PARIS (France) - Hafthor Bjornsonn is very big and very strong. He makes a lasting first impression.
You would never forget him if you watched Game of Thrones and saw him as the giant Gregor 'The Mountain' Clegane, a frightening giant dressed in armor that protects one of the show's villains, Cersei Lannister.
Others will know Bjornsonn as a the powerhouse weightlifter from Iceland who has established world records and is among the most decorated of strongmen in the history of strength sports.
But before all that, Björnsson was following another path. He was a promising young basketball player. And former French national team captain Nicolas Batum, who commentated France's EuroBasket 2025 games for the TF1 broadcast, remembers.
During the Iceland v France EuroBasket game on September 4, Batum spoke of facing Bjornsonn at the U18 EuroBasket in 2006, when the country's youth teams squared off.
"We played Iceland at EuroBasket U18 2006, in the Group Phase," he said. "I remember the game well because we won the title that year — one of my favorite moments with the national team. And we lost only one game... against Iceland. Our only loss, their only win of the tournament — they finished last. A disaster for us.
"I was playing with Alexis Ajinça, Adrien Moerman, Antoine Diot, Edwin Jackson, Ludovic Vaty, Kim Tillie. We had a great team.
I played against The Mountain and I lost
"For the anecdote: 10 or 12 years later — I don't remember who told me — but we were fans of Game of Thrones, and apparently, on that day, I played against The Mountain, Hafthor Björnsson. Nobody knew who he was back then — he was just an ordinary under-18 player. I played, and I lost. So I can’t trash talk him — not that I would, given the size of the man. But I only realized that a long time after. He wasn’t that big back then. There was no way to guess he’d become that big and strong."
Bjornsonn didn't have a giant game statistically, although he did have a block.
Bjornsonn has even reflected on that game in an interview that he has done for Netflix.
"We were quite good, actually, Under-18 year old boys, we actually won against France, which was a very strong team back then. Very strong team, with a lot of the boys back then playing with France at the time, they went on to the NBA. And somehow, Iceland, a small nation, won against them. I was the center."
When asked by interviewer Ryen Russillo if he was thinking of playing in the NBA, Bjornsonn, a tall teen at 2.05m (6ft 9in) in height, answered: "100%. I've always been an athlete my whole life, like, love playing sports.
"And that was definitely on my mind, you know, becoming a professional athlete. And yeah, in the younger years, that was basketball. Becoming a professional basketball player."
Bjornsonn's look is far more intimidating today than it was back then. The thought of him swatting a shot now in a basketball game is downright scary.
He did go on to play more basketball. According to Prabook, he played first in the Iceland-Dominos league's K.R. Basket Reykjavík basketball team as a starting center. He was picked for the D2 Icelandic National Basketball Team.
In the 2007–2008 season, he moved to play professionally for the Icelandic Division 1 basketball for Selfoss Basketball Club. But his pro hoops career ended at 20 years of age because of a serious knee injury.
Fortunately for him, plan B led to even bigger success and fame.
FIBA