In two years, both have gone from playing in the lower categories of the Spanish national team to playing minutes in the NBA. Garuba has achieved it from the ACB, Aldama from the university league.
Saints Aldama (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2001) was born the same year that the history of the Gasol family began in Memphis. It shouldn’t be surprising that he confessed not seeing Pau play for the Grizzlies. If anything, it will open a crack in the self-esteem of those who only saw it and still consider themselves young. Aldama represents together with Usman Garuba (Madrid, 2002) the new wave of Spanish basketball, which for the first time since 2009 had two players selected in the first round of the NBA draft.
Aldama Y Garuba They were the pillars of the Spanish team that won the European Under 18 in the summer of 2019. The canary was chosen as MVP of a tournament that served as a great presentation in society. And that of Azuqueca, included in an Ideal Quintet where Ziga Samar was also present, with whom he met very briefly in the Real Madrid, O Alperen Sengun, your new partner in the Houston Rockets. But in pursuing their path to the NBA, each took an opposite direction.
Garuba He continued at Real Madrid, where last season he was an important player. Y Aldama, trained in the Canarian Canterbury, discarded the offers he had in Spain to go to the United States. For a long time it has been common for some promising Spanish players to test in the NCAA, but not of their caliber. The canary chose Loyola Maryland, a small university but where he would have more options to shine, and faith that he did.
After a first year with all possible obstacles (a knee operation, a broken finger, a global pandemic), the brilliance of the second allowed him to shorten the deadlines by two years and present himself this summer to the draft. With the 30th choice of the Grizzlies, where now to be a partner of Juancho Hernangmez, opened another horizon: the first Spanish player to reach the NBA from the university league.
The spotlights of Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Summer League was born at the head of Warren LeGarie, that famous agent in the Spain of the eighties and nineties for taking Fernando Martn O Drazen Petrovic in the NBA, o George Karl to Real Madrid. More and more players and coaches were living there in the summer to pay less taxes, and LeGarie, callous from kicking these leagues all over the country to identify talent to bring to Europe, saw the deal.
Las Vegas had long been on the NBA’s radar, but whatever it was, the league was reluctant to have a team in a place known as “Sin City.” LeGarie convinced Adam Silver in the Final Four of the Euroleague 2003 in Barcelona, already Star of david at the 2004 All-Star. In a couple of months he had already raised the structure, and within a decade it had become the epicenter of the NBA in summer.
This Summer League is where promising youngsters go to find their first NBA spots or, the less fortunate, to win a contract. Also in Europe, because in the stands there is no lack of managers from this side of the pond. And where Garuba and Aldama have taken their first steps with the Houston Rockets and the Memphis Grizzlies respectively.
In both cases they have gone from less to more to close with their best game. Garuba, with 8 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals and a decisive stopper for the victory half a minute from the end. Aldama, with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists against the Chicago Bulls.
“It has just been getting used to the level of play, feeling more comfortable and getting to know my teammates better,” Aldama explained about this adaptation to “a totally new world.” “It is played very fast, it is different from what I am used to. It is an experience to learn and get used to the NBA world.” A process that now continues with five weeks of preparation until the beginning of his first preseason in the NBA.
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