The trail of Facundo Campazzo on his way to the NBA started at Denver Nuggets and then got lost among other options that rang out loud for months: San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks (Luka Doncic’s team) and, above all, Minnesota Timberwolves, where Pablo Prigioni is assistant coach, an Argentine who is considered a key figure in the jump to the other side of the Atlantic from the ‘Facu’ . But, just before the NBA market opened, the base agent, already a former Real Madrid player, warned that his client would play “in the Western Conference” and “in a team that not one of the humble”. That took the Wolves out of the equation, a franchise undergoing almost permanent reconstruction and that also took over Ricky Rubio through a transfer and, on draft night, with Leandro Bolmaro, the point guard (also Argentine) chosen in the first instance. for the Knicks and that for now will continue in Barcelona. Too many bases in Minnesota as the Denver Nuggets suddenly came to the fore. And as soon as the free agent market opened, on the night of December 20 in Spain, Campazzo’s agreement with the Rocky Mountain club was announced.
But if in Minneapolis Prigioni was pointed out as a connection with Campazzo, in Denver there was also a link that has influenced, as the player himself has recognized in his decision: Martynas Pocius, a former Madridista who now works in the technical department of the Colorado franchise, basically as a scout. In the United States, his knowledge of the two worlds is valued, since he trained at the prestigious Duke (2005-09) and after not being drafted he carried out his career in Europe. The Lithuanian shooting guard played for Zalgiris, Real Madrid, Galatasaray and Murcia. With 2017, and only 31 years old, he had to leave the tracks, martyred by injuries. The call from the Nuggets came early because Arturas Karnisovas, also a Lithuanian who played for Barcelona and is making a brilliant career as an executive in the NBA, was working in the franchise at the time: five years in the scouting department of Houston Rockets, later general manager at Denver Nuggets and finally, and since April, vice president of operations for the Chicago Bulls, where he is the thinking mind of rebuilding the Illinois franchise.
Pocius, a guard with a tremendous physique and a lot of category, had an American touch but Lithuanian finesse. He played for Real Madrid between 2011 and 2013 and won a League, a Cup and a Super Cup in the first wave of successes with Pablo Laso on the bench.. In Murcia, the last stop on his way, is where he met and made friends with Campazzo, on loan from Real Madrid in the 2016-17 season. The second and last of the Argentine in Murcia before his triumphant return to Real Madrid, where in recent seasons he has been confirmed as one of the best point guards in the FIBA world. Now he has to show that he can also make a dent in the NBA.
Pocius is also remembered for his curious style when he used his left hand, which was derived from the fact that he only had four fingers on it. An accident with a milling machine at the age of 13 nearly left him without three fingers and thus nipped in the bud his options for a career in professional basketball. But after a complicated operation he saved two of them and played with four in his left hand and nine total. And so he was one of the best escorts in Europe for a few years and while the physicist gave him a truce.
