This time must seem very far away to Alperen Sengunnow paid millions of dollars a year. Fast forward to 2021, a few months before the Rockets' current center was drafted.
The center then hit the mark for Besiktas Istanbul, with whom he would end up being elected MVP of the Turkish League. At the same time, he received an offer from a neighboring rival club, and EuroLeague team, Fenerbahce.
The two clubs negotiate together, but the final decision rests with the pivot. If I wasn't interested, I wouldn't go. “, he recalls in an exchange with the journalist Fatih Altayli, taken up by Basketnews.
As he says, Fenerbahce's offer is “ lucrative “More than the modest” 30,000 lire » (835 euros) per month for which he plays at the time. However, he decides to decline it.
” They wanted me to join the club in the middle of the season, but I had a three-year contract with Besiktas. My contract included an exit clause to the NBA, which meant that if I wanted to go to the NBA, I didn't have to pay anything; the NBA franchise would take care of the payment. “, develops the interior.
Which would not have been the same story with the neighboring club. If I had joined Fenerbahçe, they would have offered me a lot of money, but in exchange they would have demanded a significant sum if I later went to the NBA – around three million dollars. ” he says.
A potential drop in his playing time
He adds : “ The NBA would have covered part of that, but I would have had to pay the rest, which would have been a huge mistake. It would have been the mistake of my life, and I knew it. “The kind of scenario that had already arisen in the past, for European players leaving for the Major League, notably Ricky Rubio.
Beyond this financial issue, the Giresun native is convinced that by moving from one club to another, his playing time would have drastically decreased. There is no question of him being satisfied with ” 15 minutes ” game, while he had played 30 so far, and was being watched by all the NBA scouts.
A choice that paid off before the Draft since the Turk finally finished his season with 19.2 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists on average. In October 2021, he was drafted by the Thunder, before being sent to Houston.
” He is already an accomplished player, someone unique, who doesn't really play like the others. He is very skilled and doesn't know how to do just one thing. He has the potential to become special, his ceiling is higher than that of many players “, team GM Rafael Stone said at the time.
No mistake, because Alperen Sengun is one of the cornerstones of the Rockets' game today, and could soon be offered a contract extension worth more than $200 million.
| Alperen Sengun | Percentage | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Party | Int | Bp | Ct | Pts |
| 2021-22 | WHOA | 72 | 21 | 47.4 | 24.8 | 71.1 | 1.9 | 3.5 | 5.5 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 9.6 |
| 2022-23 | WHOA | 75 | 29 | 55.3 | 33.3 | 71.5 | 3.2 | 5.8 | 9.0 | 3.9 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 14.8 |
| 2023-24 | WHOA | 63 | 33 | 53.7 | 29.7 | 69.3 | 2.9 | 6.4 | 9.4 | 5.0 | 3.4 | 1.2 | 2.6 | 0.7 | 21.1 |
| Total | 210 | 27 | 52.8 | 28.4 | 70.5 | 2.7 | 5.2 | 7.9 | 3.8 | 3.3 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 0.9 | 14.9 | |
How to read the stats? GM = Games Played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Shots Made / Shots Attempted; 3pts = 3-pointers / 3-pointers Attempted; LF = Free Throws Made / Free Throws Attempted; Off = Offensive Rebound; Def = Defensive Rebound; Tot = Total Rebounds; Pd = Assists; Fte: Personal Fouls; Int = Steals; Bp = Loose Balls; Ct: Blocks; Pts = Points.
