The structure of the Dreamland Gran Canaria, in all its levels, was aware that renouncing the Euroleague dispute, although logical from a cerebral point of view, was going to carry a tolla series of collateral damage beyond having to give up playing in the second best basketball league in the world. Khalifa Diop, who had already resigned the previous season to leave the Island to play for Valencia, and Olek Balcerowski, the two jewels in the Claretian club’s crown, become two shooting stars that put an end to their story of love with Granca to play in two big European. They will defend the colors of two historic ones such as the Baskonia vitoriano and the Panathinaikos Greek, respectively.
For his part, the fans, the big loser at the end of the road, are left with the feeling of not having been able to fully enjoy their two spoiled children playing an important role for more than three seasons in the elitebut that has been more than enough time to break down the door of the greats of the continent and, incidentally, look askance at the NBA, a future destination that seems almost unavoidable for the two homegrown players.
Both, defending the colors of Granca, received the award for the best youngster in the Eurocup
Khalifa Diop arrived at the yellow quarry with only 15 years of age, not taking long to shine with its own light in national and international competitions. This led him to debut with the Granca first team, led by Pedro Martínez, in March 2019 in the visit of the islanders to Maccabi, in the Euroleague; he was 17 years old.
In his four campaigns in the yellow first team, Diop He has played a total of 103 ACB matchesin which the Senegalese interior has grown season after season, starting from a rating of 1 in its first year (2019-20), to become one of the most important players in the team in the following three seasons, in which obtained a rating of 14, 18 and 17, respectively.
In addition to being Key in the achievement of the club’s first continental title, he managed to be the best young player in the Eurocup, as well as being included in the best young five in the Endesa League in the last two years.
Diop and Balcerowski arrived at the club very young, aged 15 and 14, respectively.
If Khalifa’s passage can be described as fleeting by the Granca professional team, it is no less so that of his soulmate, the Pole Olek Balcerowski, who joined the Claretian quarry in the summer of 2015 at just 14 years old, in the cadet category. His meteoric integration on a sporting and personal level, learning the language in record time, helped him collect successes in the training categories.
He made his official debut with the first team at the hands of Luis Casimiro. He went against Real Madrid on December 3, 2017, becoming the youngest player in history -17 years and 14 days- of the club until that moment in playing professionally, beating Roberto Guerra from Gran Canaria, although Jovan took the record from him in December 2017 -16 years and 98 days-.
Since then, in his six courses in the first team, Olek He has played 90 games, highlighting the rating achieved in his last three seasons (17, 6 and 19), returning strongly from his loan two years ago at KK Mega, to be one of the benchmarks for the yellow inside game. In the 2020-21 season, he received the award for the best youngster in the Eurocup. He is one of the stars of Poland along with AJ Slaughter.
2023-07-28 22:59:19
#Shooting #stars #Granca
