TUN/ESP - Obradoiro welcome Mejri the shot-blocker

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA (Liga Endesa/Afrobasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Salah Mejri has scaled heights in his career the past few years that no one could have predicted back home in Tunisia.

The Tunisian national team center has been a solid player at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, Afrobasket 2011 and this year's Olympics.

Now, the 2.17m Mejri has used that experience to seal a move to Spain's Liga Endesa.

Having averaged 10.4 points, 10 rebounds and 3.4 blocks - the highest of all players at the London Games - Mejri has joined Blusens Monbus Obradoiro C.A.B. in Santiago de Compostela.

Mejri has already travelled to the club and expects to be in the line-up when the team opens its season at the end of September with a home game against Assignia Manresa.

“When it was proposed to me to play at Obradoiro, I didn’t have any doubts because it was my aim to play in the Liga Endesa,” Mejri said.

Blusens Monbus fans are buzzing about Mejri because of his ability to swat shots and to do so at a prolific rate on the Olympic stage.

"To be the best shot-blocker of the Olympic Games was a real challenge for me, especially when you consider there were accomplished players in this area at the Olympics like (Spain's and Oklahoma City Thunder’s) Serge Ibaka,” he said.

Ibaka had blocked five shots in the first half of Spain’s gold-medal triumph over France at EuroBasket 2011 and led the NBA in blocks last season.

Mejri, who has spent the previous couple of seasons at Antwerp Giants in Belgium and also played this summer in America in an attempt to win a place on an NBA roster, is a fierce competitor.

At Afrobasket 2011, he was voted MVP of the tournament and his 2.4 blocks per contest at the event played in Madagascar also led all players.

He is nevertheless considered to be a late bloomer.

José Luis Mateo, the president of C.A.B. Obradoiro, said: "Salah is a special player, who despite being 26 is still in the learning process.

“We believe that his size and features can complement the interior play of the other players we already have.

“Undoubtedly, to play in competition of the requirements and the level of the Liga Endesa will be a real challenge for him.”

It remains to be seen how the fans will view Mejri in Spain.

What is not up for debate is how basketball supporters view Mejri in Tunisia.

He has been at the World Championship, then captured an Afrobasket MVP award and also made a debut appearance at the Olympics the past three summers.

Mejri is a hero in his homeland.

He will be the focal point of the team next summer when Tunisia try to defend their African title in the Ivory Coast and attempt to qualify for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

FIBA