Crossing oceans to pursue their hoop dreams, young pros face challenges that go far beyond playing well under the glare of arena lights.
Watch the "Overseas" docu-series free on EuroLeague TV!
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All four episodes available now to users with EL ID accounts
The new Euroleague Basketball Originals documentary "Overseas" shows how superstars usually seen running and dunking on TV balance the demands of elite sport with their new off-court lives in cultures vastly different from their own.
Four intimate episodes crisscross two continents in iconic settings like Athens, Monaco and Milan but also take you into the homes and daily routines of three Turkish Airlines EuroLeague superstars.
All four episodes are available exclusively as of Monday, January 29 to all EL ID users through EuroLeague TV.
Get to know Kyle Hines, Shaquielle McKissic and Donatas Motiejunas – and their families at home and abroad – as they tell a rich and personal story of how starting careers and families in foreign lands has brought out the best in them, even if their stardom may not translate back home.
"Many people will call me the king of EuroLeague because I've won the most titles, you know, in the new era," says Hines, a four-time EuroLeague champion. "But back home, nobody knows me. They just know that I play basketball. So here I am, Kyle Hines, the unknown king."
At ages when their peers are often seeking anchors and stability, they must thrive on nomadic living and performance pressure at the same time that they cope with the fact of being far away from loved ones.
"When my mom had breast cancer, you know, I wasn't able to be there. When my sister was fighting lupus, I wasn't able to be there," Shaquielle McKissic of Olympiacos Piraeus says. "When you're a professional basketball player and you have to go to Europe or leave the country, these are a lot of things that you deal with, but I'm for sure blessed."
Sometimes it all comes together beautifully, as it did for Motiejunas, whose career took him his native Lithuania to Poland, the United States and China before he recently returned to Europe. When the team that brought him back, AS Monaco, made last season's Final Four, it meant a full-circle moment as he made a unique and special return to his hometown of Kaunas.
"During the Final Four, we were driving those streets. I was telling everyone, 'Hey, this is where I was born. This is the street I was going down every day to school,'" Motiejunas recalls. "To drive by those streets, to realize that, hey, we're playing the Final Four in my hometown, where I actually grew up, where I walked all these streets... It's just like an amazing feeling."
Their basketball talent and devotion is admirable in itself, but there is a lot more to be learned from these basketball believers who found a unique calling when they followed their passions "Overseas".
The Euroleague Basketball Originals documentary series captures the intimacy behind the EuroLeague spotlights and provides full access to the protagonists and the people who know them best.