Back on home floor
The Brazilian Beast – or most of him, at least – has returned. J.P. Batista, so aptly and affectionately nicknamed by former Gonzaga University basketball teammate Ronny Turiaf, is back in town after playing professionally in Lithuania last winter.
But the 6-foot-9 native of Olinda, Brazil, arrived carrying 15 fewer pounds than he did during his successful two-year stay at GU, where he teamed with eventual first-round NBA draft pick Adam Morrison to lead the Bulldogs to another pair of West Coast Conference titles and help extend their streak of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances to eight.
“I just thought it was the best thing for me,” Batista said of his conscious effort to drop a few pounds. “I felt like dropping down (from the 275 pounds he weighed at GU) would help me be quicker and be able to guard quicker players.”
At 260 pounds, Batista is fit, firm and focused on his next basketball odyssey, which will take him back to his homeland later this month to train as a member of the Brazilian national team.
Until then, he plans to hang out at the Spokane Valley home of his close friend and fellow Brazilian, Adriano Eva, and renew acquaintances with coaches and players at Gonzaga, where he ruled the low blocks for two wildly successful seasons.
He has already talked with several old friends and plans on getting involved in a few pick-up games before leaving.
“The coaches have told me they want me to come in and rough up some of the young guys,” Batista said.
The Bulldogs were 55-9 in the two years Batista spent on campus, and were within a frenzied, late-game UCLA rally of advancing to the Elite Eight of the 2006 NCAA tournament. Batista averaged 19.3 points and a team-high 9.4 rebounds during that, his senior, season, but got little more than a summer-league sniff from the NBA following graduation.
The snub forced Batista to pursue his professional career overseas with Lietuvos Rytas, a team based in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, and, despite having to deal with yet another bout of culture shock and three different head coaches, the mild-mannered Brazilian was able to put together a solid rookie season.
Alternating between the center and power forward positions, Batista played in all 70 of his team’s games, averaging just more than 12 points and six rebounds per game. Lietuvos Rytas, which plays in three different leagues, won the Baltic League championship, lost to perennial power Real Madrid in the finals of the European League playoffs and finished second in the Lithuanian League.
“We did awesome,” Batista said, “and the fans were great.
“Lithuania is a huge basketball country. People say basketball is religion down there. I don’t think I’ll ever see something like here at Gonzaga again – our fans are the ultimate, but they’re really supportive, wild and crazy down there, too.”
And the money, is good, as well – relatively speaking.
“Not as good as Adam’s money,” Batista laughed, “but it’s definitely still a blessing. And I’ve been very careful with it. I feel grateful to be able to send a lot of money home to help my family”
The biggest downside to playing overseas, he said, was trying to shop for groceries.
“Language was not a problem on the team,” he said. “But shopping was a nightmare, because you have to buy on instinct. I was like, ‘OK, this looks like milk, I guess I’ll try it,’ because I couldn’t read any of the labels.”
It helped that Batista’s older brother, Anderson, who made a surprise and emotionally charged appearance for J.P.’s final home game at Gonzaga, agreed to spend the winter with him in Vilnius and handle his money and personal affairs.
“He was kind of like my personal manager,” Batista said. “He would deal with the media from Brazil and was kind of the middle guy between me and my family, making sure my mom and dad got the money I was sending home and keeping me informed on what was going on back there.”
Batista’s contract with L. Rytas calls for him to return next season, but both he and his Dallas-based agent, George Bass, are hoping his exposure on the Brazilian National team will result in an NBA contract.
“Everything is set up for me to go back to Lithuania,” Batista said. “We have a guaranteed contract. But playing on the national team this summer is going to be huge for me because some of the NBA players won’t be there, so it should be great exposure.”
Batista has several standing invitations to play in the NBA’s summer-league team, but didn’t have a great experience in that same league last summer.
“I went through it last year and I know how hard it is to get noticed,” he said. “It’s hard to touch the ball in that league, so we’re hoping that playing for the national team – because we will get to play against the United States in big tournaments – will be better for me.”
If the NBA thing doesn’t work out this time, either, Batista, who plans to become engaged to his longtime girlfriend and former Gonzaga player Simone Santos later this summer, has no qualms about returning to play in Europe, where “I’ve been treated very professionally.
“Some people say I’m too short to play in the NBA, and some say I’m too old. Others say I’m strong enough, but not mobile enough to guard a four man. I really don’t know.
“But, at this point in my life, if it doesn’t happen, I’m OK with that. I wish it could have happened last year, but I think God has a plan for all of us, and I’m very happy with my life right now.
“No matter what happens, I’m going to be grateful.”