Sáiz would end up accepting that one-year qualified offer in order to unblock the situation so that another club could negotiate with Estudiantes for his trade. Eventually, it was Real Madrid who paid the 100,000 euros clause to loan him out to another ACB team.  Ever since, his career is being written in the present. In Burgos he earned the affection of the crowd as one of the protagonists of the team’s salvation. Between December and January, while the team went through one of its worst moments, Saiz did not go below double figures in points for six consecutive games, with a field goal percentage of 78% – 35/45 in field goals in those six games. Among his best performances, one stands out: his 19 points to Zaragoza with 9/9 FG to Zaragoza, the team that was about to sign him up upon his return to Spain.  FROM THE WINTER COAT TO THE FLIP-FLOPS: PASSING THROUGH THE NATIONAL TEAM  Last summer, once the loan to Burgos was over, Real Madrid looked for a new team in which Saiz could have more protagonism and while also gaining experience in European competitions. In that long list of candidates, the most convincing one for both the club and the player was Iberostar Tenerife, where Sebas found Burgos’ dry cold replaced by the warmth of the Canary Islands. And yet, the center is barely taking part in the team’s rotation in Liga Endesa, in which he has only overcome 10 minutes in three of its games. The reason? The team’s playing style clashes directly with his own.  Iberostar Tenerife shoots more three pointers (a total of 622 at the end of February; 31 on average per game) than two-pointers (586 on the period; 29 per game). No other team in the ACB shoots more three-pointers – a record for which Saiz has only contributed with a 3/12 3P.With closer attention to the context, we realize that during his entire season in Burgos the center did not shoot a single three-pointer. Iberostar plays with highest pace in the league: they prioritize plays in transition and embrace this modern basketball tendency based on the use of three-pointers as the main offensive weapon. On the contrary, Saiz has the profile of a more traditional center, defense-inclined, whose low-post plays, despite his remarkable rebounding qualities, slow down the frenetic offenses of Tenerife.  Even so, in the FIBA Basketball Champions League, (BCL), he has been able to demonstrate that he is a diamond in the rough in Spanish basketball. He is the only player, together with Amar’e Stoudemire, to average more than 10 points and 5 rebounds per game starting from the bench. The center has moreover achieved three double-doubles as a bench player (reserve), more than any other player this season – all that in an average of under 17 minutes.   Following the culmination of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers, there was a front court player for Spain who caught the imagination of fans. In the final window he grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in the game against Latvia – tying a record set by Pau Gasol, who achieved the same number in an exhibition game. As one of only two players to play every qualifying game for Spain, he was also the leading rebounder for the team across the campaign.At the age 24 he has already experienced a lot. Sebas Saiz has already been across the pond and back as a great sensation of Spanish basketball. He did not intend to play in the NBA, and neither has he returned as one of those players who seems unable to fit in such a different competition scheme. Sebas emigrated at seventeen and headed into the Sunrise Christian Academy, the high school in which we would win a sport scholarship for the University of Mississippi.   https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/b5/e3/sebastian-saiz-spain-fiba_vpb08lml8jnk13q33dhsn3j9a.jpg?t=-1616115935&w=500&quality=80 The actor acknowledged having invited Sebas for dinner more than once, and joined the “sunglasses” movement for him. In 2016, the center suffered a severe ocular injury which forced him to play some games with glasses – Kareem’s style, but darker. That night, the more than 9,000 spectators that attended the game wore sunglasses and t-shirts with the slogan “I wear my sunglasses at night” to show their support to the Spanish player.  His fame came not by chance. Sebas is the only player, alongside Murphy Holloway, to reach at least 1000 points, 1000 rebounds, and 100 blocks in Mississippi State. He finished his last year with an average of 15 points and 11.4 rebounds, and Bleacher Report even nominated him as “the best European of the season in the NCAA”.  After his four years at university, Saiz return with a diploma in Business Management under his hand. But if there is a reason why we define his career as anomalous is because of the great challenge of coming back and finding a place in the Liga Endesa. He did so in Burgos, a small and quiet town whose basketball team’s only focus is on avoiding relegation rather than on individual egos.    🎓Bachelor of Business Administration ✅ pic.twitter.com/4sFC51rpzZ— sebastian saiz (@sebassaiz) August 4, 2017But, before Sáiz arrived into Burgos, he had to go through a big ordeal during the summer. According to the collective agreement of the Asociación de Balonestistas Profesionales (the Spanish Basketball Players Association, the ABP, given its initials in Spanish), Estudiantes (Sebas’ former club before going to the USA) could present a qualified offer to secure his player rights in Europe. A clause that in Spain is commonly known as preferential rights.  However, when the club exerted its right and presented the offer, it counted five centers in its roster for the 2017-2018 season – Savané, Caner-Medley, Brown, Suton and Arteaga. The over supply of big men within the paint resulted into Sebas himself openly expressing that he did not want to be part of Estudiantes, given the impossibility to get quality minutes. “I would have loved to play with Edgar (Vicedo) and Darío (Brizuela), two of my best friends in the team, but as a sixth center you won’t travel even when you’re called up”, he explained to the Madrilenian media Pobla FM that summer.   However, this is not a very common story in Spain. Or, at least, it was not. Now more and more male and female players are leaping into American universities and high schools in an attempt to continue with their academic formation while they also chase their dream to become professional players. Adrià Gasol tried it in UCLA and Domantas Sabonis left Unicaja Málaga to succeed as Gonzaga. Other Spaniards, such as Francis Alonso, are about to enter the jungle of professional basketball as they finish their university stage.  In fact, Sebas is the first Spanish-born player to go to the NCAA and return to a Liga Endesa team in the last sixteen years – since Rafael Vidaurreta did it in 2003. There is another precedent, in Aitor Zubizarreta, whose case requires a long footnote, which unfortunately we will have to leave for another another article in order to focus now on Saiz.  FROM MORGAN FREEMAN TO VALLADOLID  In those four years in Ole Miss, Sebas Saiz became the local idol. It was not only because of his numbers, but also thanks to his capacity to connect with the fans that managed to do it. The intensity of his game, his fight for every single rebound and his magnetic personality arouse the admiration of even Morgan Freeman – a loyal Rebels supporter.   https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/4b/7b/sebastian-saiz-morgan-freeman_xgzieun1vp0q1ggz4ljxxqt43.jpg?t=-1616239431&w=500&quality=80 Sebas has not only shined in the BCL. Sergio Scariolo has counted on him on an to play in the 2019 World Cup Qualifiers. He has been the only Spanish player alongside Quino Colom to play in all the games of the FIBA windows.The Spanish national team is slowly graduating from an incredible group of players. Sebas aspires to be one of the replacements for the best generation in Spanish basketball history. Scariolo has shown total confidence in him, and the player will fight for a place in the upcoming international competitions with the Gasol brothers, the Hernangómez brothers, Mirotic, Ibaka, and emerging talents such as Diop, Paulí, or Arteaga. This is big company for a player not previously considered for the national team. But as we have seen with his early career, his performances, particular in the BCL and during the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers – Sebas Saiz is not afraid of breaking the mould. https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/2e/ba/sebastian-saiz-tenerife-fiba_1cx43icm4lnuk13mwnrwxxbu30.jpg?t=-1615996319&w=500&quality=80 read more