alongside their beloved teams, growing with them through thick and thin. Their achievement is really unique if we take into consideration that the market is truly global these days and many teams seek to recruit players with just their type of quality and valuable experience.
But these five gentlemen have gone against the tide and remained loyal to their clubs for years. Let’s find out who they are!
Carlos Suarez – Unicaja Malaga
Age: 34
Time spent with the club: 7 years (2013-)
Madrid native Suarez found a home in Malaga when he signed in 2013, and on the flipside the team found a trusted leader to build on for its future generation. His years of experience in Estudiantes and Real Madrid added up to an appealing package for Unicaja, which aimed to remain in the elite of European basketball.
Indeed, their road together has been successful, as the team lifted the 2017 7DAYS EuroCup title in the power forward’s most productive year in the competition. Aged 31 back then, Suarez was a mentor to Unicaja’s fairly young squad and keeps up with the same role to this date.
Kostas Kaimakoglou – Unics Kazan
Age: 37
Time spent with the club: 8 years (2012-)
If there’s anything more timeless than his legendary beard, it’s his presence at UNICS. Kaimakoglou left his home country, Greece, with hopes to excel as a forward in Europe, and he found his fate in Russia.
The 2011 EuroLeague champion soon had his breakout, first season with the Russian club, and would become one of the team’s most loyal fighters through the years. Since then, he has become a pillar of stability on and off the court for the team, where more Greeks have joined in, with head coach Dimitris Priftis being the prime example.
Novica Velickovic – Partizan
Age: 34
Time spent with the club: 9 years (2004-2009, 2016-)
The Serbian power forward’s story with the club runs as far back as 2004, when he made his professional debut. The first year went by fast, and Velickovic found himself in a EuroLeague game for the first time in 2005, as his role started growing with each passing season.
He left Belgrade after his best-ever 2008-09 campaign earned him the EuroLeague Rising Star honor to sign with emblematic Real Madrid, where he would continue to grow. The years rolled by, and he returned to his familiar place in 2016. A totally different setting both for him and the team, he would eventually be called to take up leadership duties, despite facing adversity and fighting against his own physical condition until getting back to a competitive point.
This year, he became a symbol for the club as its most-capped player ever, surpassing legendary Petar Bozic in the first place. Yet the job is far from done for Velickovic, who would like to end a long journey with a 7DAYS EuroCup title.
Per Günther– ratiopharm Ulm
Age: 32
Time spent with the club: 12 years (2008-)
Ulm is among the rising stars of the competition, though there’s one man that has been there since day one of their breakthrough in Europe. It’s safe to say that the Hagen-born guard has seen everything. He counts 82 EuroCup appearances – an impressive number for the club’s history – and has stuck with the team through three different coaches, a sure sign of continuity and trust by both sides.
You might not see him with a starring role every other night these days, yet his presence is now synonymous with the most successful years of Ulm. The story continues and it remains to be seen how far they can go together in the upcoming season.
Suad Sehovic – Buducnost
Age: 33
Time spent with the club: 7 years (2013-)
Who would have thought, a few years ago, that Buducnost would enjoy a place in the spotlight? Yet here we are today, with the 2018 ABA League champions competing in Europe with unyielding force.
Sehovic has a long-term 7DAYS EuroCup presence since his debut in 2007 with Bosna Sarajevo. And based on our calculations, he is the only active player who can remind us of one of the most epic games of the competition ever
That is, of course, the 2007 ALBA Berlin-Bosna five-overtime battle that ended with ALBA’s victory, setting up an all-time record of both the longest game in EuroCup history and the game with the most points scored. Quite an experience for then-rookie Sehovic!
Since then, he went off to Slovenia and Ukraine between 2010 and 2013 before penning a deal with the Montenegrin team that was meant to be his destiny. Basketball runs deep in the Sehovic family and Suad was in good hands for years in Buducnost, playing alongside brother, Sead, between 2015 and 2019.