ESP - Abrines bides his time

BARCELONA (Liga Endesa/EuroBasket) - For anyone who was lucky enough to see him in action on the last weekend of EuroBasket 2011 in Lithuania, Alex Abrines provided some thrills.

The 1.98m shooting guard lit up the Kaunas Arena when competing in the U18 All-Star Game and at half-time of that event, he also took part in the dunking contest.

The MVP of the 2011 U18 European Championship after helping fire Spain to the gold medal looked like a can't-miss prospect.

Abrines confirmed that his star was on the rise was some sensational displays for Unicaja Malaga in the Spanish Liga Endesa and he raised even more eyebrows when deciding to leave the club for the Liga Endesa champions, Barcelona.

Well, if it was tough to earn minutes at Unicaja, it's proving even more difficult to get on the court at Barca.

Tipped to be a player of the future for Spain's senior national team, Abrines is having to be patient and wait his turn under coach Xavier Pascual with international-caliber guards like Juan Carlos Navarro and Victor Sada of Spain and Marcelinho Huertas of Brazil ahead of him in the pecking order.

Far from being disappointed by a lack of minutes during games, though, Abrines says he is happy.

The Palma de Mallorca native is learning a lot.

And no, Abrines doesn’t find it hard to believe that every day, he wakes up as a Barcelona player.

"Yes, I can believe it,” he said to FIBA.com.

“It's a big dream.

“I know that I have to work every day to earn minutes in the games but it's what I'm doing.

"It's great playing with guys like Navarro, Marcelinho, Victor Sada, amazing players.

“I have to learn so much, first of all.”

Abrines says he takes different things from different players.

"I need to learn the talent of Navarro and the attitude of Pete Mickael,” he said.

"Every practice, Pete gives like 200%. It's great to see.”

Abrines understands the time may come when he leaves the club and goes to play elsewhere, but that isn’t in his thought process right now.

"Now, I have four years in Barcelona,” he said.

“Maybe I'll stay four years, or maybe I'll go somewhere else.

“Right now, they're happy (with me) so I'm only thinking about this."

FIBA