Βy Semih Tuna/ info@eurohoops.net
Vincent Poirier was the unsung hero of Real Madrid‘s front line. However, the French big man decided to leave Spain for another former championship team, Anadolu Efes, turning the page on his career.
What didn’t change was his belief that EuroLeague remains the best basketball option outside the NBA – where he also played – and he responded to Juan Anderson Toscano’s recent remarks while talking to Eurohoops on Anadolu Efes‘ media day.
“I talked to a few friends about what he said”, Poirier explained. “I also saw Evan (Fournier)’s tweets and Mike James’ tweets. Yes, he might have said that to motivate his team, but it shows how hard all European teams play. Malaga (Unicaja) is not even a EuroLeague team, yet they beat the best team in the G League. I don’t think the G League is even a real league. I know a lot of players who are not ready to leave America and go to a different continent, I don’t think playing there shows the real level of these players”.
Poirier understands the point of the G League but he still compares it with the French second division: “Of course, I don’t know which is more valuable for the NBA, the G-League or the EuroLeague. But I think the GLeague is probably the same level as the French second division or something like that. No disrespect, but that’s the way it is, I played there too. I know players who went to Europe and were much better when they were playing in the G-League. It’s got a little bit of everything there.”
“It was difficult to leave Real Madrid
On a personal level, Fournier admitted that his summer decision was not easy: “Yes, it was difficult. First of all, my daughter still lives in Madrid, so moving away from her was a challenge in itself. I had never been so far away from my daughter before, so that made the decision very difficult for me. On the other hand, I felt that I needed a new challenge, and Efes was a great choice for that challenge”
Simply, Efes wanted the French big man more: “Efes offered me the opportunity to be a more important player than I was in Madrid. I say that in terms of time and the impact I will make on the game. Efes is a team with big goals, trying to get back to the Final Four level and winning the EuroLeague. There are also players here who know how to be a champion, who have won the championship twice. So Efes was a great choice for me to go and enjoy playing basketball. I’ll be honest with you, I was really uncomfortable after some games in Madrid. I wanted to have more chances and show that I can do better. So I took on a new challenge. It won’t be easy, but I’m not afraid, I’ve changed teams before.”
“I talked to Fournier to see if he was interested in Efes”
Poirier wanted a bit of French company in Istanbul, so he admitted that he tried to recruit Evan Fournier, the biggest summer move in Europe who decided to play for Olympiacos.
“I talked to him to see if he was interested in coming to Efes”, Poirier said. “Of course, he had an offer from Olympiakos at the time and our roster was full. I think he went to a very good team for him, I knew he wanted to play in Europe anyway. As I said, there hasn’t been any ‘trash talk’ between us yet, we will talk about these things later”.