Kyle Guy, the 9 who beat anxiety and challenges Madrid

One, two, three, four, five... up to nine triples signed Kyle Guy for Joventut in the first game of the quarterfinals of the ACB against Baskonia. The American guard, 25 years old and 1.88m, melted the second classified of the regular season with 36 points and sentenced him with another 22 (four more triples) in the second appointment to lead the Penya to the semifinals. In that round awaits him from Tuesday Real Madrid (21.00, #Vamos) to the best of five matches and with the field factor in favor of the whites. At the other crossing, Barça-Unicaja from Wednesday.

Joventut challenges the Euroleague champion clinging to an enlightened Kyle Guy. The kid from Indiana has shot up his averages of the course in this start of playoffs: from 11.5 points on average to 29, and from a 34.5% success rate in the outside shot to 53%. Guy shines with his own light, happy in Badalona, after a road of curves and dark areas in which he suffered mental health problems, threats and the frustration of not meeting expectations.

🤯 QUINA BOGERIA, @kylejguy!#BadalonaÉsFutur pic.twitter.com/ZTpROchY1e

— Club Joventut Badalona (@Penya1930) May 30, 2023

"There's nothing in the world compared to Indiana. It's similar to how football is lived in Spain. Everyone there has a basket in their yard or farm," Guy recalls of a childhood attached to the orange ball. He came to the basketball court from the football turf, a sport he practiced because his father was the coach, and which he left when he began to grow more than the other boys. He was also tempted by athletics, and had big marks in the mile. But it would be in basketball where he became a star of the University of Virginia Cavaliers. The team was the heavy favorite for the title in 2018, but were eliminated in the first round. Something then creaked in Guy, the big one. "When the horn sounded, I broke and the pressure came on me," he admitted after that bump. The redemption came a year later with the laurel of champion, after suffering death threats and overcoming anxiety thanks to a mental work that accompanies him until today. "You must be a master of the mind and know how to negotiate with pressure, fears, success ... When you know those sensations you can master them," he reflects.

The jump to the NBA was another test of maturity. The number 55 of the draft, choice of the Knicks, was traded to the Kings and in Sacramento only tasted 34 games in two courses. It would later be tested in another 19 in Miami between comings and goings to the Development League. Little chicha. Until the option of Joventut arrived and the young man was convinced by that basketball atmosphere that surrounds the club and reminds him of Indiana. "Near my house I see people playing all the time," he says. In Badalona he has settled with his wife, his partner since he was 15 years old, and with his young son. He is a regular customer of the Lillo Picó ice cream parlor, enjoys Disney movies and likes to write. In the club they have adopted a boy who asks everything and who on the track now offers his best version.

"He has a differential offensive talent, he can do many things in attack", defines Dani Miret, assistant coach of Carles Durán in Joventut; "What has surprised us the most, besides the ability to shoot threes, is the verticality to step on paint and finish. He has legs to jump and go to the hoop, he is a player who breaks. It has evolved a lot in understanding the spaces, because of the difference of the game with respect to the United States. Here it is more difficult to find spaces. Offensively he has played very well the pick and roll with Tomic and Birgander and has been able to generate without having losses, which in Europe are punished more. "

🤯 The @Penya1930 ticket for SEMIFINALS of the #PlayoffLigaEndesa... has had a great PROTAGONIST with name and surname.

This is how another MAGIC NIGHT of @kylejguy was lived to sentence the tie! pic.twitter.com/S0nyXIIQ5X

— Liga Endesa (@ACBCOM) May 31, 2023

And not only that. On defense he tied up Markus Howard, sent off for five personal fouls in the second round. "Kyle has understood that we are a team that helps each other in attack and defense, and he wanted to participate in that, he has joined," adds Miret.

Guy today wears that hardness of character forged with setbacks. "There's not a shot I shoot that I'm not convinced it's going to go in. It's hours and hours working," Guy says. Some of his bingos are accompanied by the gesture of the phone, "because a triple is like a long-distance call." Or as a goal from outside the box, I could say, since he wears number 9 because he likes football and that's the mark of great strikers. Also as a nod to Ricky Rubio, with whom he coincided in Cleveland.

Against Madrid, La Penya looks again at Guy. "They have players who, due to experience, talent and physicality, put an even bigger challenge ahead of Kyle," says Dani Miret; "Although because of his speed of execution also for Madrid it will be difficult to stop him."

Semi-final schedules

Real Madrid-Joventut

1st match: Tuesday 6 June 21:00h. - #Vamos 2nd match: Thursday 8 June
21:00h. - Movistar Deportes
3rd match: Saturday 10 June 18:30h. - Movistar Deportes
Possible 4th match: Monday 12 June 21:00h. - #Vamos and Movistar Deportes Possible 5th match: Wednesday 14 June 21:00 - #Vamos and Movistar Deportes


Barcelona-Unicaja

1st match: Wednesday 7 June 21:00h. - Movistar Deportes
2nd match: Friday 9 June 21:00h. - #Vamos 3rd match: Sunday 11 June 18:
30h. - #Vamos
Possible 4th match: Tuesday 13 June 21:00h. - #Vamos and Movistar Deportes
Possible 5th match: Thursday 15 June 22:00h. - #Vamos and Movistar Sports

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