Shannon Evans:

what about Shannon Evans and Betis Basketball were one of the soap operas of the summer. It’s been a long time since something like this happened in the Andalusian capital. Perhaps since Tomas Satoransky’s last season when it looked like he could go to Barcelona, ​​although the Czech ended up giving Sevilla basketball fans one more campaign. And what a season! ‘Play off’ by the hand of Aíto García Reneses and a dream team. This dream did not last long. Repeating the experiment seems difficult, but With the renewal of the base, the section sends a message of ambition that other years lacked. The player finished last year with MVP numbers and his first words after its renewal one comes off feel like wanting to do something big dressed in verdiblanco.

“I wanted to stay at Sevilla and once I saw that management started to maintain the same core of players and added other important elements, it was clear to me. I want to continue to help build basketball culture here in Seville. People here love basketball, so it’s our job to show it to the rest of Spain and hopefully to European competition,” the player told this newspaper, wanting to continue all the good that the group showed in the second half of last season with Louis Casimir at the helm, a coach who changed the way Evans saw basketball in the Endesa league. “Luis gave us a competitive nature. He always made us compete at the highest level. Transferring all of that to the locker room during training every day, me and my teammates, made us compete in every game,” a- he told state media late last year, pointing out the good harmony between the two. A key connection in its continuity, no doubt.

“Once I saw that the management was starting to maintain the same core of players, it was clear to me”

It is difficult to talk about the future. Also present and other reasons why his decision was postponed for so long. Obviously, he has the level to play in the Euroleague. Left over. But whatever the reasons why he ultimately stays at Betis, but to focus on this new path after a first campaign in Seville that “I would define as a memory, simply because the team went through all the possible states of emotion”.

And that made Evans a ‘true Betis fanatic’ enjoy the Benito Villamarín. “The atmosphere in games is amazing, to name one reason. I feel like I have green blood.” But there is more. The leader fell in love with the city, its culture, its environment and its way of life. And he has always shown on social media that he is not just an ambassador for Sevilla but for Beticismo, which gives more value to his spectacular final stretch of the season and how he led the Heliopolitan team to a greeting that sometimes seemed impossible: “Inside, in the locker room, we always believed that the team would continue in the ACB. We just had to put on a series of good games and if you look back, even after many defeats we had a chance to win because they were very close games. We were on the right track and we were able to keep the confidence until the results”, explains that of Suffolk (Virginia), who will be the natural leader of Betis Basketball in the 2022-23 season.

He earned it hard with some MVP numbers. He was the best player of the month for May in the Endesa League, with an average of 28.7 points, 9.3 assists and a PIR of 37 in three games. Averages throughout the course were over 31 minutes (34 games), 17.4 points (30.6% in triples), three rebounds, 6.8 assists (best assist in the competition) and 19, 1 rating. With these figures, think about this next season, most of which will be “Always believe in each other and go out and play hard every day”.

“I don’t know what we would have achieved with the same players from the start of the league, now we can find out.”

The team ended last season with a bang and in the end the league failed after winning six of the last seven games (loss to Real Madrid) and eleven of the last 20. Can this serve as a measure for the new Betis? “I don’t know what the team in the last half of this season would have achieved if we had had the same players from the start.but this campaign we are starting with a fair amount of those same players from last year so we have the opportunity to prove it this year. I’m full of hope”the Betis base completed.