By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
Two of them did not play at all in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague last season, one of them managed just four games, while the rest were among the first ones to leave the court before everyone had to later.
WILL CLYBURN
CSKA Moscow | Forward | May 17, 1990 | USA
19.5 pts | 3.5 reb | 1 ast | 1.3 stl | 0.5 blk | 1.5 tov | 28:24 min | 19 PIR
EuroLeague champ, Final Four MVP, member of the All-EuroLeague First Team, and yet, 2019 wasn’t all fun for Will Clyburn. October 16, 2019 is a date he’d like to forget. He had to wait almost a year since then to play again due to an anterior cruciate ligament rupture in the right knee.
It seems like his bad luck made him even more determined because in his return on the court he’s playing perhaps the best basketball of his career. The first four rounds have found him ranking third in points and among the EuroLeague’s top 10 players in PIR. So far, the highlight has been everything he did in CSKA‘s road win over Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (77-78 OT) in Round 3, the first of two games in a row in which he threatened his career high in points (27).
MARIUS GRIGONIS
Zalgiris Kaunas | Guard | April 26, 1994 | Lithuania
14 pts | 3 reb | 3.3 ast | 0 stl | 0 blk | 2.5 tov | 26:01 min | 13.8 PIR
After several years abroad, Marius Grigonis returned to his hometown club, Zalgiris Kaunas, in 2018. On the cusp of his prime at age 24, Grigonis promptly became a key part of Zalgiris’s future. That was apparent even more as he averaged 11.5 points as a full-time starter in the first 10 games last season, with high shooting percentages across the board. There, however, is where his season ended. A foot injury sent Grigonis to surgery, not to be seen again until earlier this month.
After four games this season, of course, Zalgiris is the only undefeated team in the EuroLeague and Grigonis is the team’s leading scorer (14 ppg.). The same trust he earned from former coach Sarunas Jasikevicius is clearly there for new coach Martin Schiller, who has Grigonis averaging almost 3 minutes more on court than any other Zalgiris player.
KEVIN PANGOS
Zenit St Petersburg | Guard | January 26, 1993 | Canada
19 pts | 1.5 reb | 4.5 ast | 1 stl | 0 blk | 4.5 tov | 29:53 min | 17 PIR
There’s nothing worse in a player’s career than seeing others do what they love without being able to join them. For Kevin Pangos, the situation could not have been worse in Barcelona last season. Due to a left foot injury he only played in two games in the preseason Supercopa, one in the Spanish League and none in the EuroLeague.
The new season has found him playing basketball once again, now in a leading role for Zenit St Petersburg, and the proof of that is his performances in just two games the Russian team has played so far because of the situation with COVID-19. He posted a career high in points (23) in Zenit’s away win over Anadolu Efes Istanbul (69-73) in the season opener. Then, he was among Zenit’s top players in another prestige victory over his former team, FC Barcelona (74-70), in St Petersburg.
VASSILIS SPANOULIS
Olympiacos Piraeus | Guard | August 7, 1982 | Greece
8.3 pts | 1 reb | 1.8 ast | 1 stl | 0 blk | 1.3 tov | 16:49 min | 4.3 PIR
It was October 31, 2005, when Vassilis Spanoulis was stepping on a EuroLeague court for the first time in his career. Since then, out of 370 games while at Panathinaikos OPAP Athens (2005-06, 2007-10) and Olympiacos Piraeus (2010-today) he has played in 328 of them, which means 88.6%. Not bad for the competition’s leader in terms of playing time, among other records. If it wasn’t for the unlucky moments that remind us that he is mortal, who knows how many more records he’d be counting? But such a moment occurred last season, when an injury in his right ankle forced him out from Round 22 until the season was suspended after Round 28.
New surgery performed almost in the same place as another one a few months earlier was not enough to hold back a player of his caliber. At 38 years old, he remains an example to be followed. He may have come off the bench in the first four games, but he remains healthy and strong and still has moves that many younger players would envy.
Ο άλλος στα 38 του, μετά απο τραυματισμούς, απέναντι σε έναν απο τους καλύτερους switch-D ψηλούς, έχει την εκρηκτικότητα να κάνει αυτή τη σταυρωτή,να κερδίσει μισό sec για να πάει στο αγαπημένο του δεξί χέρι κ να τελειώσει με αριστερό.Έχουν στερέψει τα λόγια#OlympiacosBC #legend pic.twitter.com/FMPCA3wrwu
— Τsibos (@tsibos10) October 17, 2020