Marcelinho Huertas is ending his remarkable tenure in the Liga Endesa to join Dubai Basketball.
The 43-year-old Brazilian point guard is departing La Laguna Tenerife immediately to link up with the ambitious club coached by Xavi Pascual, cutting short an eight-season run on the island.
The move brings a sudden close to Huertas’s historic career in Spain’s top flight, where he had recently cemented his status as the league’s all-time leader in assists. Just prior to the transfer news, Huertas delivered a 19-point performance against Asisa Joventut and continued to lead Jaka Lakovic’s squad with an average valuation of 17.1 per game, helping position Tenerife fourth in the standings with five wins from seven matches.
Huertas leaves behind a towering statistical footprint in the Liga Endesa. Over 739 career appearances dating back to his debut in Badalona on October 2, 2004, he piled up 3,440 assists. He departed as the competition’s all-time leader in that category, alongside sitting fourth in total victories with 493 and fifth in valuation with 8,550 credits.
🚨 43 yaşındaki Marcelinho Huertas, EuroLeague’e geri dönmeye hazırlanıyor! 🇧🇷 Brezilyalı guard, Tenerife’den ayrılarak Dubai Basketball ile sözleşme imzalayacak. 🤝 Huertas, Dubai’de Barcelona döneminden eski koçu Xavi Pascual ile yeniden buluşacak. (via Chema de Lucas) pic.twitter.com/6ySoCG1v2y
His domestic journey spanned stops with Joventut, Bilbao, Baskonia, and Barcelona before his move to Tenerife. He also spent two seasons in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers, sharing a locker room with Kobe Bryant.
In his final days in the ACB, he climbed to eighth on the all-time scoring list with 7,560 points after surpassing Joe Arlauckas, while also ranking third in total matches played behind only Rafa Jofresa and Felipe Reyes.
The veteran playmaker is heading to a Dubai side making waves in the EuroLeague under the guidance of a Spanish coaching staff. The transfer was first broken by journalist Chema de Lucas, routing the guard toward a wealthy Emirati project currently sitting sixth in the EuroLeague table with seven wins in ten games.
Dubai has signed established EuroLeague players Elie Okobo, Thomas Walkup, Tornike Shengelia, and Mamadi Diakité ahead of the campaign. For Huertas, the move offers a reunion with Pascual, with whom he previously worked during their shared stint at Barcelona.
Neither club has formally announced the exact financial terms or the duration of the agreement taking the 43-year-old to the United Arab Emirates.
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