Wendell Alexis - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Wendell
Alexis
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The Ice Man
Searching data to refresh my memories
about Wendell Alexis (July 31, 1964,
New York), I found the video of the final
minutes of the fifth game in the Italian
League final series of 1989. On May 27,
Enichem Livorno and Philips Milan, the
European champ the previous year at the first Final
Four in Ghent, played for the title.
In the four previous games, Livorno – who had
home-court advantage – won the first one with 39
points by Alexis; Milan won Games 2 and 3; and then
Livorno tied it again with a win in Game 4, setting up the
fifth, decisive battle. With 20 seconds to go, Milan was
winning by a point and had possession. Mike D’Antoni
held the ball for about five seconds and passed the ball
to Roberto Premier, who took the shot and missed. In
the resulting fastbreak for Livorno, Andrea Forti scored
for an 87-86 win. The small gym in Livorno exploded. It
was collective madness.
The court was invaded by fans and the title was celebrated
in between great euphoria and public incidents,
including an aggression against Premier. The hero of
that game was Wendell Alexis, with 33 points... but it
was the most short-lived title of his career. The referees
looked at video of the game’s last play in the locker
room and decided that the last basket had been scored
after the buzzer. So the title ended up in the hands of
Milan, which had encountered a tough opponent in
humble Livorno, thanks to the superb Alexis.
That’s just one chapter in the long and successful
career of Wendell Alexis, one of the best Americans
who ever played in Europe. I wouldn’t dare make a selection
of the best 12 Americans ever in Europe, but I
am sure Alexis would be a serious candidate for the
forward position. Standing at 2.04 meters, he was a
versatile player. He normally played power forward,
but he was also a good shooter and it was not unusual
to see him move to small forward or even shooting
guard. He was a complete player, made for offense.
His thing was scoring points, but he also pulled rebounds
and, thanks to his long arms, could also play
great defense.
First stop, Valladolid
The Golden State Warriors picked Alexis in the
1986 NBA draft with the 59th pick (one before Drazen
Petrovic), but then did European basketball a big favor
by not including him on the roster for that season. He
had finished his university career at Syracuse with
great numbers and, logically, he was expecting his
chance in the NBA. But it just didn’t arrive. Like many
before him, Alexis then tried his luck on the other
side of the Atlantic Ocean. He was signed by Forum
Valladolid in Spain, a humble team on paper, albeit
one that would also sign Arvydas Sabonis three years
later, in 1989. Only two games were needed to see
that Forum had signed a star in Alexis. He would finish
that first season averaging 18.2 points and recording
a personal best of 44 points against Clesa Ferrol (89-
86), a game in which he played 40 minutes and made
19 of 26 two-pointers. Then, on July 14, 1987, Real
Madrid announced the signing of Alexis. He was the
third addition for the club that summer, after Jose Luis
Llorente and Fernando Martin, who was coming back
to Madrid from the NBA.
Lolo Sainz, the legendary player and later coach of
Wendell Alexis
101 greats of european basketball
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Vladimir Stankovic
Real Madrid, told me the reasons that pushed him to
sign Alexis:
“We were looking for a power forward, one who
could not only rebound but also shoot. There was a lack
of this kind of player on the market back then. We set
our sights on Wendell and we hit the mark. He was a super
player, a serious man who fit into the team just fine.
He never hid. He had lots of self-confidence because he
knew he could do many things. He had also great physical
readiness and good legs to play defense, plus long
hands to defend any opponent.”
There’s a video available on the Internet that
showcases his character perfectly. In the final of the
Korac Cup between Real Madrid and Cibona, Madrid
won the first game of the series at home by 102-89 in
front of 12,000 fans. Fernando Romay and Brad Branson
scored 25 points each and Alexis added 21, but
the play of the game was a spectacular slam by Alexis
over Croatian giant Franjo Arapovic (2.15). Also, Alexis
volunteered to defend Drazen Petrovic, who managed
to score 21 points but with bad percentages, making
just 3 of 12 two-pointers and 3 of 8 threes. All credit
goes to Alexis.
In the second game, Petrovic scored 47 points, but
Cibona only won by a point, 94-93, so Real Madrid took
the trophy. It was the first European trophy for Wendell
Alexis, who was 25 years old, just entering his prime.
He ended that season with similar numbers to the ones
he had in Valladolid: 18.0 points per game in the regular
season, 18.7 in the playoffs. However, FC Barcelona
ended up taking the title by winning the final series 3-2.
Despite playing well, Alexis had to leave Real Madrid
because back then the number of foreign players was
limited to two, and Real Madrid had already signed Drazen
Petrovic and Johnny Rogers.
Italian League champ... for a half-hour
Alexis chose Italy and the humble Livorno as
his next stop, and he ended up being Italian League
champ – for 30 minutes, at least. He had two excellent
seasons there, scoring 20.8 and 19.4 points on average.
After that, he moved to Ticino Siena, which at that
time was far from the heights it would reach early in
the 21st century. There he put up 20.3 points and 5.9
rebounds, after which he switched to Trapani, where
he played his two best seasons in Italy. In 1991-92,
Alexis scored 25.2 points and pulled 7.8 rebounds per
game; in 1992-93, he improved to 25.8 and 8.3! It was
the right time to sign for a big team again. He chose
Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he won the 1993-94 Israeli
League title and was that season’s MVP, but he decided
to return to Italy. In Reggio Calabria, he posted his usual
numbers, 20.9 points and 6.8 boards. The following
campaign he landed in France with Paris Levallois, and
once again was consistent, with 22.5 points plus 5.5
rebounds per game.
I will never understand how no really big teams
after Real Madrid and Maccabi ever signed this great
player, but on the other hand, the fact that ALBA
Berlin chose him to become the pillar of its growing
project was the key moment for the evolution of the
club. In the summer of 1996, at 32 years old, Wendell
Alexis joined ALBA. He would stay there for six years,
winning six straight German League titles plus three
German Cups. He became the top scorer of all time in
the club and a true idol for the fans of the team. Marco
Baldi, general manager of ALBA for many years, told
me about Alexis’s role in the club:
“Wendell Alexis is not only one of the biggest players
in the history of ALBA. He is a great personality and a
long-time friend that I have the utmost respect for,” Baldi
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said. “With him, we went on an unprecedented string of
victories. During Wendell’s six years with ALBA, we won
six consecutive German championships, three German
Cups and became a force in the EuroLeague. Wendell is
still ALBA’s all-time leading scorer. In his time in Berlin,
he earned the nickname ‘Ice Man’ as he was able to hit
numerous game-winning and championship shots. In
September 2012, we retired Wendell’s jersey (#12) in an
emotional ceremony. Even 12 years after his last game,
well over 7,000 fans attended the ceremony to celebrate
an important figure in the history of ALBA Berlin.”
In a spectacular homage in September of 2012, as
Baldi mentions, ALBA retired Alexis’s jersey number 12.
It made perfect sense, as it’s very difficult to imagine
anyone other than the Ice Man wearing that number as
he had done during those wonderful six seasons, winning
nine titles and scoring 5,922 points in 341 games.
Personally, I didn’t see many live games with Alexis, but I
do remember when he played at Hala Pionir in Belgrade
in February of 1989. In the semis of the Korac Cup,
the great Real Madrid – with Martin, Biriukov, Romay,
Iturriaga, Branson and Alexis, who scored 17 points –
defeated Crvena Zvezda by 82-89. In Madrid, the score
was 81-72 with 24 points by Alexis. That season, in 12
games, Alexis averaged 19 points. After that, I saw
some games of his in ALBA’s jersey and especially at the
1998 World Championships in Athens, where a team
of American “volunteers” appeared, due to the NBA
lockout. He was the second-best scorer of that team,
which won the bronze medal, with only 2 points fewer
than Jimmy Oliver. His averages were 11.6 points and
4 rebounds. Against the Argentina team with Nicola,
Oberto, Wolkowyski and a young Ginobili, he netted 20.
He also made it to the modern EuroLeague during
the 2001-02 season, putting up 16.4 points and 4.4
rebounds per game, and was ALBA’s top scorer and
second most-used player on court, with 31 minutes per
game, behind only Derrick Phelps.
Euro-trophy at 40
At 38 years old, Alexis was thinking about retirement,
but in December of 2002 he had an offer from
PAOK Thessaloniki, and he delivered: 13.4 points and
5.8 boards in the FIBA Europe Champions Cup and 12
points and 5.5 boards in the Greek League. Was that
the end of his career? Of course not! There’s nothing
better than winning a title at 40 and Alexis did just that
with Mitteldeutscher BC, even though he missed the
FIBA Europe Cup final four due to injury. However, with
17.0 points, 4.7 boards plus 1.3 assists, Alexis was a big
factor in Mitteldeutscher reaching the final. And in the
German League, he was the usual Alexis: 18 points plus
6 rebounds per night.
Personally, Wendell Alexis reminded me of Damir
Solan, the great Jugoplastika forward of the 1970s.
Alexis rebounded better and played closer to the rim,
but aside from wearing the same number 12, they had
in common the way they moved, their technique and
the ease with which they scored points, the essence of
basketball.
When he finally retired at 40 years old, Alexis offered
his expertise and knowledge as an assistant in high
schools (Saint Joseph), the NCAA (New Jersey Institute
of Technology) and even the NBA Development League
(Austin Toros). And he has a lot to teach.
Wendell Alexis
101 greats of european basketball
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