MIKE BATISTE - 101 Greats of European Basketball

Mike
Batiste
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The star who found
his second home
October 18, 2000. The first round of
the newly-founded EuroLeague. Two
days after the opening game between
Real Madrid and Olympiacos
Piraeus – Dino Radja scored the first
basket in that game – host Spirou
Charleroi defeated the St. Petersburg Lions by 80-68.
Mike Batiste, totally unknown in Europe, scored 16
points and pulled 8 rebounds for the winners. It was
the start of a brilliant European career for him.
Batiste finished that season with averages of 16.1
points and 9.2 rebounds, more than enough for some
teams from stronger leagues to put their eyes on him.
Biella was not a huge team in Italy by any means, but
the Italian League was surely a step up in competitiveness
from the Belgian one. In Italy, he put up 12.4 points
and 7.2 rebounds on average. That’s when Batiste was
offered the chance that he didn’t get after his college
years at Long Beach and Arizona State – the NBA called
through the Memphis Grizzlies. He didn’t hesitate to
accept the offer and played 75 games there with solid
numbers: 6.4 points and 3.2 rebounds.
Rebirth in Athens
Up to that point, Michael James Batiste (born November
21, 1977, in Long Beach) was a good player with
notable talent, but somehow he had not taken off. He
had to travel back to Europe, this time to Panathinaikos
Athens, to take that leap of quality in his career. The
coach of the Greens, Zeljko Obradovic, had already won
two European crowns with the team in 2000 and 2002.
He was looking for a versatile big man who could score
under the rim, shoot from mid-range and pull rebounds.
He set his eyes on Batiste, who from a physical point of
view was a ‘copy’ of Corny Thompson, the big man who
Obradovic had coached in Joventut Badalona in the
1990s and the hero of that club’s EuroLeague title team
in 1994, thanks to one of his three-point shots.
Thompson stood at 2.03 meters, only one centimeter
shorter than Batiste, and he had great touch and
great rebounding abilities. Obradovic found a similar
style of player in Batiste. The numbers he had during his
first season were not that spectacular: 7.9 points and
3.2 rebounds, but Obradovic was happy. In 2004-05
Batiste raised the bar to 11.4 points and 4.8 rebounds
and then he did the same thing the following campaign
(13.3 points, making 65.7% on two-pointers and 36.4%
on threes, plus 6.6 rebounds).
Titles in the Greek League and Greek Cup kept stacking
up, but the fans wanted another EuroLeague title,
and that arrived in the 2006-07 season, with a Final
Four in Athens, to boot, and a championship game for
the ages against CSKA Moscow that the Greens won
93-91. Batiste contributed 15 points and 12 rebounds
in the semis against Tau Ceramica (67-53) and then
12 plus 5 against CSKA in one of the best EuroLeague
championship games ever. Together with Dejan Tomasevic,
Kostas Tsartsaris and Robertas Javtokas, Batiste
was part of a wall that Obradovic had built on defense,
but which also contributed many points on offense.
Batiste was not your typical center. His physical
attributes would probably put him more at the power
forward position, but thanks to his rebounding
abilities, his timing and the sixth sense that told him
101 greats of european basketball
Mike Batiste
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Vladimir Stankovic
where the ball would go, he was really useful under the
rims. He was also pretty good at offensive rebounds,
which always is a great asset to minimize your own
team’s mistakes. His lack of height was made up for
by his basketball IQ, technique, high shot and speed.
His build, at first sight, did not intimidate opponents
much, but they all realized soon enough that they
were facing one of the most dangerous and smart big
men in Europe.
After an off year in 2008, when they missed the
playoffs, Batiste and Panathinaikos won another EuroLeague
title together in Berlin in 2009, with a great
big-man duo that Batiste formed with Nikola Pekovic.
The Greens defeated archrival Olympiacos Piraeus in
the semis (84-82), where Pekovic had 20 points and
2 rebounds and Batiste 19 points and 6 boards. In
the title game, again against CSKA Moscow (73-71),
neither of them was as efficient (6 points apiece), but
the greatness and the variety of resources available to
Coach Obradovic proved that the team could adapt to
any kind of game. During that game, the leaders were
Vassilis Spanoulis (13 points), Antonis Fotsis (13),
Sarunas Jasikevicius (10) and Drew Nicholas (7), all of
whom contributed to great accuracy from the arc (13
of 27, 48.1%).
Two years later, in Barcelona, Mike Batiste lifted his
third EuroLeague crown. He nailed 16 points and pulled
6 rebounds in just 22 minutes against Montepaschi
Siena in the semis. He didn’t miss a shot, going 5 for
5, and was one of the key players. In the title game
against Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, Batiste shined again
to lead his team to the title with a 78-70 win. In 24 minutes,
he scored 18 points on 7 of 10 two-pointers plus 6
rebounds. In the last minute, with a 69-64 scoreboard,
he received the pass from Dimitris Diamantidis to score
the bucket that would break the game open for the
Greens.
Away and back
Batiste was a much-loved player by the fans, teammates
and the media. His popularity was huge in Athens,
to the point that there was a book published in
Greek about his life and professional career. And the
feeling, from his own perspective, was mutual. “Just
growing up as a little boy, seeing the neighborhood
I grew up in, all the different distractions – gangs,
drugs, all types of violence – I’d never thought in a million
years I’d be in this position, let alone make it out of
the circumstances I grew up in. So, it has brought me a
lot of joy,” Batiste said in a EuroLeague.TV interview after
winning his three EuroLeague titles. “And I’m very
happy with the decisions I’ve made to keep coming
back here to play every year for an organization like
Panathinaikos, but also to live in a country like Greece.
It’s very enjoyable here. My players and the people of
Panathinaikos treat me as family. Also the people in
society. I’ve embraced it. I’ve adjusted. And I can really
call Greece a second home.”
Nowadays, when it’s not rare to see players switching
teams season to season, Batiste’s case is rather
extraordinary, deserving of respect. He stayed eight
seasons in Panathinaikos. He became a symbol of the
club much like Juan Carlos Navarro for FC Barcelona,
Felipe Reyes for Real Madrid, Derrick Sharp for Maccabi
or even Diamantidis himself for Panathinaikos.
“Growing up, I never thought I’d be around guys
from Greece, guys from Lithuania or other parts of the
world,” Batiste said. “And it’s really a special feeling to
look at the next man like, that’s my brother right there,
man. We would do anything that is necessary to win for
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one another. Even off the court, if there’s a personal
issue, there’s always an ear to listen to you. You can call
one of the guys here, go to dinner. We’re always there
for one another, man. That’s the thing about this family
here. It starts from the coach all the way down to the
last player, and I think that’s the main reason we have
so much success here, because we do whatever it takes
for one another, to make sure you come in here, work
hard and can be successful.”
At the end of the 2011-12 season – after eight seasons
winning eight Greek Leagues titles, five Greek
Cups and three EuroLeagues – the then 35-year-old
Batiste decided to sign for Fenerbahce, which came as
a surprise to many. I am guessing it was a monetary
issue, because when he went back to OAKA to play
against his former team and former fans, Batiste didn’t
feel well. He admitted that it was strange “running on
the other side of the court”. Despite wearing the Fenerbahce
jersey, he was received with honors and a standing
ovation. Maybe that was the day when he decided
to “get back home.”
During the 2013-14 season, Batiste wore the Panathinaikos
jersey once again. This time he wasn’t one of
the team’s main contributors (3.5 points, 1.5 rebounds).
His last EuroLeague game was Game 5 of a playoff series
against CSKA Moscow, but it was no game to remember
as Panathinaikos lost in Moscow by 74-44. Mike just
played 2 minutes and didn’t score any points, but one
game cannot erase the preceding 236 that left his lasting
imprint on the EuroLeague.
In Greece, Batiste won another domestic league
and cup, which, together with a Turkish Cup, raised
his number of national trophies to 17, to go with those
three EuroLeague crowns. At an individual level, apart
from being weekly and monthly MVP several times, he
was also chosen for the All-EuroLeague First Team in
2010-11 and for the second team the following season.
His EuroLeague career highs were a 35 performance
index rating against Unicaja Malaga in 2009, 31 points
against Cibona Zagreb with Charleroi in 2000, 15 rebounds
against Benetton Treviso in 2006 and 6 assists
against Maccabi in 2012.
For Batiste, a new stage in his career has started in
his native United States. He was the assistant coach of
Spanish boss Jordi Fernandez at Canton Charge of the
D-League, a team affiliated with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And he has since worked as a player development
assistant with the Brooklyn Nets. This much is sure: the
big men on any team where Batiste is around will surely
enjoy a top-notch teacher.
For Batiste, a new stage in
his career has started in
his native United States.
He was the assistant
coach of Spanish boss
Jordi Fernandez at Canton
Charge of the D-League,
a team affiliated with the
Cleveland Cavaliers. And he
has since worked as a player
development assistant with
the Brooklyn Nets.
101 greats of of european basketball
Mike Batiste
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