The veteran forward is targeting a top-four finish for the Roca Team
Jaron Blossomgame hungry for more after leading Monaco past Olympiacos
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AS Monaco boasts an enviable roll call of superstars, starting on the bench where head coach Vassilis Spanoulis ranks as arguably the greatest legend of 21st century European basketball.
Then there’s Mike James, who last year succeeded Spanoulis as the competition’s all-time leading scorer; his backcourt teammate Nick Calathes, the man sitting atop both the all-time assists and steals charts; and recent signing Daniel Theis, who is making waves back in his home continent after a long career in the NBA.
However, Monaco’s main man in Thursday’s thrilling win at Olympiacos Piraeus – which confirmed a top-10 finish and left the Roca Team in control of its own top-four destiny – was none of those illustrious names, but instead one of the roster’s lesser celebrated members: Jaron Blossomgame.
The veteran forward, who is in his third season with Monaco, netted 18 points to lead his team and set a new personal EuroLeague best, also showing his toughness by grabbing 5 rebounds and spending a team-high 34 minutes on the floor – just two days after he played for nearly 38 minutes in Tuesday’s overtime win over Zalgiris Kaunas.
But the modest Blossomgame was in no mood to accept individual plaudits, instead piling the praise on his teammates, as he told EuroLeague TV: “We knew what the challenge was coming in here to play this [Olympiacos] team, and my guys stayed together.
“We fought the whole game, it wasn’t easy but we did play Monaco basketball. Mike [James] was incredible with [12] assists, everybody did a lot of things for us tonight and that’s the beauty of our team, we have so many guys who can help us and we did it tonight.”
The 32-year-old is far from finished, though, reflecting the unavoidable awareness of all players at the top clubs that the playoffs are just around the corner.
Monaco needs to win at least one of its two remaining games to secure a top-four finish and consequently enjoy home-court advantage in the playoffs, which historically gives roughly a 75% chance of advancing to the Final Four.
With Round 33 delivering a testing visit from reigning champion Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens before a final day French League derby at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, nothing can be taken for granted. And Blossomgame is already looking ahead to what comes next, saying: “We want to finish the season strong and get some momentum going for the playoffs.
“It's one game at a time. It's a huge win tonight, but we have another big one next week with Panathinaikos coming to town. So we'll celebrate this tonight and then refocus for the next game.”
Leading that process, of course, is Spanoulis, who is guiding his team into a serious title challenge in his very first season on the job. And Blossomgame predictably expressed his total confidence in the coach, enthusing: “He’s a very passionate guy, very energetic, he loves the game of basketball and that pours out onto the court among the team.
“He’s our leader, we look at him and we go through him. We’re happy to have him here and he’s done a great job so far.”
A great job so far… but Blossomgame knows it’s far from finished.