Now in his third season in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, Tyler Dorsey has taken on his biggest role yet and he is doing it with Olympiacos Piraeus in Greece, the country his grandfather came from.
Tyler Dorsey, Olympiacos: 'Greece is beautiful'
Interviews
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For a basketball player who grew up in Los Angeles, California, Dorsey has a strong connection to the Mediterranean. His mother’s father is from Greece and his mother’s mother is from Jerusalem. When his mother was 8, the family moved to Boston in the United States and then to Los Angeles, which is where Dorsey was raised.
Even though he grew up on the Pacific coast, there was always a taste of Greece in the family.
“We would have Greek food every weekend at my mother's grandmother's place,” Dorsey recalled. “Unfortunately, they’ve both passed away, but my grandfather was a great guy and my grandmother. I miss both of them.”
Food always gave Dorsey a connection to Greece and his in enjoying getting to know the finest local eateries in Athens.
“It's organic here. You get the best chefs that know the style of cooking and all that kind of stuff. It's definitely a bit different, but I got my grandmother's cooking so I knew how Greek food was supposed to taste,” he said. “Greek food is really good. The flavor, the different tastes, the salads. Everything like that.”
Long before Dorsey joined Olympiacos, he had already suited up for the Greek national team. That came in 2015 when he was recruited to play for Greece at the World U-19 Championship.
“Somebody who had helped me came up to me and was like, ‘you have these Greek roots, it's possible to get the passport’,” Dorsey explained. “It happened pretty fast. They got it done out here pretty fast. I was able to play with the under-19 team. I flew right away to Greece and stayed here for a couple months. I got adjusted with the team. Since then, I have my Greek ID and passport and then I knew one day I would come play with a Greek team.”
His first few months of living in Greece with Olympiacos have exceeded all expectations, as Dorsey attested to:
“Greece is beautiful, man. Right here on the water. It can't get any better. I've been lucky and fortunate to play in great places with great weather from Tel Aviv to here. It's amazing. And from LA, the warm weather is following me. I love warm weather! But just living here is different a little bit, slower pace, but I love it. The food is great. A lot of things to do. It's a nice place. I'm enjoying my time so far.”
After playing two seasons of college basketball at the University of Oregon and two years in the NBA with Atlanta and Memphis, Dorsey crossed the Atlantic and signed for Maccabi Tel Aviv, not far from where his maternal grandmother grew up. His role there was as a scorer off the bench; Dorsey started in only 5 of his 62 EuroLeague games with Maccabi.
That has changed with Olympiacos, where he has helped fill the shoes of the legendary Vassilis Spanoulis, who retired over the summer, and has started every game so far while averaging 13.2 points on 41.0% three-point shooting and 2.3 assists per game, which are all career-bests.
“Everybody's journey is different. To pick up a bigger role than what I had last year is what I expected because every year I want to get better. Every year I want to put more pressure on my own shoulders,” said Dorsey. “Pressure for me is not pressure. It’s just playing the game. But I’m accepting that role. I'm happy to be here and I’m happy people are looking at me to take that role. It's a blessing and a great opportunity for me.”
Dorsey is clear about the thing that has alluded him as a professional and he wants to achieve most with Olympiacos.
“I definitely want to make the playoffs. I definitely want to feel the atmosphere, feel the intensity of those games,” Dorsey said, “Unfortunately, our first year got stopped [due to COVID-19]. I thought we were a playoff team with Maccabi. And second year, we didn’t make the cut. I want to feel the playoffs. I haven't touched the playoffs in my four years. It’s going on my fifth one and it's time for me to feel that playoff environment.”
So far, Dorsey has the Reds comfortably inside the playoff zone and if he keeps playing the way he has, Dorsey, Olympiacos and the team’s passionate fans will have a playoff berth to celebrate soon.