By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Final Four MVP, EuroLeague champion, member of the All-EuroLeague First Team and a universal recognition for being one of the most versatile, elite players in the continent. CSKA Moscow high-motored star forward Will Clyburn has accomplished a lot at 30 years of age and there are a few terrains left unconquered for him.
If there’s one endgame goal that he’s looking to achieve is to keep winning so that he ultimately sees a club retiring the jersey with his name when all is said and done.
“If I can finish my career here, win more titles, then, I guess my ‘dream’ is to get my jersey retired somewhere. I guess that’s my next final goal. That’s kind of what I’m shooting for now: Winning and a retired jersey,” Clyburn told Eurohoops in a live interview.
Clyburn made his comeback from a torn ACL in a resoundingly strong fashion. In just his third game of 2020-2021 he put on a big-time performance that included the winning play in a road victory over Fenerbahce Beko. It was a resounding statement by him that he left that serious injury blow – one that hit him a few months after his crowning achievement in the 2019 Final Four – way behind. As if it never happened.
Now, and through 11 games of the current EuroLeague regular season so far, Clyburn is averaging a career-high 15.9 points to go along with 4.4 rebounds.
“Obviously, going down with an injury like that is always tough. You have your doubts: ‘Am I going to be the same?’. You have other people thinking: ‘Is he going to be the same guy?’. The only thing you can really do is work. That was basically what I did,” Clyburn said. “I had a great staff with me here in Russia and back home. Everyone played a part in me getting back to where I was. And just getting comfortable I think that’s the biggest thing coming from an injury like this: Finding a way to find yourself to get comfortable, Once that happens, its’ like riding a bike from there. And I don’t think anyone forgets how to ride a bike.”
It was the EuroLeague opener vs. Barcelona and his return to the competition after that night of October 25, 2019 vs. Alba Berlin when he tore his ACL, that Clyburn describes as a “wake-up” call that further pushed him towards stepping up his efforts to reclaim his form.
“I want to say that the biggest thing to me, the biggest wake up call, after I returned was the first game against Barcelona. Obviously with the COVID-19 going on we couldn’t have a regular preseason with tough games. We were playing teams that weren’t as talented or physical as Barcelona. After that game, it was like a wake-up call. It was “OK this is how EuroLeague is played” after being out for so long. My body was hurting, I was a step slow. But we all expected that, we all expected that I wasn’t going to come back normal right away. That I’m going to need some adjustment period.”
“I had nothing like that physicality [vs. Barcelona]. Ever. Everything played a part in that game,” Clyburn added.
In a conversation during the most recent Eurohoops Live Show, Clyburn discussed his team’s six-game winning streak, finding chemistry after having more players practicing together, the summer signings of Tornike Shengelia and Nikola Milutinov, the “must-win” pressure that he loves with CSKA and more.
Here’s what Clyburn said on:
CSKA’s most recent win over Real Madrid with Mike James’ four-point play:
“Everybody had a part in that play. If it weren’t for Niko [Milutinov] getting that tip like that, we’d never get that shot off. Dani [Hackett] having the wits to throw me the ball right away but I knew that in the position I was there was no way I could get a good shot off. Mike was coming towards me, he was open and everybody knows he wants that shot, he wants to be that guy. No better person to shoot that shot at the end of the game.”
EuroLeague captains picking him as the player who will come back hungrier than anyone else:
“I had to say me. Just because I was away from the game, the injury was October 25th. That was a long time to be away from the game. I just wanted to be out there so bad. Even before the COVID-19 happened, I was joking with my staff about coming back for the Final Four if we made it. I just wanted to be out there with the team. That was what drove me the whole time during the summer. Just trying to get back to normal. And try to be back with the team and help the team as much as I could.”
To have that injury after the best year in my career… it hurt a lot. Just because for that reason. But yeah, I’d agree with everybody.”