Donatas Motiejūnas: “I did not come to Monaco for money”
The signing of pivot Donatas Motiejūnas (2.13m, 31 years old) at AS Monaco is intriguing in France and in his country, because the Lithuanian has an XXL CV, filled by his visits to Treviso, the NBA and China. To the site Shopping Cart News, he tells why he chose to respond favorably to the offer of the Principality club:
No doubt: the Covid-19 and the fact that the Chinese league CBA hesitated for a long time this summer to close or leave open to foreigners its championship weighed in its decision. He hasn’t received many calls from Euroleague clubs either.
“But Monaco came very quickly. They started to show great interest. Donated money, not a bad role. Last year they won the Eurocup and this year they also want to perform well in the Euroleague. Our ambitions coincided and everything happened very quickly, ”he says.
ASM broke its piggy bank to come to the Lithuanian, but he assures that it is other considerations that made the balance, in particular the presence of coach Zvezdan Mitrovic.
“I did not come to Monaco for the money, but fascinated by its vision, its desire and its highest standards. I come back from China and the NBA after so many years and they want me to lead the team, to lead by example. That’s why I came here, I’ll try to do it.
Donatas Motiejūnas says he is happy with this change of course in his career.
“I am delighted to have finally returned to Europe and to have the chance to show myself. When I’m in China in my freshman year, it was immediately after an injury that disrupted my career. I was also interrupted by doctors’ predictions from some Americans that I would no longer play basketball. Therefore, I needed a starting point. I don’t know why I didn’t watch Europe at that time. There were offers from the NBA at the time, but they weren’t very attractive. So I decided to choose China because I knew that I would have a lot of freedom there, that I could regain confidence, the pace of my game. Without COVID-19, I might have continued to play in China. . But I’ll say I’m happy to be back and look forward to new challenges. “