Frutti Extra Bursaspor scorer Allerik Freeman is happy to be back in Turkey and appreciative of the experiences he had playing in China when the COVID-19 outbreak occurred.
Freeman happy at Bursaspor after lessons learned in China
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6 Mins read
Allerik Freeman knew what to expect when he signed with Frutti Extra Bursaspor in June. The American guard had already played for the Turkish club and he was ready to take full advantage of the situation after learning some important life lessons in China.
Freeman is back in the city of Bursa with a renewed commitment to help the club and believes he and his team have the goods to make a deep run in the 7DAYS EuroCup.
“They have grown tremendously as a club and play at a high level and I have no doubt that one day can be a EuroLeague team. It would be amazing to be on the team that wins the EuroCup and makes that jump like we see teams do every year,” said Freeman, who is making his debut in the competition this season.
“During the pandemic, at first everything was shut down... I tried to stay in the gym as much as possible.”
Bursaspor was the guard’s second stop in Europe after one season with Hungarian club Alba Fehervar, which he helped to the quarterfinals of the FIBA Europe Cup.
Freeman had an outstanding start to his 2019-20 season with Bursaspor, averaging 18.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.0 steals in 14 games. Then in January 2020, he received an offer to join the Shenzhen Leopards of the Chinese League.
“I left mid-season to go to China for an opportunity that is very hard to come by. Many players every year hope to play in China, and I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity,” Freeman said. “I thought China and the CBA was amazing. Everything was first class and a great experience. The people were very nice and very accommodating to me and my family. And the style of play during the games was also fun. It reminded me of how it is to play in America.”
Freeman was pouring in 25.5 points a game to go with 6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the longer and more flowing and up-tempo style of basketball. Then came the COVID-19 outbreak and worldwide pandemic, which stopped all sports across the globe. And it started in China, where Freeman was just starting to enjoy himself.
“During the pandemic, at first everything was shut down. But only for a short time. Restaurants and businesses closed early but they were still open early during the day. In order to go in a business or any building, you had to have your temperature checked,” Freeman remembered. “But I tried to stay in the gym as much as possible with one of our assistants and work out on the court and in the weight room to stay in shape and take advantage of the access to their facilities.”
“I didn’t know I was the only American still in China until my teammates told me.”
As the pandemic spread across the globe and caused more and more countries to be shut down, Freeman remained in China, hoping things would pick back up.
“I stayed for about two and a half months after the shutdown: just working out as much as I could, practicing and watching movies and going around the city to see what it was like,” he recalled.
Eventually, Freeman became kind of the last man standing as he was the only American player still in China.
“At first, I didn’t know I was the only American still there until my teammates told me. I thought the league was only going to be suspended for a few weeks and technically I was still under contract so I didn’t think about leaving until after I found out I was the only American still there,” he said.
Freeman eventually left China in April 2020 to head back home to the United States. He said that Shenzhen was interested in bringing him back for the 2020-21 season, but Freeman decided instead to return to Europe, where he signed with Turkish Airlines EuroLeague side LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.
"I love it here in Turkey and in Bursa so it seemed like a perfect match."
Things did not work out as hoped at ASVEL, where he averaged 7.4 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 18 EuroLeague games and the club decided to go a different direction. At the same time, the Chinese team Qingdao Eagles reached out to Freeman’s agent for him to come back to the country as a replacement player. It ended up though that Freeman did not play a single game in China last season.
“Because of COVID-19, the process for me to get into the province my team was in, then to join the bubble was going to take so long, the team told me to go home and they were going to work on getting me there for the start of the following season,” he said.
Freeman and his agent choose instead for him to return to Europe for this season and work on progress as a player. And when the option of returning to Bursaspor came up, Freeman jumped at it.
“I thought it would be amazing to go back to the team and city that I am very comfortable with. The team treated me and my family amazingly, and I love it here in Turkey and in Bursa so it seemed like a perfect match,” he said.
Freeman learned a valuable lesson during his time in China and the ensuing pandemic - a lesson he wanted to live by in his return to Turkey: “Life is short, and we should cherish every day and do what we love because so many people passed away during that time, no one saw the pandemic coming and spreading as fast as it did.”