By Kostas Giataganas / info@eurohoops.net
We’re still at the beginning of the summer transfer period and there is already a big bang sounding from Istanbul! After four consecutive Final Fours, three finals and coming off the defeat in Belgrade by Real that forced them to hand over the reigns, Fenerbahce have already made their statement for the new season: they want to return to the top.
After three years in the NBA, Joffrey Lauvergne returns to Europe, this time determined to settle in Istanbul and win titles, with Zeljko Obradovic intending to turn him into a great weapon for his team.
A child of INSEP and a… basketball player father
The French forward/center – he will be 27 years old in two months (30/9/1991) – has gotten used to constantly changing circumstances. From 2009, when he first appeared in the spotlight, up to 2015, he has changed four teams in three countries outside of France. From 2015 until his return in Europe for Fenerbahce, there were another four teams in the NBA, as he wasn’t able to settle somewhere.
Constant changes, however, had become second nature since he was a boy. The son of the veteran French player, Stephane Lauvergne (1985-2000), little Joffrey got used to constantly moving from city to city, following his father together with the rest of the family when he changed teams/cities. By the time he was 10 years old, he had already changed four cities and as many schools.
With his father being a basketball player he could only become a player too, and he got the best credentials as he studied at INSEP, the famous French national institute of sports that “produced” Tony Parker and the entire golden generation of the Tricolores, that culminated in the 2013 EuroBasket win, where Lauvergne was also present, as he was for the bronze medals that followed in the 2014 World Cup and the 2015 EuroBasket.
