GBR – Great Britain’s Freeland coming of age with Aito’s Unicaja Malaga
VALENCIA (EuroBasket 2011) - Great Britain’s Joel Freeland oozes with talent.
As young and raw players go in Europe, he’s had as much promise as any the past few years.
Now the pieces are coming together.
In his first year at Unicaja Malaga after beginning his career at Gran Canaria, Freeland, who turned 23 on February 27, has started at center and taken important steps under the watchful eye of Aito Garcia Reneses, one of the game’s great teachers.
Freeland has been one of Malaga’s standout performers in the ACB play-offs, first helping them upset Power Electronics Valencia in the opening round.
On one play in the first half, with his back to the basket and a few feet from the rim, Freeland caught a pass with both hands while at the top of his jump and threw down a reverse dunk.
It was such an athletic play that a very boisterous La Fonteta grew quiet for a few seconds before the Valencia fans started to applaud him.
“He’s very good at running, jumping and shooting,” Aito said to FIBA.com after his team won that game, 83-82.
Freeland has had some dynamic moments against Regal Barcelona as well in the semi-finals, although it hasn’t stopped the Catalan club from winning the first two games in that series.
After scoring 17 points and grabbing eight rebounds in Game 1 against Barca, Freeland poured in 11 and hauled in five in Game 2.
Drafted in the first round of the 2006 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers, there has been a lot of hype about Freeland.
Aito says it’s important to keep things in perspective.
When asked if Freeland had improved this year, the coach said: “Yes, but the problem is that he began to play basketball late, at 17. He needs to understand basketball a lot more but he practices with a lot of interest and I hope that he will improve more, like this year, every year.
“He can be better, but he needs to understand the game better. But it’s normal because a lot of other players began in the game at 10 or 11 years old.
“He began later and sometimes he doesn’t recognize things.”
Freeland, who will play for Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics, spoke to FIBA.com after Unicaja’s dramatic play-off opening win at Valencia 10 days ago.
Joel, you were a force out there against Valencia. Have you played like that all year?
Joe Freeland: It's going great. I had some ups and downs through the season, but I've learned a lot - especially with Aito teaching me a lot about defense. And I've tried to put that into my game. Every game, I think I'm getting better.
What is the big difference between playing at Gran Canaria and Unicaja?
Joel Freeland: The big difference between Unicaja and Gran Canaria? I learned a lot there, but here I'm learning different things, harder things, and trying to be smarter with my game instead of just thinking about my offense and giving up easy things on defense. I'm trying to fix the defensive part of my game but it's not coming as quickly as I want it to. But it will come eventually.
The first play-off game against Valencia was remarkable. Unicaja looked beat but somehow came back from a 12-point deficit and won with Zabian Dowdell’s buzzer-beater.
Joel Freeland: I'd been waiting for something like that all season. Other times this season, it went the other way. But this time in the play-offs, it was different. Since the second half of the season, we've been playing really well. We finished fifth and got to play in the four versus five (pairing) so that was great for us. We knew that we had to go all out in that first game.
We saw you play last year in Warsaw at the EuroBasket with Great Britain. What are the team’s prospects going into EuroBasket 2011 qualifying? You have some tough games coming up against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, FYR Macedonia and Hungary.
Joel Freeland: I think we should be good. We've got Luol Deng (Chicago Bulls) and Ben Gordon (Detroit Pistons)- they're set to play. We're going to have a great side. Obviously we didn't have everyone last year in Poland. We have some tough games coming up but we should qualify for the European (Championship) in 2011 and be ready for 2012 (Olympics).
How will Ben Gordon fit in the team?
Joel Freeland: I think it will be easy. He's a veteran in the NBA and knows how to make adjustments. He'll be able to adapt and play the way (Britain coach) Chris Finch wants us to play. As long as we can get him there from the get-go, everything should be fine. It's the same for everyone. You join up a whole new group of players and must learn how to play with each other over a short period of time. That's never easy.
Last summer was tough for Britain, losing three games at the EuroBasket, albeit against excellent teams that advanced to the semi-finals. How do you evaluate that first EuroBasket experience for everyone in your team?
Joel Freeland: I think it put some extra pressure on us for the next games. I think it was a big step up for us, but it didn’t help us not having our best side and Pops (Mensah Bonsu) coming into the squad very late. It was a tough situation. I think we'll be okay next time.
The Blazers drafted you a while ago when hardly anyone in Britain knew who you were. Where is the NBA in your thought process now?
Joel Freeland: At the moment, I have a contract with Malaga and all of my thoughts are with Malaga, the play-offs.
