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Player Spotlight: Pero Antic, Lukoil Academic
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If any player has raised himself to superstar status during the ULEB Cup this season, it has to be Lukoil Academic power forward Pero Antic. Just 25 years old despite his seven seasons of experience in ULEB competitions, Antic almost doubled his scoring and rebounding averages to become one of the competition's top performers while pointing Lukoil in the right direction to challenge for a Final Eight spot. Before this, Antic played four seasons in the Euroleague with AEK and two in the ULEB Cup years with Red Star, enough time to learn from some of the best players and coaches around. Lukoil bagged a three-point home win in its Last 32 series opener against BK Ventspils, setting up a second game in Latvia on Tuesday that will be do-or-die for both teams. "I always survived the first elimination round, so I hope to do the same with Lukoil this season," Antic said. "I am going to do as much as I can to reach that goal"
As a kid growing up in Skopje, Macedonia, Antic wished to play for Rabotnicki, the country's most famous team. "After several tryouts, I joined the team and in a couple of years, the coach promoted me to the first team at age 16," Antic recalls. "He was the same coach that at age 11 had told me to get out of a practice. I didn't say hello or anything, I just got into the practice and he took me out of it. A few years later, he put me on the first team." Success came early, too. Antic won his first domestic title with Rabotnicki at age 19, despite playing most of that season elsewhere. "I played for one season in Rabotnicki, then I left to the United States and came back for the domestic finals, since I was under contract," he recalls. "It was nice to play for Rabotnicki at age 16, a big honor. I didn't even want to play seriously at that time but Vrbica Stefanov was in the team and I wanted to be with him."
Right after that, a major performance at a junior tournament in Greece with his national team was the breakthrough for Antic. He averaged 28 points and 14 rebounds in 5 games against European and American teams, with one of the best coaches in Europe - Dusan Sakota - looking on. "Coach Sakota came to a couple of games and immediately proposed me a contract for AEK," Antic said. It was not his first option, however, as he had another offer from a Euroleague team. "First, I went to Union Olimpija for a tryout and they wanted to sign me, but Sakota kept telling me that AEK was the best place for me to play. I had a scholarship offer to Georgetown University, too, but I didn't get to college after finishing high school, so I signed a five-year deal with AEK."
He joined AEK before the start of the 2001-02 season and only played Euroleague games that year, but spent the whole season practicing with veteran big men, among them 1993 Euroleague winner Jim Bilba. "In my first season in Greece, AEK won the league for the first time after 32 years," Antic recalls. "We had a great team with players like Jim Bilba, Demos Dikoudis and Andy Betts playing in my position. It was an honor to learn from them. I used to admire these players and watch them on TV some years before I joined AEK and suddenly I was playing with them and guys like Arijan Komazec. When I went to AEK, it was a little bit difficult to adjust. Dikoudis has his best season that year. We were rivals in practice and you can learn a lot if you listened to them. Watching or playing against them gives you a little bit of strength when you go out and play someone else."
Despite being a teenager in a new country, Antic soon considered Athens his new home and quickly adjusted to the Greek way of life. "I still consider Athens as my home city," he says. "Me and my wife love Athens and its lifestyle. If I ever get an offer from Greece, I am not going to think twice about it. I love the Greek championship and the people over there. Living in Greece is a great experience and I choose Greece above anything else."
Antic did better in the 2002-03 season, playing both in the Greek League and the Euroleague, where he averaged 4.3 points and 2.5 rebounds in 12 games. It wasn't until Fotis Katsikaris became the new AEK boss that Antic started to show his full potential. "He gave more freedom in my last season on the team, even when it wasn't seen in the stats," Antic said. "He taught me that not everything is about the stats. He gave me good advice. I respect him a lot." As a modern power forward who can shoot with unlimited range and who played for AEK for so many years, comparisons with Michalis Kakiouzis have followed Antic. "Michalis played small forward in those days. Michalis is a very smart player," Antic recalls. "Michalis cannot jump a lot but he is always in the right spot, where the ball is going to fall. He told me that I should shoot whenever I am open, because if a coach sends you to the bench, at least you will know why."
At age 23, with four years of Euroleague experience, it was time for Antic to try to find playing time elsewhere to fulfill his new goals. Despite having offers from many teams around the continent, it all went down to two choices. "I was supposed to go to Virtus Bologna with coach Zare Markovski from my country, but as soon as I got an offer from Sakota, I had to pay him back," Antic said. "He brought me to Greece and I will never forget the favor he did for me. I had a better offer from Virtus in financial terms but I don't regret anything. It was a great experience to play for Red Star in front of that crowd, with their respect for basketball. I was a big fan of the team since I was a kid."
Unfortunately, his ULEB Cup debut with Red Star alongside superstar Milan Gurovic would be delayed by injury. After returning from his national team in the preseason, Antic broke a bone in his foot during a friendly game against, of all teams, AEK. "Was it destiny? Probably," Antic laughs. "I don't know." He returned during the 2005-06 season on time enough to witness one of the biggest sports rivalries in Europe: Partizan vs. Red Star. "The rivalry in Serbia is just as the same as in Greece, but there is more tension in Belgrade," Antic says. "Everyone is talking about it a week in advance."
Last season, Antic blasted off, averaging 10.1 points and 4.9 rebounds in 14 ULEB Cup games while helping to lead Red Star to the quarterfinals, where it lost to eventual champion Real Madrid. "Everyone expected more from me than in the first season, and I don't like to look at my stats too much," Antic said. "We had great scorers in that team, especially Gurovic, who can drop 45 or 50 points against anyone. I was trying to help the team in different ways, passing and everything, and that's why I am now able to get closer to reach triple-doubles in the ULEB Cup and in the Bulgarian championship."
Knowing it was time to play big minutes, Antic did not hesitate when Lukoil, one of the steadiest of ULEB Cup clubs, came calling with a two-year deal. "I signed immediately," Antic said, "because I always heard good things about the club from two of my friends, Riste Stefanov and Gjorgji Cekovski, who played several seasons here." This season, Antic's improvement has been dramatic. He leads the entire ULEB Cup in performance index ranking with a 22.9 average through 11 games. His scoring (20.5 ppg.) and rebounding averages (9 rpg.) are also among the best in the ULEB Cup this season, ranking third and fourth overall, respectively.
After so many years playing alongside some of the best players in Europe, Antic now has the confidence at age 25 to deliver. "I don't know why I didn't have confidence early, but I finally have it at the right age," he ways. "When a coach and your teammates believe in you and give you a lot of freedom, you have to pay them back. And not only them, but the club management and the fans, of course."
Back in the elimination rounds after a one-year absence, Lukoil holds a three-point lead from its Last 32 opening game against Ventspils. Antic thinks his team should have done much better in Game 1, but stays positive about the outcome of the series. "I believe that if we play 10 percent better than we did, we can beat them in Ventspils," Antic said. "We had very bad shooting percentages and everything should be better in the second leg. I played two ULEB Cup seasons with Red Star and I always survived the first elimination round."
Lukoil, however, has never made it past the first round. If it can do so this time, a new star who found his way in Sofia will be a major reason.
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Monday, February 25, 2008
Javier Gancedo, ULEBCup.com
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