By Alex Madrid / info@eurohoops.net
The family name Blatt is a trademark in Europe. Former NBA coach David Blatt is well known all around the old continent for a good reason. The American-Israeli had a prolific career as a player before becoming one of the most awarded coaches in European basketball history.
Sometimes, parents’ success weighs a lot but not for Tamir Blatt who was born in 1997. The 20-year-old was unknown to many people until last summer. However, Blatt emerged as the next generation star in Israel in the U20 European Championship. He took his national team to the European final.
Tamir Blatt averaged 16 points, 10.1 assists, and 4.6 rebounds last summer. Just to make a comparison, Milos Teodosic averaged 5,4 assists in the same championship ten years ago.
Blatt was already one of the great sensations in Israel. During the 2016-2017 campaign in the Winner League, the point guard averaged 7.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists with a hit of 42% from the three-point line. He proved that he doesn’t need too many shots and he also shares the basketball.
His great season with Hapoel Tel Aviv attracted the attention of Hapoel Holon. The Israeli club was going to compete in the Basketball Champions League, something that finally decided the young Blatt. “I’m really looking forward to it,” he said to FIBA. “I think I made a good decision to play for a team both in the domestic league and European league. I’m really excited about it.”
Competing at a high level in Europe was a step forward for him but it seemed that Tamir needed time. In a gradual incremental process he is moving from less to more in the competition and in his last game, he had his best performance yet. Tamir Blatt ended the game with 12 points and 13 assists against EWE Baskets leading Holon to its second win of the season.
Tamir Blatt has a double-double for the first time in the season but as soon as he finds his rhythm we will have to get used to that kind of nights. After all, he had three double-doubles in points and assists in the U20 European Championship. Let’s remember that he is only 20 years old and he may only need time in order to do more damage.
At the end of the season, maybe we won’t talk about Hapoel Holon as the team where Glen Rice‘s son, Nacy Lieberman‘s son and David Blatt’s son played. Perhaps, Hapoel Holon will be the team where Glen Rice Jr, T.J. Cline and Tamir Blatt played.