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Baskonia welcomes its former stars when Real visits Thursday

Baskonia welcomes its former stars when Real visits Thursday

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27 December 20224 Mins read

Baskonia welcomes its former stars when Real visits Thursday

When Real Madrid travels to the Basque Country to play Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz on Thursday, the familiarity with the teams owes to more than just the fact that they face off many times every year between the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the Spanish League. Three Real players who made names for themselves in the EuroLeague with Baskonia – Fabien Causeur, Adam Hanga and Vincent Poirier – will visit their former home this week.

Causeur's ties to the city go the furthest back. The French guard signed abroad for the first time when he joined Baskonia in 2012. Though he had made his EuroLeague debut with Cholet Basket in 2010, it was with Baskonia that Causeur announced himself as a EuroLeague-caliber force.

A part-time starter in the first of his four seasons in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Causeur was firmly entrenched in the first five for the remaining three years. Baskonia reached the playoffs in his first season there and the Final Four in his last, in 2016. That season he also averaged a career-high 10.3 points per game.

Hanga was Causeur's teammate for half of the latter's stay with Baskonia. The Hungarian swingman first came to Spain in 2011 when he joined Manresa and after two seasons there signed with Baskonia. Hanga played there for the 2013-14 season, in which he made his EuroLeague debut, and then spent the 2014-15 campaign in Italy on loan to Avellino, before returning to Baskonia for two more years. His best season was 2016-17 when Hanga averaged a career-best 10.5 points and was named the winner of the EuroLeague Best Defender Trophy.

Poirier did not overlap with either of them, but like Causeur, he left his native France to debut in the EuroLeague with Baskonia. That was in 2017 and he spent two seasons with the club. He averaged 11.9 points and a league-best 8.3 rebounds in his second season with Baskonia, during which his averaged performance index rating of 17.7 was fourth in the competition.

Poirier, who was named to the All-EuroLeague Second Team after his second season with Baskonia, led the club to the playoffs in both of his seasons there.

Tadas Sedekerskis is the only player on the Baskonia roster from Poirier's time with the club. In fact, Sedekerskis first played for Baskonia during the 2014-15 season, when Causeur was there, debuted in the EuroLeague as a teammate of Hanga's in 2016-17 and also played next to Poirier in 2018-19.

Among the trio, Poirier is playing the biggest role for Real this season. He is averaging 6.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in less than 14 minutes per game. He matched his season-high with 19 points against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne last week and is ninth in the league in rebounding on a per-minute basis when an average of 10.2 prorated over 40 minutes. Poirier's strength and mobility could come in handy against a new generation of Baskonia big men – Matt Costello, Steven Enoch and Maik Kotsar – all of whom have made their EuroLeague debuts with the club.

Baskonia, incidentally, features one former Madridista on its roster; Dani Diez is a product of the Real Madrid youth setup and also played for its 'B' team before spending the 2013-14 campaign with Real's first team. He made his EuroLeague debut that season and helped Real finish as the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague runner-up. Diez was a teammate that season of current Real players Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Llull and Sergio Rodriguez.

With these two teams part of a five-way tie for the best record in the EuroLeague this season at 10-5, the showdown between Baskonia and Real takes on increased significance. And for Causeur, Hanga and Poirier, it goes a little bit deeper than basketball.