By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Starting the season, ERA Nymburk and Nanterre 92 didn’t have the heaviest of expectations on their shoulders in the Basketball Champions League.
After all, while the Czech champs made their return into the competition through the qualifying stage, the French side was about to open an unprecedented and undiscovered chapter of the club’s history, entering the first season without Pascal Donnadieu on the bench after 37 years.
However, while the first one started the season unbeaten at 5-0 to clinch a direct spot in the Round of 16, the French team had to go through a Play-In series against Filou Oostende.
In the moment of need, Desi Rodriguez stepped up for Nanterre 92, being named MVP of Game 2 in the Play-Ins, taking down the Belgian side to tie at 1-1 with 16 points and 5 steals away from home. Eventually, they made their way through, reaching Nymburk, Murcia, and Falco Szombathely.
It all led to the clash against the Czech champs, indeed. Nobody in the history of the Basketball Champions League, according to Opta, combined for a performance of 25+ points, 5+ rebounds, 5+ assists, and 5+ steals in a BCL fixture.
“I feel amazing, honestly. I feel like I’m in the zone right now,” Rodriguez told Eurohoops after dropping 25 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 5 steals, finding an amazing 90-86 road win.
The goal? Making it all the way to the BCL Final Four
Desi Rodriguez, who will enter the rematch against the Czech by averaging 15.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 2.1 steals per game, is conscious of his team’s potential.
“This is probably the third or fourth game that I’m going to be playing like this: my confidence is very high right now. And I know what’s at stake. I want to go to the Final Four in the BCL, and I want to make the Playoffs in the French League. I want to go far in the championship,” he commented.
“That’s my main goal. As a leader and one of the captains of the team, I take pride in that, and I’m just looking forward to going out there every game and giving my best, whatever that is to help the team win. I’m definitely excited and I have very high confidence right now. I’m happy the way I’m playing.”
As of now, there’s a three-headed monster in Group L, with ERA Nymburk, Nanterre 92, and UCAM Murcia all tied on top at 2-1, while Falco-Vulcano Szombathely is winless at the bottom at 0-3; if they lose to the Spanish side this week, they will be eliminated from contention.
“I think our group is really tough. We lost to Murcia, a really good team. We were down two or three players at the time we played them on the road. In the place where we at, we have two more home games left: we need to take care of home-court advantage.”
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“That’s what’s important for us against Nymburk and Murcia, trying to get one of the top two spots to advance to the Quarter-Finals. That’s our goal,” Rodriguez added.
In order to match up with ERA Nymburk’s up-tempo and fast-transition game, Philippe Da Silva’s team unclogged the memory drawers, remembering the countless encounters with Paris Basketball.
“We had to match what they were bringing to the table: they’re a very fast team. They’re similar to Paris. We’ve seen a team like that before, and that’s the way they play, that’s their style of play: always running, always making three or four substitutions every two to three minutes,” he explained.
“That helped us prepare for Nymburk, we were able to get the win and share the ball, moving at a faster pace than we usually do. I think we’re prepared to get them again this week. I look forward to it.”
It was a matter of distributing the ball well enough for Nanterre, dishing as many as 30 assists against ERA Nymburk, with three different players tallying 7+ assists in the win: Paul Lacombe (7), Milan Barbitch (9), and Desi Rodriguez (8),
According to Opta, they became only the third team in BCL history to have had that many players with that many assists, after SIG Strasbourg in 2018 and also BAXI Manresa in 2019.
Experiencing Pascal Donnadieu’s emotional farewell
Desi Rodriguez seems to have found his home in France, after three years in the country. The first one happened in Limoges, where he participated in the Basketball Champions League for the first time, while for the past two years, he has been stellar for Nanterre, even extending his stay until 2026.
“Coming to France I got comfortable here. Being embraced and starting off with Limoges… That’s my family. I really love that team and that city. They love me and they showed that. Coming over to Nanterre, they did the same thing, letting me be myself,” he explained joyfully.
“That’s what I love about France: they let you be yourself. They let you be the person you are. Being here and getting an opportunity to play, extending my contract, and playing BCL again, I was looking forward to that. It’s been love in France; it’s my second home. I love it here.”
Moreover, he was part of an emotional farewell in 2023-24, being part of the team that said goodbye to Pascal Donnadieu after almost four decades conducting on the club’s bench. “It was an amazing feeling, it was a great experience. I learned so much from him,” he said.
“[I learned a lot] considering also the players he has coached and the history here at Nanterre. It was exciting for me to experience it for his last season and be able to have an incredible year: we went to the Playoffs by finishing 5th in the French League, and reached the Finals of the Leaders Cup, losing only to Paris. We went to the Final Four in the French Cup. It was exciting.”
“Sharing this experience with Pascal was a very touching moment, with him being there for 37 years. It’s a family-oriented team: his dad’s still here, still around, and his son’s coaching the younger team,” Desi Rodriguez touched on the continuity experienced around Donnadieu’s figure.
Taking his spot guiding Nanterre from the sideline, former Pascal Donnadieu’s assistant coach Philippe Da Silva got promoted to head coaching duties last summer. And they’re reaping the benefits.
“Philippe has learned so much from him, but he also brings his own style of play. We have a similar structure as a team and we run the same plays, but Philippe likes to throw a lot of different things in there, try to make changes, and try to make a new style of play,” Rodriguez said about his head coach.
“He’s been under Pascal for a long time, so he has that knowledge of what and how to do as a coach. He learned so much that it made it easier for him to transition to the head coaching job this year. He’s doing a great job and I’m happy for him. We got off to a rough start, but now we’re getting our momentum, picking it up and figuring out our identity as a team, being able to gel with each other.”
“Everything is looking much better now. I’m happy for Philippe. He’s doing an incredible job. I’m also excited because Pascal is still around. He travels with us. He’s still on our bench. He helps when we need help, so it’s kind of getting the best of both worlds,” Nanterre’s #23 continued.
Could the BCL All-Star Game be an option?
Returning to the Basketball Champions League, he has taken with him what it means to have the opportunity to play in such a competition, climbing up the ranks of European basketball.
“I played BCL before and I really love the league, I look after it a lot. Being back here again, I’m trying to take full responsibility for the opportunity of being a BCL player again. I definitely want to try to push forward, to get as far as I can this year,” Rodriguez said.
Potentially extending Nanterre’s stay in the competition even after the Round of 16, the 28-year-old forward put his sight into eventual matchups down the line with other teams.
“Unicaja and Tenerife stand out the most to me, of course: Spanish teams are always really good. But Galatasaray is strong as well, most of my boys play there: James Palmer Jr., Angel Delgado, Tyrone Wallace. I would definitely look forward to that matchup,” he said.
“I would like to play against some of these guys. It would be fun and competitive, a great experience. This league is growing a lot, with a lot of great teams and tons of great players who come to this league. It’s exciting to watch. Every night, you don’t know what can happen.”
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But what if he faces those opponents in a BCL All-Star Game, or even plays with them in a hypothetical Team World? That’s something he has experienced in three consecutive years in the LNB, after all.
“I think the BCL can look forward to trying to have a game like that sometimes; it’s different players from different teams and countries; it’ll bring more competitiveness,” he said.
“Everybody will have an edge on their shoulders, playing against the best players out of each group, even from different countries. It would be exciting to get that game. It’d bring a lot more exposure towards the BCL, about how good the players are. It would bring a lot out of everyone, it would be competitive.”
“The LNB All-Star Game is definitely exciting. I’ve been in this league for three years and I’ve been in All-Star Games for three years. You come across Top-5 or Top-10 pick players all the time. A lot of guys got drafted out of here, with back-to-back 1st picks in Victor Wembanyama and Zaccharie Risacher. I was excited to see these guys grow and get a chance to play against them before they head to the NBA”.
In his three seasons in France, Desi Rodriguez hasn’t only been a three-time All-Star. He has found his home away from home, first in Limoges and then in Nanterre, dreaming big of making it far in the Basketball Champions League. It’s just a matter of feeling more in the zone.
PHOTO CREDIT: Basketball Champions League