By Alex Molina / info@eurohoops.net
If Ante Tomic and fine wine have one thing in common, it’s that they get better with age.
Tomic has already well established his status as one of the best big men in Europe this century, both from his time in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and also the BKT EuroCup. And now, just a few months before turning 38 years old, the Croatian center of Joventut Badalona is playing some of the best basketball in his career.
After seven regular-season games, Tomic is without a doubt one of the best players in the EuroCup, registering MVP numbers like few others and making an early case to be one of the favorites to win the award.
A starter in every game he’s played so far, Tomic averages 14.9 points, a league-high tying 9.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and a PIR of 24.1 over just 25:29 minutes. The numbers are impressive enough and become even more spectacular when compared to the other players in the EuroCup and to himself, since we’re talking about career highs in both points and rebounds.
As Tomic himself admits, the most notable improvement comes in rebounding, where he is posting almost double the 5.6 boards he averaged last season. “I feel good, healthy and eager to play,” Tomic tells Eurohoops. “There is a lot of talk about it being my best version, but what I see is that the biggest difference is in rebounding. The points don’t matter so much, a game with a few more or less points… it doesn’t matter so much. In the EuroCup above all, I have seen a big difference in rebounding. I am playing well, I am happy, but I don’t see it as something so special that it is talked about so much.”
The Dubrovnik-born center started his fifth EuroCup campaign in style, taking home Round 1 MVP honors after a trademark display in a win over title contender Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv. Tomic had EuroCup career high in PIR after recording 17 points, 12 rebounds (also an individual record in the EuroCup), 2 assists and a host of plays that displayed his superb quality.
“There is no secret to explain it,” Tomic says. “Some seasons you start off better and then drop off; in others you start off worse but then end up spectacular. Throughout all these years I have had some very good moments and now it’s the start of the season. I just hope and wish to continue at this level throughout the year.”
A gifted court vision and way to look at the game
Ante Tomic has been a very important player in all the teams he has played for, and not just for his scoring and rebounding ability. He’s widely recognized as one of the best passing centers in EuroLeague and EuroCup history, a player with a unique vision of the floor who is almost always able to find the best option on offense. Only in this way can we explain how Tomic averages 2.9 assists per game.
“It’s not much either,” Tomic modestly declares. “There are things that you practice and other things that you simply have – they are talent. But I think that this can also be a matter of training, with your position and simply looking at the basket and looking much wider. It is very simple.”
La Penya needs something more
Despite having in its ranks one of the best-performing big men in Europe, things are not quite taking off at Joventut Badalona. After an impressive start against a star-packed Hapoel side, losses began piling up for the Catalan side and it now finds itself languishing in ninth place with a 2-5 record in Group B. On more than one occasion, these defeats have come in the very last moments or minutes of a game when the team suddenly began to look disconnected and lost games that they looked in control of.
“It always makes you angry to lose, but to lose so many games in a row… even more so,” Tomic admits. “There are some players who have good numbers and such, but if the team does not win, I do not want to say that they do not mean anything, but they mean little. If you are not useful for the team, if the team does not win… Nothing.”
It is not all bad news for Joventut. Despite having only two European wins, the team’s record could’ve been very different if, let’s say, instead of having landed tails, it had landed heads in the final moments. Getting the Croatian to continue at an MVP level seems to be one of the keys for the green-and-black team to have a chance of achieving something this season.
Although Joventut hasn’t started the season the way they expected to, Tomic believes that his team has everything necessary to get things back on track, so long as some reinforcements arrive. “In general, we are doing quite well. Compared to last year, we have improved a lot on defense – our points against show that. We need to improve on offense – scoring 70 is not going to beat anyone. It’s a bit of everything. We are missing important players in a delicate position. Maybe some more bodies would be good for us.”
Trust (and support) with new coach Dani Miret
One of the big bets that Joventut made for the 2024-25 season was on the bench. The dismissal of Carles Duran last season meant that Dani Miret took the reins of the team on an interim basis. The Catalan coach won the trust of the Joventut management, who not only confirmed his stay of the remainder of the 2023-24 campaign but also gave him a contract until 2026 as irrefutable proof of their faith in him.
After several years in charge of the youth teams, Miret took charge of the club’s senior team, a move that put him in the spotlight of many who now consider him one of those responsible for the team’s situation. Tomic considers such criticism both unexpected and unfair.
“Everyone knows that the position of Coach is super complicated, because if you don’t have results, even if your team plays well or you develop young players, you’re worthless,” Tomic comments. “It shouldn’t be like that, but unfortunately it is. But on the other hand, I think Dani Miret is doing well. It’s his first year as coach of the first team, I have a lot of confidence in him.”
Even though they’ve only been together as coach and player for a few months, Miret and Tomic have known each other for years and belong more or less in the same basketball generation since Miret was born in 1985. “He gets along well,” Tomic says. “We’ve been together for years and we have a good relationship. First of all, I respect him because he’s my coach. I don’t want to be the first to criticize, I try to help him just as he has helped me over all these years. Now, when it’s time, I want to help him so that the team plays better and so that his job is easier every day, not just in the games: in the videos, with questions, with instructions, with advice… Pushing the youngsters or someone who doesn’t feel good today. Small things but they are important things on a day-to-day basis.”
The best possible teacher for the young players
Being a veteran leader of Joventut, apart from one of the best centers around, means that Ante Tomic is one of the role models for youngsters wherever he plays. After 16 seasons in the elite, his experience has also seen the new, emerging talents turn to him to improve their game. His role as a mentor has been strengthened in a club that works with the youth team as much and as well as Penya.
Tomic actually mentored several players who are now making a name for themselves in the EuroLeague.
“[I had this role] during the first few years, even more than now,” Tomic mentions. “Now we’ve changed the dynamic, we have more experienced players. The first few years were fun… but complicated. Playing with the 18-, 19- or 20-year-olds was a huge change in my career. I just hope that I was able to help them. I think so, because we see now that these guys like Neno Dimitrijevic, Xabi Lopez-Arostegui, Joel Parra and Arturs Zagars are in important roles at big clubs and I like to think that I’m partly to blame for this. It makes me very excited, it’s very important for me. Above all, I’m happy for Neno and Joel – I had a more special relationship with them – but also for everyone.”
It would be a shame if such a brilliant basketball mind like Ante Tomic was wasted once his playing days were over, wouldn’t it? There’s still a long way to go, but his days in the game are getting closer towards the end and the Croatian is clear that he has several options on the table, with one more interesting than the others.
“I still don’t know what I want to do next, I have a lot of ideas,” he says. “One of them is to be a coach, but more individual work, especially with kids who are about to enter the first team. At that age it is super important, a lot of players get lost there if they don’t get into the first team; they go I don’t know where… Before, too, but that age is crucial for the player. That is one of the ideas I have, I don’t see myself being a first-team coach… at the moment.”
Photo: EuroCup Basketball