QJ Peterson: “My Final Goal is to Play in the NBA!”

By M. Bahadır Akgün / [email protected]

Playing against Galatasaray in Basketball Champions League Group A, Bakken Bears’ American star Kyle Wiltjer gave a special interview to Eurohoops.

He made very candid statements about his career goals, his team’s progress in the Basketball Champions League and ING Basketball Super League, his experiences in quarantine, and much more.

Our interview with QJ Peterson in your presence …

– You performed a great performance against Galatasaray. 35 points, 7 rebounds… What would you like to say about that performance? That performance was truly tremendous.

– First of all, thank you for your time. I think it’s not just my personal performance, but overall it was a very good team win. This performance was largely thanks to my teammates. They created a position for me and they saw that my hand was warm. As a team, we try to bring the ball together with the hot hand at that moment. Coaches and players did just that. We used the method that worked that evening. That match was a perfect team game victory. Rebounds are not about height either, it’s about putting heart. Everyone knows I’m not the tallest player on the court, but it’s about the desire, energy and effort to win. There is so much you can do with these alone. These help you win, get rebounds. This is where the rebound factor comes into play. It is about the desire to win, the desire to fight, to fight, and to continue the struggle.

– Coach Steffen Wich said that you played better against Galatasaray in both games after the game. You lost the first game. Do you think you played better in two matches?

– I think I didn’t play better because we lost the first game. Winning is such a big and important thing for me that I always think about what I can do to contribute to my team’s victory. You scored 20 points, 30 points, 40 points, 100 points, it doesn’t matter. If your team is losing, you are losing. I’m not looking at how many total points we scored, rebounds, or any statistics to see if I’m playing better. We lost the match in Istanbul.

– You are not one of the favorites of the group. Other teams entered the season with higher investments and goals, but you won two consecutive wins in Dinamo Sassari and Galatasaray matches. Now if you win against Tenerife, you will have a chance to leave the group. This is a great success. How do you feel about this?

– Thank you of course but this is about not being a favorite… I think it’s great and I personally have been a non-favorite all my life. I did not attend a high-level school, nor did I always play in the top leagues abroad. This issue of not being a favorite is a subject seen by outsiders. People who look from the outside, who are not in the organization or locker room think so. It all starts with believing in ourselves.

There were people who thought it was a coincidence when they won by 21 points against Sassari. Sassari is a good team, one of the best teams in the Champions League, and we went there as a non-favorite team. We lost all three matches before. When we won there by 20 points, people saw it as a coincidence, but we beat Galatasaray by 18 points in the next Champions League match. That’s when some people thought maybe it wasn’t a coincidence.

You don’t know of course, but we don’t see it that way anyway. We can fight them. We knew that if we corrected our minor mistakes in the first three games, we would skip that threshold. We couldn’t fix them and we lost the matches. We fixed them later and now have two wins. I don’t see this as a non-favorite team because we can fight anyone. We can score in many different ways with this team, we get very good rebounds. We are defending very well.

We know Tenerife will be very difficult, it will be a big test for us at best, but our journey in the Champions League was already a difficult journey. We fell into one of the most difficult groups. Now we have a chance to go to the playoffs. This shows the struggle and resistance of our team that they will not give up easily without fighting. After three defeats, we put ourselves in a position where we can do everything we need to do and go to the playoffs. At the end of the day, this is what you might want.

– What do you think about the overall quality of the Basketball Champions League? I am also curious about their views on the arrangement of the fixture for the benefit of the teams and players in accordance with the epidemic. What are your views on the quality of the teams and the organization?

– I think they’re doing great work. You play with top teams from all over Europe, which makes the organization very challenging. It is a very competitive organization, which is very good. During the COVID-19 process, they perfectly controlled the situation, such as receiving a limited number of spectators, and postponing the matches in case of problems in the teams. They also did a great job of getting great teams and organizations into the Champions League. They did a great job. I congratulate them. They were very organized during the epidemic period.

COVID-19 has left a heavy mark on many people’s lives. As athletes, you are also active people. You travel constantly, go to training and matches. You didn’t have any of these for a while. This must have had mental effects. We don’t come across studies on mental health in the NBA very often in Europe. What did you do about mental health during the epidemic?

– I had to find out what to concentrate on because we couldn’t play basketball. I just needed to trust the people around me, my fiancée, my family. I was with them, I was at home. I was enjoying spending time with them. Because as players playing abroad, we generally cannot leave our homes like August and return until May or something. So there is an 8-10 month season. It was bad that the epidemic started and everything was shut down, of course, but at the same time, it had a positive side in terms of being with our family. I was in the USA and did studies. I took refuge in God, I meditated as much as possible. I tried to do something to think well and stay active. I trained the kids around. I tried to add something to the children where I came from. In times when it seems dark, there is a light that people forget, drown in the dark but cannot see.

– Were you one of those who frequently watched TV series or movies on Netflix during the epidemic period?

– Not really. I was usually weight training in the gym. I was working outside. I haven’t had the opportunity to watch something over and over on Netflix. Right now, I watch some things over and over because of the basketball calendar, but I didn’t watch that much when I was at home. I was mostly playing games when I was empty.

– What were you playing?

– I usually play 2K or Call of Duty.

– Many players play these games. Speaking of the NBA, is there a team that you support or see as a championship favorite for this season?

– It never happened. It has never happened since I knew myself.

– What are your career goals? You are showing off your skills in the Basketball Champions League, one of the best leagues in Europe right now. What do you think about the future?

– I think the future is bright, but I’m also trying to live in the moment. I’m trying not to get in the way of what I’ve been through to a large extent. I keep my head down and try to work hard and improve every day, but of course I also aim to win championships here… But next season, playing in the NBA is my ultimate goal. I want to do this. I just have to keep working and improving myself every day. At the end of the day, I will accept whatever happens because I will know that I am doing my best. This is what I could want the most anyway.

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