The veteran guard starred in both games in Berlin to help Panathinaikos gain its seventh star
Jerian Grant was an unsung hero of the championship effort
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It’s hard to say there were any unsung heroes on Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens’s championship-winning squad. After all, the Greens’ faithful sang loudly about all the players.
That said, some names flew a bit under the radar compared to their contributions. One of those names was Jerian Grant.
The playmaker was among the most important Panathinaikos players in the 80-95 victory over Real Madrid. Whether you measure his contributions by the faith his coach put in him, the numbers or the confidence he gave his teammates, Grant was critical to the Panathinaikos effort.
How much did Coach Ergin Ataman trust Grant? The only player to feature more in the championship game than the 32:38 minutes Grant spent on the court was his teammate, All-EuroLeague First Team center Mathias Lessort (33:13).
Grant also led all players with a +/- of 18. In the roughly 7 and a half minutes in which Grant was on the bench, Real Madrid outscored Panathinaikos 17-14. When Grant played, the Greens controlled the scoreboard 63-81.
After scoring the Green’s first points of the game with a triple, Grant finished the game with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals for a PIR of 17. He tied the 2.06-meter Lessort for the team lead in rebounds and led Panathinaikos in both assists and steals.
That came after he scored 13 points and led the team in +/- with 20 in the 73-57 victory over Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in the semifinals.
His teammates valued Grant's contribution
How did his teammates feel about Grant’s game? His backcourt mate Luca Vildoza singled him out.
“We have really good players,” Vildoza said. "Sloukas was controlling the game, Nunn is always there, but I think the main guy was Jerian. Jerian was playing defense everywhere, helping everywhere, scoring when it was necessary, so I’m really happy for him.”
Grant, as a classic team player, shared all the credit when asked after the game how Panathinaikos changed the game after the halftime break: “As a team. We knew we had 20 minutes left in the second half to bring home the seventh star and we did that.
“From day one, Coach told us our goal was to get to the Final Four and to win the championship, and we got it done. [The Final Four] was two games to call yourselves champions of EuroLeague, so whatever we had to do, whatever energy we had to get, we were going to do that.”
Grant was the EuroCup MVP a year ago
It’s been a rapid rise for Grant, who won the EuroLeague in his fourth season playing in Europe. The son of long-time NBA player Harvey Grant, Jerian spent four-plus seasons in the NBA before crossing the pond, where he first played in Greece for Promitheus Patras during the 2020-21 season. He debuted in the EuroLeague the following season with EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, which he also helped to win the Italian League and Cup double.
Last season, Grant moved to Turkey and helped Turk Telekom Ankara reach the EuroCup Finals. He was named EuroCup MVP. He now joins a select list of players to have been both EuroCup MVPs and EuroLeague champions.
Only 31 years old, Grant still has many more seasons to continue contributing at the top levels of European basketball.