Esteban Batista
Esteban Damián Batista Hernández ( born September 2, 1983 in Montevideo, Montevideo Department ) is a Uruguayan - Spanish basketball player. Batista is considered the first professional basketball player who played in the NBA 's richest professional league in the United States. After two years with the Atlanta Hawks from 2007 Batista put his career in European professional leagues in Israel, which belong to the continental federation FIBA Europe, and Russia continues. In Spain, where he had already played before his NBA career, earned the Uruguayan national team 2011, the Spanish citizenship. Following, however, Batista left his adopted home and continued his career in Turkey continue. Since the 2013/14 season he plays for Pınar Karşıyaka in Türkiye Ligi Basketbol.
Career
Batista began relatively late, in terms of performance to play with 17 years of basketball, after he had previously tried sporty, among other things as a football goalkeeper. As a fan of the Uruguayan club CA Welcome tradition he took the bus 60 km from his former residence Playa Pascual to its matches in the capital. There they became aware of the 2.08 -meter giant and invited him to training. Batista quickly learned and worked hard so that he could play in the first team of CA Welcome from 2001. The Uruguayan championship they lost in 2001 and 2002, however, almost twice against Club Atlético Cordón in five games of the play-off final series. The following year he played for the club in 2003 from Salto and debuted at the Basketball World Grand Prix 2003 in his hometown in the national team that won a bronze medal and qualified for the U.S. Championships in 2003. Batista took in the first half of August 2003 then with Uruguay at the Pan American Games in 2003 in part. In the then in the second half of August following qualifying tournament for the Olympic basketball tournament in 2004 but would retire after four preliminary round defeats in early.
After Batista had already completed a trial with Spanish side Joventut de Badalona, the European giants Real Madrid secured the rights to Batista and took him under contract to him, however, in the European 2003/04 season in the Spanish third division of Pozuelo de Alarcón to give the LEB 2. As a non- Europeans Batista had it hard to get one of the places foreigners in the squad of Real and could only prove in training matches against its major counterparts in the first division. In the European summer of 2004, Batista played in the inaugural Torneo Metropolitano for the basketball team of Club Nacional for the qualification to the above newly created League Uruguaya de Basquetbol ( LUB ). However Nacional lost the decisive play-off series against CSD Sayago. After Batista had missed with Uruguay in South America Championships 2004, a medal, he played in the LUB that had changed their game plan on the international basketball calendar in the northern hemisphere, Trouville, but lost the semifinal series against his former team from Salto, which then for the first time the title won. Batista was named player of the year in the LUB. He returned in March 2005 again returned to Spain, where he still completed eight missions for the club from Calpe Aguas in the second league LEB Oro. However, Batista could not save as Table from the direct descent of the climber.
The America Cup 2005 with the Uruguayan national team represented the international breakthrough for Batista. Although Uruguay won only one of eight matches, Batista impressed individually with 18 points and nearly 16 rebounds per game. While Batista had no experience in the NCAA and had not played so far in Europe first class, he was taken from the NBA Atlanta Hawks club under contract and becoming the first Uruguayan basketball player in the major professional basketball league in the world. In the NBA, however, he could not lay down as a reserve player in 70 missions in two seasons. In the Americas Cup 2006 Uruguay won the silver medal after a strong final defeat against Brazil. The following year, Batista was a member of the squad at the Pan American Games in 2007, in which Uruguay secured the bronze medal. In the America Cup 2007, Celeste took a sixth place after a total of three wins. After he had played in the summer of 2007 with the Boston Celtics, Batista signed for the 2007 /08 season a contract with top European club Maccabi Tel Aviv. The highest ranking European club competition ULEB Euro League 2007 /08, however, they lost the final against PBK CSKA Moscow. Even the final of the Israeli Cup Series champion lost surprisingly with a point differential against Hapoel Holon. In the South American Championship 2008, the Uruguayan national team took with Batista after the final defeat by Argentina again a silver medal. At the start of the following season 2008/ 09 Batista's contract was terminated in Israel in November 2008 and he graduated in December 2008, a short-term contract from the Russian club Triumph of Ljuberzy. After the end of this contract in January 2009, he went first back to South America, where he played in Argentina for CD Libertad Sunchales. In the Liga Nacional de Basquetbol it was enough for the defending champions for the third place. In the America Cup 2009, the Uruguayan national team stayed again after three preliminary round success in the quarter- finals without another victory and thus missed an improvement in sixth place and qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
For the 2009/10 season Batista returned to Spain and played in the ACB league for the club from Fuenlabrada. After twelve victories this season, but it was enough only for 16th and best non- relegation zone in the Spanish top flight. Batista was nominated three times this season as the most effective player to player of the match and was at the end of the main round with 8.3 rebounds per game the best player in this category in the ACB League 2009/10. In the Americas Cup in 2010 it reached after the semi-final defeat to defending champion Argentina for the Uruguayan selection nor the bronze medal. In the following season Fuenlabrada had a much better start to the season, but the beginning of 2011 bought the rival league and Spanish champions Caja Laboral Vitoria -Gasteiz Batista from his contract out. In the ULEB Euro League 2010/11 they lost the quarter-final play-off against his former club Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the Spanish championship, there was this time already in the semi-final series to clash with FC Barcelona, which had previously been three times in a row, the final pairing. Barcelona defeated Caja Laboral titleholder significantly in three games. In the America Cup 2011 Uruguay again lost all the intermediate round matches and finished after two preliminary round victories only seventh. While Batista had now also acquired Spanish citizenship, but that he was interesting as EU nationals also for clubs from other European leagues. So Batista broke his three -year contract and joined the 2011/12 season in the Türkiye Ligi Basketbol Anadolu Efes Istanbul to SK. In the ULEB Euro League 2011/12 they played in the round of 16 best teams with little success and was eliminated, even in the national championship, the Turkish giants had to end up beaten in the final series for the championship against local rivals Beşiktaş Milangaz. At the beginning of the 2012/13 season Anadolu Efes Batista already presented again by his ongoing contract free, but this was no new club. Instead, he played a few more inserts at Efes for the injured Stanko Barac. After Batista had not participated in the South American Championship 2012, he was again represented in the Uruguayan selection at the America Cup 2013. The national team was the fifth time in a row without a win in the second round and missed after the seventh place again to participate in a global finals. After two seasons without a title with Anadolu Efes, like Maccabi Caja Laboral and before, Batista joined the 2013/14 season to the Turkish league rivals and Euro Challenge finalists Pınar Karşıyaka from Izmir.
Awards
As part of the Honors of the best Uruguayan athletes of the period 2009-2010 ( " Deportista del Año " ), he was awarded as the best sportsman of the year 2010 in the category " Basketball " on 28 March 2011 by the Comité Olímpico Uruguayan Teatro Solís.