Once a month the Eye on the Future column will look back at some of the memorable performances at a FIBA youth competitions.

REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Alex Abrines currently is sidelined and watching his team play as the forward recovers from knee surgery that will likely keep him out of Barcelona's lineup for four months to start the season. The 28-year-old star is a huge part of the club's big aspirations for 2021-22 and the longterm future for the Spanish senior national team. But let's look back 10 years ago when Abrines came out of nowhere to lead Spain to the FIBA U18 European Championship 2011 title.

Spain entered the tournament in Wroclaw, Poland in a drought at the U18 level, having collected only one podium finish in the previous six editions - a 2006 third place. Abrines and Co. were hoping to give the Iberians their third U18 crown following 1998 and 2004 and join the likes of Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro, Felipe Reyes, Jose Caldero, Carlos Cabezas (all 1998) and Sergio Rodriguez, Carlos Suarez and Sergio Llull (2004) as junior European champs.

FIBA U16 European Championship 2009 winners Spain

Spain's 1993 generation two summers earlier had won the FIBA U16 European Championship 2009 but then slumped to 10th place among 12 teams at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2010. Six players from the U16 team were in Poland led by Jaime Fernandez and Daniel Diez.

Wroclaw was the first time Abrines was playing for Spain. He had basically been a totally unknown player just a year earlier. And only insiders very well versed in the Spanish youth ranks knew of him ahead of Poland. It took a long time for Abrines to be discovered on the island of Mallorca as he was playing for a local club La Salle Palma de Mallorca.

The legendary coach Aito Garcia Reneses spotted him there and brought him to Unicaja for the start of the 2010-11 season, though Abrines spent the year with CB Rincon in the second division LEB Gold. Abrines was actually one of just five players born in 1993 to play in the LEB Gold that season. That is where Spanish U18 national team coach Luis Guil saw the lanky youngster as he was coaching with eventual LEB Gold winners Murcia.

When asked why nobody in Spain found Abrines earlier, Guil said back in 2011 in Poland: "He was playing for fun. Even now, he is really having so much fun."

Abrines and the carefree feel to his game in Poland was refreshing. He moved around the court like a deer - graceful, quick and explosive with his long strides and always in control of his movements.

Abrines may have been long undiscovered but it doesn't mean he was late to the game. In fact his father, Gabriel Abrines, played in Real Madrid’s youth system in the early 1980s and reached the Spanish first division in 1989 with Huesca Magia. He later played for Caceres C.B., Somontano Huesca, C.B. Gran Canaria and Baloncesto Fuenlabrada before playing his final season for La Salle Palma in 1998-99.

Alex was conceived in the city of Caceres where his father helped Caceres CB to promotion to the Spanish top flight in 1992. But he was born in Palma de Mallorca, where his father retired from basketball and later coached his son at the La Salle club.

 
Playing with Spain on his chest for the first time, Abrines did a little bit of everything, collecting 30 points, 12 rebounds and 5 steals in the first two games against Czech Republic and Latvia - hitting 7-of-14 three-pointers. He scored his tournament high of 21 points along with 4 steals against Russia before amassing 20 points - on 6-of-13 shooting, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks in two tough wins over Italy and Lithuania.

Abrines' kryptonite in the Quarter-Finals  was foul trouble, which limited him to 7 points and 3 rebounds in 16 minutes. Abrines was back to his superhero self in the Semi-Finals and Final. He tallied 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block against Turkey to reach the Final against a Serbia team loaded with the likes of Vasilije Micic, Luka Mitrovic, Nemanja Dangubic, Nikola Radicevic and Nenad Miljenovic. Most of those players were on the Serbian team that lost to the same Spanish 1993 generation in the FIBA U16 European Championship 2009 in the Semi-Finals. They were out for revenge.

 
Abrines of course was not part of that game, but he was definitely a major reason Spain beat the Serbs again. Playing a team-high 38 minutes, he scored 16 points - second behind only Jorge Sanz’s 22 points - to go along with 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 4 blocks. The 71-65 victory sent the players into celebrations and there is the wonderful picture of Abrines laying on the floor in Wroclaw and holding his head in his hands in disbelief after the Final.

By averaging 13.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.1 blocks, Abrines earned the MVP award - being joined on the selection team with teammate Diez along with the Serbian duo of Micic and Miljenovic and Polish center Przemek Karnowski.

Career afterwards

Abrines would play one more youth tournament - and capture third place the next summer at the FIBA U20 European Championship 2012, averaging 11.3 points and 3.3 rebounds. He and a number of players from the 1993-born generation played a year up and helped Spain beat … you guessed it … Serbia in the Third Place Game. And a number of those same Serbs from 2009 and 2011 were playing in that game as well.

 
Abrines would pick up another win over Serbia as part of the host Spain team at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2014, playing a combined 30 minutes with 17 points, 2 rebound and 2 steals over six games in the tournament. Abrines would then play 6 minutes and collect 7 points, 1 rebound and 1 block in three games at the Rio 2016 Olympic Men's Basketball Tournament.

After starring for Barcelona, Abrines would head to the NBA in 2016 and play for the Oklahoma City Thunder for three seasons before returning to Europe - and Barcelona - in 2019.

Abrines had a solid rookie season in the NBA - 5.9 points and 1.3 rebounds in 73 games - and that gave him added confidence for the FIBA EuroBasket 2017. He collected 7 points and 2 rebounds in 15 minutes of Spain's first game against Montenegro but left the game with an injury and missed the rest of the tournament.

Abrines would not play again for Spain until this past summer at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where he averaged 4.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.0 steals in four games.

Abrines has long been a well-known name in the basketball world. But just a decade ago, he was almost a complete unknown and he ended up becoming MVP in helping Spain reach the summit of European junior basketball.

David Hein
FIBA

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