By Aris Barkas / barkas@eurohoops.net
After an MVP-caliber season with Paris Basketball, TJ Shorts signed with Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and became a cautionary tale.
On a roster full of top-quality players, Shorts almost ended up like Lorenzo Brown one season earlier, never finding his place. Everyone expected him to be a different player compared to Paris, where he was running the show. Still, his production in every aspect was almost half his numbers from the 2024-25 season, and most importantly, he didn’t get to win big as compensation.
Despite a multi-year contract with the Greek club, Shorts wanted out, and without much fanfare, he signed with Valencia Basket.
And just like that, he is back.
Yes, the sample is small, but the Spanish team, which surprised everyone last season by reaching its first-ever EuroLeague Final Four, is already off to a 3-0 start that includes two road wins. Shorts is again his true self.
Averaging 18.3 ppg. and 6.0 apg. is just a sign of things to come. He has already scored 50 points across three contests, while last season, in 43 games with Panathinaikos, he had 350 in total.
The change is obvious. Shorts is back in a situation where he is the most important guard on his team, having the ball in his hands and making decisions on the court.
This was never the case at Panathinaikos, and coach Ergin Ataman was, as usual, vocal about it. From the start of last season, back in November, when he stated after a loss to Crvena Zvezda that he was “90% not happy” with Shorts’ performance, until Game 5 against Valencia, the game that ended Panathinaikos’s EuroLeague season, the message rarely changed.
“When TJ plays, we attack four against five,” Ataman said during his halftime interview in that Game 5, in which Shorts played for less than six minutes, missing his only shot attempt.
The player himself never said anything publicly about his situation, but the writing was on the wall. The rumors about him leaving Panathinaikos started early on, and while Valencia became public as a possible destination once it was clear that Jean Montero was out, FC Barcelona was also considered a landing spot for Shorts.
After all, the fast-paced Spanish game suits him better. This week, against Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv, which is spearheaded by back-to-back MVP of the Round Elijah Bryant, TJ Shorts will have the chance to prove that he is back for good.
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