by Semih Tuna / stuna@eurohoops.net
Up to 2-1 in Group C of the Basketball Champions League Regular Season and 6-2 in Turkiye Sigorta Basketbol Super Ligi, Darussafaka Lassa jumped to a fast start in the 2023-24 campaign. Latvian forward Janis Timma has been part of the success.
Timma, 31, talked to Eurohoops about his contract with Dacka, shooting for the NBA, the wide differences between the league based in North America and the European approach, and missing out on participating in the history-making run of Latvia in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, among other topics.
For the Istanbul outfit, the Latvian sharpshooter is averaging 10.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per contest over eight appearances across continental and domestic action, including a 28-point effort against Reeder Samsunspor in Round 8 of the BSL Regular Season on Saturday. Fueling the best performance of the season, he connected 11/15 from the field, including 6/9 three-pointers in Samsun.
Trade during breakfast
Q: I read one of your interviews in the past and saw this story: You were in Memphis Grizzlies‘ facilities in 2015 when you learned that you got traded to Orlando Magic while having breakfast. Your reaction was, ‘Okay, can I finish the practice?’. Are you always that kind of a calm person?
A: I mean, yes. It is not the first day in business for me. It was a shock for me, but at the same time, I understood it was something new, exciting, a new chapter for me. I was thinking about big things and stuff like that in Memphis. At that time, I was 23. I was still young. I thought, ‘Okay, cool’. I had just finished the first practice, it was conditioning. At that time, in the morning we were doing conditioning practice. Then we came back to the facility, had breakfast and I changed my clothes in the locker room for a workout. We were sitting in the locker room, talking to each other. Then the GM came to me and said ‘You got traded’. I was like, ‘Oh, okay. Can I finish the practice?’. Everybody, even the coaches were surprised. They were like ‘Hey, we were spending so much time for you. Now you are going to come and kick our asses. It is not fair. Why are you going?’. I am okay with these things. I am not taking anything personally. They are meant to happen.
Q: Every year, we see European players getting selected in the draft. But from Ventspils to the draft… This is not a thing that we see very often. How was that process?
A: I finished the season and at that time, we had this Treviso camp. They invited me to the camp. I showed myself really well there, we thought like ‘Let’s go to the draft’. I don’t want to lie, there was less than a month, maybe even less time left for the draft. I had six or seven teams that wanted me to come to workouts. I had time to attempt only three places: Houston, Atlanta, and Memphis. I went to these three teams. In Memphis, a funny thing happened. I finished my workout, it was my first workout. For the second workout, one guy was missing, somebody didn’t arrive. One of the coaches came to the locker room and said ‘Who wants to participate one more time?’. I said ‘I’m ready’. So, I did two workouts in a row. Maybe that was also one of the reasons why they liked me. I had just finished the workout, and after work, there were exercises about running the court for two or three minutes. You just run up and down. I did that too. Even after that, I felt alright. After the second practice, they said ‘No no no, you don’t need to run again’ (laughs). After Treviso camp, I entered the draft and it was like the last seat on the bus. I think that was a mistake, but I don’t regret that. Because if I’d have entered the draft next year, I’d have been picked from the higher picks. There wasn’t a lot of time for people to understand me, my game, and scout me. But it is what it is and it was an amazing experience.
Q: After two very successful seasons with Zenit, you jumped to another level with Baskonia. I have to be honest with you, we were calling you ‘Swiss knife’. European basketball loves point forwards like you. You were one of them. How was the adaptation to the next level?
A: It wasn’t that hard actually. I think what helped me a lot was playing in the national team with the older guys against national teams like Spain, France, Slovenia, and Greece, basically the teams whose rosters are formed by EuroLeague or NBA players. I think that helped me a lot to adjust. For me, usually, it is not that hard to adjust to a different level because, since my childhood, I’ve always played with older guys. I think this was one of the advantages of me about going so fast to another level. It wasn’t that hard. I felt good. I felt a new challenge, I felt like I could play my game here easily too.