One of European basketball’s top centers over the last 15 years, Ante Tomic, will again headline Joventut Badalona as it aims to conquer the 7DAYS EuroCup in the season that starts Tuesday. Tomic, 35, begins his third season in Badalona with his unique skill set of low-post scoring and high-post passing still fully intact. Joventut had the best record in the 2021-22 EuroCup Regular Season but was ambushed at home in the very next game, a do-or-die eighthfinals showdown with ratiopharm Ulm. Tomic averaged 10.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists and a performance index rating of 15.6 in less than 21 minutes per game last season. He and Joventut have learned from that tough loss, he says. "You can have a bad day on offense," Tomic said in an interview with EuroCupbasketball.com. "You can have a bad day in something else, but when it comes to concentration and desire, it always has to be there."
Ante, how excited are you to start a new 7DAYS EuroCup season?
"We are always excited to start the season because the preseason is over, so everyone has lots of energy, lots of expectations. The truth is we didn't start very well in the domestic league, but now, in a few days, the new competition starts, the EuroCup, a very important competition for us. We all know what happened last year in the competition and maybe that's why all of us have extra motivation and extra desire to play and to compete."
Going into your third season in Badalona, how comfortable do you feel at Joventut?
"Well, they ask me that question lots of times. And like I said before, from the first day, I felt special here, and that has not changed until now. From the players to the staff, and all the people in the club, I was welcomed and I felt excited and special to be here. Talking about the team, it changed a lot during the seasons and, of course, new players come in and some have been going, but all of them, they have been great teammates. That's another reason why I'm enjoying myself here in Badalona, because of its great people and great teammates."