The Spanish guard had a career-best night for Barcelona in Round 21.
Dario Brizuela showed why he is the ‘Basque Mamba’ against Zalgiris
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When Dario Brizuela joined FC Barcelona last summer, it provided the “Basque Mamba” with a chance to play in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague for the first time. There have been some sparks of his talent to this point, but in Round 21 – in his 20th game for Barcelona – he earned plenty of applause from the Palau Blaugrana crowd by pouring in a career-high 24 points in a 91-73 win against Zalgiris Kaunas.
Brizuela made 10-of-14 shots, including 3-of-6 on three-pointers, en route to his 24 points. He also had 4 rebounds and 2 assists for a PIR of 23, which is also a career-best mark.
“We did a great job. We played the second half like the first quarter and that’s why we went up 20. Everybody is happy today,” said Brizuela, whose previous career highs were 9 points and a 10 PIR.
The “Basque Mamba”
Brizuela hails from San Sebastian in the Basque community in northern Spain and always had a good amount of flair to his game. That earned him the “Basque Mamba” moniker from a family member, even if it was meant as a joke at first. On Friday night, he was finally able to show what he can do in a Barcelona jersey.
“I’m happy it only took me 20 games to have a game like this. But the main thing is the win and [that] everybody enjoyed tonight. That’s the thing,” Brizuela added.
The 29-year-old came up in the CB Estudiantes youth system before moving in December 2019 to Unicaja Malaga, where he played a season and a half in the BKT EuroCup. In the summer of 2022, he helped Spain win the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 title and also played at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 last summer.
Brizuela remained with Unicaja until the last off-season before moving to Barcelona. He had twice scored 9 points in his rookie EuroLeague season, and he used his opportunity with Nicolas Laprovittola out injured to play a season-high 27:54 minutes against Zalgiris.
And he was doing his thing… the things he was doing with Unicaja that earned him a spot in the Spanish national team: shooting three-pointers, driving to the lane, feeding the ball to others.
And it resulted in a performance finally worthy of the “Basque Mamba” nickname.