After missing most of the 2022-23 season to injury, ASVEL's Joffrey Lauvergne is back and loving the game.
Joffrey Lauvergne on his recovery from injuries: 'I appreciate everything more'
Interviews
5 Mins read
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne center Joffrey Lauvergne played only three games in the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season. The season before, he suited up just 13 times for Zalgiris Kaunas. This season, the veteran center has already surpassed his games played total in both of those seasons combined and has reasserted himself as a force to be reckoned with.
Finally healthy
It was a rough couple of years for Lauvergne. After a strong 2020-21 campaign with Zalgiris Kaunas, Lauvergne suffered a shoulder injury in October 2021 that caused him to miss 14 straight games. He was healthy again at the start of the 2022-23 season, his first with ASVEL, and averaged 8.3 points and a PIR of 10.7 in three games before injury struck again. This time it was a season-ending injury: a torn ACL.
Fortunately, Lauvergne has gone through the current campaign unscathed to date. He has played in every game and averaged 12.5 points and 5.5 rebounds for a PIR of 13.4 in 27:04 minutes per game. Lauvergne said he missed the EuroLeague when he was sidelined and being out there in front of such great atmospheres served as a motivating factor for him to return to action.
"It's the funnest part of our job, to play EuroLeague. I was missing it a lot last year. It has been long, but I made my way back and I'm really happy about it," Lauvergne said. "EuroLeague has great gyms with a great atmosphere. I was missing it a lot."
Lauvergne has always been very passionate about basketball, however, after those two injuries, he has learned to enjoy playing the game even more than before.
"I appreciate everything more. I mean, unfortunately, in the last few years, I had a lot of injuries. I'm always back pretty good and pretty quick, as fast as possible," he said. "So it's also changed a bit my perspective about basketball. And, you know, I have a few years left, and I want to enjoy it as much as possible."
Partizan changed his life
Just a few months removed from his 21st birthday, Lauvergne made an unusual move for a rising star from France when he joined Partizan Belgrade in December 2012. There his career received the boost it needed and Lauvergne made bonds for life when he was named the first foreign-born captain in club history.
The 2024 calendar year started with a treat for Lauverge as he had the chance to face Partizan in Belgrade for the first time since leaving the club almost a decade earlier. The 2013-14 EuroLeague campaign, when he was coached by Dusko Vujosevic, was Lauvergne's breakout. He played alongside the likes of Leo Westermann, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nikola Milutinov and Davis Bertans. Lauvergne was that season's EuroLeague leading rebounder with 8.6 per game while also averaging 11.1 points in 24 games. He ranked 10th in PIR (15.4).
"I was there two years, and basically, I arrived and it was an opportunity. An opportunity to be somewhere where I will be able to practice, to improve and to play if I deserve it. And I worked my ass off, but I was playing like 38 minutes a game. I became the first foreign captain ever. And at the end of the first season, I was with the national team. And at the end of the second season, I was in the NBA," he said. "So I'm really thankful about the opportunity they gave me and I realized then in many other options of where I will have played, it would have taken much more time to arrive at the same position. So I feel like in two years, I did 10."
As a symbol of his appreciation for the club, Lauvergne has a giant Partizan tattoo on his left arm. "I have quite a lot of tattoos and all of them mean something to me. And Partizan definitely means something that changed my life and the life of my family. So I felt like it was the right place to put the logo."
A young veteran at age 32, Lauvergne is on pace to set career highs in several statistical categories this season and to keep climbing the all-time EuroLeague charts in a few others. And now healthy, he should have many years ahead of him to keep enjoying basketball and to appreciate it even more with every game he plays.