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 ont of the show villain, 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 promissing young basketball player. And French National Team former captain Nicolas Batum, who was commentating 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. His look is far more intimidating today than it was back then. The thought of Bjornsonn swatting a shot now in a basketball game is downright scary.
Bjornsonn went on to play more basketball. According to Prabook, he was a 2.06M (6'9") and 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