Hernangomez became a champion in his debut EuroLeague season
Tribute to the Champs: Juancho Hernangomez
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Juancho Hernangomez is a distinguished member of a top-class basketball family. His father Guillermo Hernangomez played professional basketball for a decade. Juancho's mother Wonny Geuer is one of the best centers in Spanish basketball history. His brother Willy is a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague star with FC Barcelona and his sister, Andrea, is playing college basketball at Fairfield University.
After making his professional debut with Spanish side Estudiantes Madrid, Juancho went to the NBA for seven seasons before joining Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens last summer. In recent years, he has played a big role for the Spanish national team. He scored 11 points in the 2019 Basketball World Cup final and went for 27 on 7-of-9 three-point shooting in the EuroBasket 2022 final, leading Spain to gold medals at both championships.
In his first EuroLeague campaign, Hernangomez struggled to find his rhythm, averaging 4.1 points in 27 regular season games and being on and off due to injuries. Once Hernangomez returned for good, he delivered. He had 11 points in Game 5 of the playoffs against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and had a solid contribution in the championship game against Real Madrid with 5 points and 4 rebounds in 19 minutes.
He had a one-handed dunk in the first half that sparked Panathinaikos's comeback, giving the Greens an energy boost when it needed it most. When the dust settled, Hernangomez became the second Spanish-born player, after Sergio Rodriguez, to win the EuroLeague with a foreign team. He lifted the trophy in his lucky city, as Hernangomez had already won a EuroBasket gold medal with Spain in Berlin. Hernangomez is at the prime of his career and ready to keep adding hardware to his trophy case.