Donatas Motiejunas is back in the EuroLeague after nearly a decade abroad and he is healthier and stronger than ever before.
Donatas Motiejunas, Monaco: 'I chose the right team'
Interviews
6 mins read
In the 2011-12 season, Donatas Motiejunas firmly established himself as one of Europe’s brightest young talents.
Over the course of 10 EuroLeague games with Polish club Asseco Prokom Gdynia, the then 20-year-old averaged an eye-catching 12.9 points and 7.9 rebounds. Notably, that was highlighted by the remarkable achievement of 21 rebounds – including a still-competition record of 18 defensive boards – during a home win over Union Olimpija Ljubljana.
At the end of that season, Motiejunas took the step of heading to the United States, where he made more than 250 appearances in the NBA before moving again to taste life in another new continent with spells at three clubs in China.
Now he is back in his native Europe, making his first EuroLeague appearance in nearly 10 years last week as he debuted with AS Monaco by providing a solid 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 blocked shot in the Round 1 victory over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens. And Motiejunas feels grateful to the team from the principality for giving him the chance to return home.
"I think I made the right decision, chose the right team and I’m really happy that Monaco came for me."
"Monaco showed a very big interest in me," he said. "They really wanted me and wanted to do the deal as fast as possible. I think I made the right decision, chose the right team and I’m really happy that Monaco came for me."
Motiejunas experienced ups and downs during his time away, suffering from back problems which significantly limited both his playing time and effectiveness over an extended period of his time in the United States. Those injury issues were eventually a key factor in his decision to move to China.
"After the injury, my confidence was really low. I felt no team would give me time to adjust, time to play, time to get my rhythm back," he explained. "In the NBA they don’t care; you’re just another person to the wheel. You get injured, no one cares. So going to China was a perfect situation where I got a lot of repetitions, a lot of time, a lot of games where I could really use the knowledge that I learned in the NBA and try to develop it on the court."
Even more significantly, the Lithuanian big man made a connection with fitness coach Virginijus Mikalauskas and made the decision to invest in his longer-term future by personally hiring his compatriot in the hope of ensuring his injury problems never resurfaced.
The results have been outstanding, as he attested: "My biggest improvement was the last four years in China since I hired my strength and conditioning coach who really looked after my body and got me as strong as I am without damaging me. His system, his understanding of basketball, of the human body…it’s phenomenal, and by hiring this person I feel like I took three or four steps forward with my body. We spend three or four months every year during the summer preparing for the season; that’s why in China I missed just a couple of games with really small injuries. My body is holding up like never before. I feel great. I really trust this person and in any job, trust is the most important thing. If you give all the power to a person who knows his job, he’s going to do it in the right way.
"He’s pretty well known in Lithuanian basketball. He’s been working with the national teams and was with the team that won the junior world championship. He has a lot of achievements, he’s been at different levels, coached different teams and working with this type of person I just come to practice and I know that I need to bring the work. I don’t need to be worried about what I’m going to do, what’s going to happen, I just know that I have to give 100% and all the strength and conditioning is set for me."
Having spent the last decade watching from afar – and keeping an especially close eye on his hometown team Zalgiris Kaunas – Motiejunas has been impressed by what he has seen in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. The competition is now very different from when Motiejunas last appeared, with the adoption of a true league format providing top-quality basketball every week. He believes those changes are for the better, and also points to off-the-court developments as major positives.
"The past nine years that I’ve watched the EuroLeague was a real improvement year by year"
"The game style I don’t think will ever change because we play differently to the NBA; we have more strategic games, it’s more a team basketball structure than individual play. But generally, EuroLeague has taken bigger steps towards the format of the NBA," he said. "The past nine years that I’ve watched the EuroLeague was a real improvement year by year, talking about more sponsorships, making it an independent league and going away from FIBA which I think for EuroLeague was a really good decision.
"They created their own thing and already had that reputation for years with that league, the strongest teams, best organizations. The development of a players’ association was also a big step for defending player rights, not just trusting arbitration, but now you have some other place you can call as a player and if there’s a problem, they can always help you. There are a lot of changes that made European basketball better."
European basketball is better, and Motiejunas believes he is also better. For sure, on the evidence of last week’s start to the season, he and AS Monaco are ready to make a major impact upon the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.