Giorgi Shermadini (24 years old, height 216 cm, weight 120 kg.), basketball player of the Georgian national team, will play for “Zaragoza” of Spain in the upcoming season. The official website of the club reports it.
The club highlighted that the Georgian center was a member of “Olympiacos”, current champion of Euroleague. Jose Luis Abos, head coach of the club, believes in Shermadini.
“In spite of young age, Giorgi has a great experience. He can help us in many components. He is good at rebounds, defense and offence. We have young team and it is important to add a player who can hold 2-2 games a week”.
The Georgian basketball player stated the following: “I like the experience of playing in Spain for the first time. I have already talked to head coach and he told me that Zaragoza is a good city to live in and CAI is a very good team. The most important to me is to develop my game.
The ACB has great teams like “Real”, “Barcelona” and “Valencia”. It will be pleasant to play their players. “Zaragoza” is a good team and hopefully, I will have the opportunity to have more minutes. It is the most important to me. I want to play more and help the team win every game”.
The new club of Shermadini will compete in Eurocup where its opponent will be found out later. Giorgi has held many games at Euroleague and the second European tournament will be new for him. “Eurocup is a good tournament and we will face great teams there. Of course, we will play for winning Eurocup”.
The following basketball players will be teammates of Shermadini: Jonathan Tabu of Belgium, Michael Roll of America, Damjan Rudez of Croatia, Jon Stefansson of Iceland and Henk Norel of Holland. Here is what Shermadini said about them: “I know many of them but I have played only Norel. He is a great player and I am happy to be his teammate”.
The previous season turned out very successful for “Zaragoza”. The club won 21 from 34 games and it was the best result after returning to ACB. In ¼ final “Zaragoza” defeated “Valencia” 2:1 and in semifinal the club lost to “Real” Madrid 0:3.
In the previous season Shermadini played for “Olympiacos”. In 17 games he averagely had 3.9 points and 2.1 rebounds. He also held 17 games at Euroleague: 4.4 points, 2.9 rebounds. Giorgi won Euroleague with “Olympiacos”. The club lost tThe final series of the championship to his former club “Panathinaikos” Athens.
At the beginning of the previous season Giorgi played for “Maccabi” Tel Aviv. He held 6 games in Israel (7.5 points, 5.0 rebounds) and 9 in Euroleague (4.8 points, 2.3 rebounds).
Before that Shermadini played for “Olimpija” of Slovenia and “Cantu” of Italy. He had the most successful period in the Italian club (9.0 points and 5.2 rebounds at the Italian Championship, 10.9 points and 5.5 rebounds at Euroleague. The Georgian even played in “All-Star” game of the Italian Championship.
Shermadini is a member of the Georgian national team since 2006. He held 8 games in the qualifying round of EuroBasket in 2013. Giorgi averagely had 5.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.0 assist.
Now the Georgian center is in Trento with the national team. He was the best against Italy yesterday. Shermadini scored 4 from 5 2-point and all 10 free throws. He also earned 12 rebounds. Giorgi played for 23 minutes and 27 coefficients.
Dato Manjavidze
