By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Ramat-Gan will have the chance to qualify for the next phase of the Basketball Champions League this week and a journeyman is finally getting the spotlight.
Born in 1990, Amin Stevens has played for more than a decade in Europe, however this season he is turning heads for the first time.
Stevens has already scored 111 points in the five BCL games this season, more than anybody else, while shooting 71% from the field. The numbers are crazy, and so is the story of an overlooked player who finally got a chance to shine on the big stage.
Stevens has played for MBK Rieker Komárno, Fürstenfeld Panthers, BC Vienna, Löwen Braunschweig, Keflavík, Rouen Métropole Basket, Brussels, Maccabi Kiryat, Ironi Kiryat and this season for Maccabi Ramat-Gan.
Those are unknown names even for some of the most hardcore European basketball fans, but Stevens endured a journey that started in Slovakia and ended in Austria, Iceland, Belgium, the second division in France, and Israel before reaching this point.
The definition of a journeyman
According to the C. Harris Dictionary of Architecture and Construction, “a journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee”.
This – in basketball terms – describes more than anything else a player like Stevens who spent most of his career under the radar, after leaving Florida A&M for Europe.
According to the recent FIBA migration report, the United States remains by far the biggest exporter of players with 2,050 men and women players.
As it’s obvious, all of them can’t be stars, or make millions overseas.
Stevens is such a case, a “worker” who won the Slovak Basketball Cup in 2013 and was named Iceland’s foreign player of the year in 2017. It’s not bad to win accolades but those two are the kind that are not making headlines.
Until this season, Stevens’ finest moment was the 2017-18 season with Rouen, when he was the scoring leader and also the rebounding leader of the second French division Pro B. Even then the payoff was a contract next season in Belgium, which is not bad, but also not spectacular.
However, Stevens was persistent and ultimately he got the chance he was looking for. He is currently the 2nd leading scorer per average in the BCL, second only to Saben Lee, first in points scored, and seventh in rebounds.
His team needs a road win or just a defeat by seven or fewer points to VEF Riga in order to advance. And it just feels right for him to get a chance to continue his landmark season in the Basketball Champions League.