By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
In the summer of 2019, Wade Baldwin signed with Olympiacos Piraeus, Lorenzo Brown joined Crvena Zvezda and Jordan Loyd made Valencia Basket his home.
Although that was the start of their Turkish Airlines EuroLeague journey, the relationship among the three had already been created and tested.
It’s not a coincidence that all three names were almost mentioned in the same sentence that summer of 2019.
Yes, they were EuroLeague rookies, but they had already distinguished themselves in the G-League playing for the Raptors 905, while Brown and Loyd also made their presence felt on the Toronto Raptors roster.
And especially for those two, their joined story is much longer.
High school rivals turned teammates
When they were playing at rival high schools in Georgia, U.S., it’s fair to say that no one expected that Lorenzo Brown and Jordan Loyd would someday face each other in the context of Game 5 in the EuroLeague Playoffs.
Brown attended Centennial High School, which in his final year in 2008-09 was ranked fifth in the state. Loyd attended bitter rival Milton, which in 2008-09 was ranked sixth in Georgia. Loyd had even led Milton to a state championship as a junior in 2009-10.
Of course, Brown being three years older than Loyd meant that he had a head start in his career. Still, they were working out together in Atlanta, and Brown was mentoring Loyd when they played together for the 905 Raptors. It was a season to remember for Brown, who won the G-League 2017-18 MVP award.
“He always spoke a lot of wisdom, and things that I can learn during this two-way transition,” said Loyd at the time, when he was preparing to be the next leader of Raptors 905 in the 2018-19 season.
“He’s been there before. He knows everything. He was the MVP of the league last year, so he knows the ups and downs, and we always talk, we always hang out off the court, so he’s a really good person to look up to. I just aspire to be in his position.”
The third part of the equation
Brown spent most of the 2018-19 season, his season before coming to Europe, on the roster of the Raptors, playing 26 games before a short stint in China. Loyd for most of the season competed in the G-League, before practically replacing Brown in Toronto.
However, with Brown leaving the G-League, Wade Baldwin was added to the 905 Raptors roster after the first half of the season.
Although he youngest of the trio doesn’t has such a long history with either Brown or Loyd, they have all followed pretty much the same path with EuroLeague legend David Blatt having always an eye on them and picking Baldwin in the summer of 2019 for Olympiacos when he was coaching the Reds.
While since then all three have made their name in Europe, it only feels natural that Blatt is the head of the professional committee of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, while the team has both Brown and Baldwin on the roster.
All three can’t win
And that’s why Game 5 in Monaco, no matter the result, will end up being bittersweet for all of them. While they have already established themselves as top players in Europe, none of them has participated yet in a EuroLeague Final Four.
With both teams already having one road win in the series, nobody can predict who will prevail. In the end, it will be either Jordan Loyd making it to Kaunas, or the duo of Lorenzo Brown and Wade Baldwin taking the trip to Lithuania.
In an ideal scenario, all three should be celebrating in the end. However, that’s the nature of the game and this time they can’t all cross together at a crucial juncture on their so-far joint path.