By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Barcelona forward/center Chris Singleton talked about how much he wants to help his new team retrace its path back to the successes that have eluded them over the last years.
“I’m ready to fight, I’m ready to win and I’m ready to bring some more championships back to this legendary, traditional organization that I’m part of now,” Singleton said in a video message to Barcelona fans, via the club’s Twitter.
Since winning the Spanish ACB championship of 2014, Barcelona has been suffering a significant title drought on all levels. With the exception of the 2015 SuperCup and the 2018 Copa Del Rey, the Blaugrana have been basically winless in major domestic competitions. To make things worse, the once EuroLeague title contender has been unable to reach even the competition’s playoffs for two seasons in a row, in 2017 and 2018, when they faced elimination early during the regular season.
During these past seasons, Barcelona fans often expressed their sheer disappointment towards the team’s players/coaching staff but also the club’s management for their failure to create a competitive outfit.
Singleton, on the other hand, comes from back-t0-back championship titles in Greece with Panathinaikos in 2017 and 2018, plus EuroLeague Final Four tournament with Lokomotiv Kuban in 2016. The American forward/center and Loko had actually eliminated Barcelona in the 2016 playoffs and on their way to the Final Four, to achieve a first-time accomplishment for the club.
It’s this winning mojo that Singleton will seek to transmit to Barcelona, starting from the upcoming campaign.
Apart from Singleton, this offseason Barcelona has also signed American 3-point specialist Kyle Kuric and Latvian forward Ronalds Smits. The club has also been interested in American swingman James Nunnally and looking to acquire Ukrainian center and ACB standout Artem Pustovyi.