You can now watch the second episode of Euroleague Basketball Originals’ latest documentary on YouTube.
Episode 2 of “Overseas” released on YouTube
The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague is full of players who have switched countries in order to pursue their dreams. In the “Overseas” documentary series, which focuses on EA7 Emporio Armani Milan’s Kyle Hines, Olympiacos Piraeus’s Shaquielle McKissic and AS Monaco’s Donatas Motiejunas, fans are able to get a glimpse of the ups and downs of being a professional basketball player overseas.
Hines, a four-time EuroLeague champion, has been playing in Europe since 2008 and in Europe’s premier club basketball competition since 2010. From Sicklerville, New Jersey, in the United States, Hines’s EuroLeague career has seen him play in Germany (Brose Bamberg, 2010-11), Greece (Olympiacos, 2011-13), Russia (CSKA Moscow, 2013-20) and now Italy (2020-present), where he first began his professional career with Veroli Basket back in 2008.
McKissic signed for Olympiacos during the 2019-20 season, which gave him the chance to make his EuroLeague debut. He has been with the Reds ever since. Born in Seattle, Washington, in the U.S., McKissic’s journey to reach the top of European basketball was not the most straightforward. He split the 2015-16 season between Italy (VL Pesaro) and South Korea (Changwon LG Sakers), then played in Turkiye (Usak Sportif, 2016-17), Spain (Dreamland Gran Canaria, 2017-18), Russia (Avtodor Saratov, 2017-18) and Turkiye again (Gaziantep, 2018-19; Besiktas Emlakjet Istanbul, 2019-20). During that 2019-20 campaign, he made a mid-season switch to Olympiacos and, as they say, the rest is history.
In the case of Motiejunas, he is now in his third season at Monaco, having arrived in the principality in the summer of 2021. Having come through the academy of Zalgiris Kaunas, making his senior debut in the 2007-08 season, he then suited up for Aisciai Kaunas in 2008-09 before beginning his worldwide adventure. Motiejunas, born in Kaunas, Lithuania, played in Italy (Benetton Treviso, 2009-11) and Poland (Arka Gdynia, 2011-12), ahead of a move across the water, as he joined up with the Houston Rockets in the NBA. Following four years in Houston (2012-16), he played for the New Orleans Pelicans (2016-17) and then changed continents once again, signing for the Shandong Golden Stars in China (2017-19). A brief stint back in the NBA followed at the tail end of the 2018-19 season, but Motiejunas returned to China by joining the Shanghai Sharks (2019-20) and then the Xinjiang Flying Tigers (2020-21), prior to returning to Europe with Monaco.
During the documentary series, you will hear crucial bits of advice from Hines, McKissic and Motiejunas on how they navigated their careers overseas, as well as the knock-on effects of being so far away from home.
"Overseas" joins a long list of premium, long-form content from the Euroleague Basketball Originals platform. Among the other documentaries available are "Back 2 Back", "Land of MVPS" and “Obradovic, the return”.