The Panathinaikos forward helped the Greens to their seventh star and in doing so confirmed that Berlin is a special city for him.
Juancho Hernangomez and his special connection to Berlin
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Juancho Hernangomez is a distinguished member of a big basketball family with German roots. His mother, Wonny Geuer, was born in Sevilla, Spain, to German parents, who had moved to that city for work. She had a long basketball career, including 158 appearances with the Spanish national team, which she helped win a gold medal at EuroBasket 1993. Juancho's father Guillermo Hernangomez started his career with Real Madrid's junior teams and played professional basketball for a decade. Juancho's brother Willy plays for FC Barcelona and his sister, Andrea, is playing college basketball at Fairfield University.
Juancho already knew what it took to win at Uber Arena. In 2022, the Hernangomez brothers led Spain to the EuroBasket 2022 crown. Willy earned tournament MVP honors and Juancho was unstoppable in the gold medal game against France, leading Spain to an 88-76 victory. He sank 7 of 9 three-pointers on his way to 27 points plus 5 rebounds for a PIR of 30.
Last month, Hernangomez returned to Berlin and heped Panathinaikos beat Real Madrid 80-95 in the EuroLeague championship game with 5 points and 4 rebounds in less than 20 minutes. By doing so, Hernangomez became just the second Spanish-born player to win the EuroLeague with a foreign team. Sergio Rodriguez was the first with CSKA Moscow in 2019.
"I love Berlin. I have already bought an apartment in Berlin and I am going to live here!" Hernangomez joked after the game. "It's the most beautiful city in the world. Two victories and two championships! I have to say I am very happy."
It was Hernangomez's first season in European basketball after seven years in the NBA. He had never played in a European club competition before, but added to his EuroBasket 2022 crown with Spain, Hernangomez helped his national team win the 2019 World Cup, too. Juancho, however, sees Panathinaikos's EuroLeague title as something different, given the amount of years that the Greens had been away from the Final Four.
"I think everyone accepted their roles, and this is why we won. I have won the World Championship, the EuroBasket, but this is different," Hernangomez said. "All the fans have been waiting for this for 12 years. This is a historic club that deserves the best," he added.
It was not an easy season for Juancho, who battled injuries and struggled to find his rhythm in a different brand of basketball. Hernangomez delivered when it mattered, getting 11 points in 14 minutes in Game 5 of the playoffs against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, and playing an important role in the championship game. When Hernangomez talked to the Spanish media, he also had a funny quote about Panathinaikos head coach Ergin Ataman, which is hard to translate.
"Ataman, I don't know what he has... He has an aura, a flower in his ass. He has it," Hernangomez said. In Spanish, having a flower in someone's ass means to be very lucky. Hernangomez, however, went on about Ataman's unique winning mentality as one of the keys to the Greens' success in Berlin.
"I don't know how to explain it. He is a winner. He doesn't do any magic tricks but he wins. He believes in it. The good thing about him is that he really believes it," Hernangomez said. "He said it at the beginning of the season when he arrived and put us all on the same page. If you are saying it and believing in it, in the end, you are learning about it. He has an aura."
Hernangomez also starred in Panathinaikos's celebrations in Athens, joining center Mathias Lessort on top of the double-decker bus and imitating Ataman's signature gesture, showing his fists to a see of green fans who were celebrating in the streets. At age 28, Hernangomez is right at the prime of his career and has three big titles in his roll of honors: World Cup, EuroBasket and EuroLeague. Up next: trying to win the Greek League with Panathinaikos and then returning to the Spanish national time to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Even if the Olympics are not in Berlin, what a time to be alive for Juancho Hernangomez!