With his Spanish experience, Sam Van Rossom must guide Ostend to new successes in the coming weeks. — © Bart Vandenbroucke
Basketball BNXT League: Filou Oostende
Ostend –
After just three competition games in 43 calendar days, Filou Oostende played in Groningen on Easter Monday. It marks the start of a tough Elite Gold period with seven matches in 33 calendar days. Sam Van Rossom, experienced with the leading Spanish ACB, is in his very first BNXT showdown.
Pascal Meurs, a Belgian youth coach at Valencia, called Sam Van Rossom one of the three best Belgian basketball players ever. “It is very dangerous and very difficult to compare generations. You should never actually do that and I will not make any statements about that. I prefer to leave that to external people. It is not up to me to judge that,” says Sam Van Rossom, who has known good examples himself. “I saw Rik Samaey play and in my first year at Ostend I had Jean-Marc Jaumin as a mentor. Look what they have achieved in their careers. And there are still Belgians, more than you think. I don’t place myself among them. If Rik Samaey had played basketball today, he would have been a European star. He used to be that way, but he always stayed in Belgium. Now he would never stay in Belgium all his life. After a few seasons he would go abroad to seek his happiness in basketball.”
All-round
“I never played in the NBA, but I don’t see that as a loss. Already in my first professional season I said matter-of-factly that my goal was to build a solid European career. In no interview have I mentioned the NBA as a goal,” emphasizes Sam Van Rossom. “Maybe I wasn’t arrogant enough to think bigger. There are a thousand players like me in America. Is Didier Mbenga a better player than Tomas Van Den Spiegel because he played basketball in the NBA? Not for me. The NBA is fun, but the players have more and more specializations. Anyone who is extremely good at two things is more likely to make a career in the NBA than in Europe. I have the feeling that a player in Europe has to be more all-round. You have to be good in different facets, without being great at everything. Now I’m not talking about the superstars in the NBA, because they are otherworldly. Take compatriot Toumani Camara as an example. He is perfect in the role he has now in the NBA, a hustle player and a good defender. But does that make him a better player than Axel Hervelle?”
Sam Van Rossom calls it a dirty question when we asked him whether he would prefer five years in the NBA over ten years of Valencia. “Five years in the NBA, playing ten to fifteen minutes per game, yes! But I say no if I can only play for a few minutes and otherwise sit on the bench.”
Filou Oostende invites associations to a match against Jean-Marc Jaumin’s team
Before the home match on Saturday April 6, a match against Landstede Hammers Zwolle with former Ostend player and coach Jean-Marc Jaumin as coach, Filou Oostende is doing a special association campaign. All Ostend associations that attend this BNXT match in a group can buy tickets at the discount rate of 10 euros. The club with the largest delegation will win a basketball shirt for the entire group. Filou Oostende will highlight all associations present with their logo on the LED screens of the basketball arena and also with posts via Filou Oostende’s social media. Interested associations contact Filou Oostende via [email protected] (rpo)