Not everyone can go from Real Madrid to Barcelona without a decompression chamber. But that’s what Nicola Laprovittola did last season.
He eventually came out of his box. Held to two points in the first half by Olympiakos’ defence in the Euroleague opener, Laprovittola found a way to finally score. Two consecutive jump shots started his game but his remarkable second act (18 points, top scorer for Blaugrana) was not enough to turn around a game that the Piraeus players dominated in the second quarter. The same misfortune had already happened on the first day of the Liga ACB against Gran Canaria (88-85 defeat) with a 29-19 defeat, despite winning three quarters.
Although Barça has won two consecutive games in the league, the start of the season has been frustrating. In the first Classico of the season, in the Spanish SuperCup, Real Madrid won their first title of the season in overtime (89-83). With 12 points, 38% two-pointers, 25% behind the line, one rebound and 14 assists, Laprovittola recorded a double-double to open his season.
Self-criticism
A Classico has a special significance for the Argentinian, who won the Copa de las Americas this summer. The reason Laprovittola has been wearing a Madrid shirt since 2021 is that the club did not extend his contract and instead opted to sign Thomas Heurtel, an ex-Cule player who ended up in the doldrums before the end of the season, having been dismissed by then-coach Pablo Laso for a night out. Before the Final 4 of the Euroleague 2022, the player was lucid about his time at Real Madrid in the columns of El Mundo: “I am always very self-critical and I think I was too irregular. I’m always very self-critical and I think I’ve been too inconsistent. That’s what has weighed on me, because I’m the one who plays, right?”
Laprovittola has not been spared, particularly by the management, starting with former player and Merengue manager Lorenzo Sanz Duran, who criticised him for not defending enough. “There are many things you shouldn’t listen to,” he explained in an interview with El Pais.
”I’ve played at the highest level in the best leagues and it seems to me that if you don’t defend, you can’t fight.” For all these reasons, the Argentine understood early on in the season that his second season at Real Madrid would also be his last.
MVP 2019 but still no major title
Laprovittola has proven himself in Liga Endesa: he played for Estudiantes Madrid, Baskonia and Joventut Badalone, where he succeeded a certain Luka Doncic as MVP in 2019 (he was also the league’s top scorer that year), he saw his playing time cut by a third, from 30 to 20 minutes with Real Madrid and then Barcelona. Far from being a punishment for the point guard, quite the opposite. “It affects the responsibility of how long you have the ball in your hands, especially for someone in my position and with my style of play,” he told El Pais.
The change of club also meant a period of adjustment. His coach, the ebullient Lithuanian Sarunas Jasikevisius, was a great help, especially as he was in the same position during his playing days: “The first two months I was quite lost and it cost me a lot to get into the system,” analysed the Argentine on the 3rd of May in an interview with DAZN. From the moment I was able to join in, to learn the defensive system, to know where I was going and everything that ‘Saras’ (Jasikevisius’ diminutive name) wanted, I progressed. I think it gave me minutes and the opportunity to show myself in attack as well. The result: a place in the best 5 of the season in La Liga.
A basketball globetrotter with stints in Flamengo, San Antonio, Vilnius Rytas and Zenit St. Petersburg, “Lapro” has travelled all over Spain but has yet to win a Spanish championship because he was on the wrong side of the court in the last two Real Madrid-Barça finals. Europe is also resisting him. It is time for him to repair this anomaly.
