{"id":169121,"date":"2025-09-25T23:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169121\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T23:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:16:10","slug":"loyd-is-excited-to-team-up-and-learn-from-larkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169121\/","title":{"rendered":"Loyd is excited to team up and learn from Larkin"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Semih Tuna\/ info@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n

On the way to his seventh EuroLeague season, Jordan Loyd talked to Eurohoops about joining Anadolu Efes<\/a> and reuniting with several opponents from EuroBasket 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something, I guess I didn\u2019t foresee. Obviously, it was a lot of works in progress and stuff, but it means a lot for me,\u201d he discussed the recent move to the Istanbul outfit, \u201cI feel refreshed. I feel excited, I feel looking forward to the opportunity to play for such a prestigious and amazing club like Efes<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before looking into the next challenge, he reflected on opting out of a two-year deal with Darussafaka in 2018, delaying his introduction to Europe\u2019s premier club continental competition to instead sign with the Toronto Raptors<\/a> and participate in an NBA championship season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy agent at the time told me that if I got an NBA contract, I would be able to get out. Because, of course, I was playing in Summer League, which I didn\u2019t feel like I did that great, but I got the call for a two-way and I\u2019m like super excited, \u2018Toronto, this is gonna be awesome\u2019. And then I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m already signed in a EuroLeague team\u2019,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to play Euroleague, but at the same time\u2026 long story short, I couldn\u2019t get out of the contract,\u201d he explained, \u201cIt was very difficult and, me and my family had to pay money out of our own pocket, basically, to Darussafaka. I don\u2019t feel like they handled the situation that great, but I take the fall first. I signed the contract. So, either way, I was able to go on and have like one of the best years of my life and win the NBA championship, despite all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teaming up with recent opponents<\/p>\n

Playing for Poland in this summer\u2019s EuroBasket, Loyd tallied 22.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.3 blocks per contest until the Quarterfinals and a losing effort against Turkiye in Riga. His side ranked sixth on the final standings, and he earned a spot on the All-Star Second Team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it was shocking to a lot of people. For me, it wasn\u2019t anything new,\u201d he talked to Eurohoops about his impressive outings, \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve always been that type of player and person, but I had the opportunity to show it. So, obviously, you don\u2019t get an opportunity like that every once in a while, but it was a great performance. I was happy. My teammates and coaches get a lot of credit for putting me in positions and believing in me, and giving me a chance to lead a team. So, all those guys over there are amazing, and they made me feel really comfortable, and I think it showed on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the tournament-ending loss, the assignment to guard him was on Sehmus Hazer, who is among his new Efes<\/a> teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t told him yet, but he did a great job,\u201d mentioned the 32-year-old combo guard, \u201cThey had a great game plan. Every time I had the ball, there were two or three guys. My man, Hazer, did a great job of trying to just make things difficult. So, I\u2019m happy he\u2019s on my team now, and we can do that to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the same path from opponent to teammate, Shane Larkin was also on the court on September 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Shane for several years now,\u201d he said, \u201cHe is a top-class player. He\u2019s amazing, and he\u2019s an amazing person, so I just look forward to learning anything I can from him. He\u2019s been here a long time. This is his team, his show, and I\u2019m just happy to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to playing with them,\u201d\u00a0Loyd opened up on his new teammates, \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be no problem with all the guys. I look forward to meshing with everyone. For sure, we can make a lot of noise if we\u2019re locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Projected as a second option in the offense of the team coached by Igor Kokoskov, Loyd is rather uninterested in such labels.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it doesn\u2019t matter. I don\u2019t look at it as if I need to be a primary scorer; there\u2019re gonna be games where they\u2019re gonna need you to score more than others. There\u2019s gonna be times when other people are feeling it. It\u2019s a night-by-night thing,\u201d he told Eurohoops, \u201cI\u2019m just looking at it as I\u2019m gonna get a chance to play basketball and be excited about the way I\u2019m playing and be in a role that I think that\u2019ll be great for me and my team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know about primary, secondary, all that. I really don\u2019t care,\u201d he continued, \u201cIt\u2019s just more about getting wins, because we\u2019re gonna have so many guys. Each top team is gonna have a lot of guys, and it\u2019s gonna be all about how you complement one another, and every night it\u2019s gonna be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNever too high, never too low\u201d<\/p>\n

A veteran of two Final Four campaigns with AS Monaco, Loyd also talked about the goals for the next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the expectation of the club should be Final Four, winning championships. That\u2019s it,\u201d he said, \u201cThey\u2019ve done that here in the past, and we want to get back to that. I think that\u2019s the only way to look at it. If you\u2019re not thinking about that when you go out to play, I\u2019m not sure what else is on your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning is everything, and my part in that is gonna be whatever he asks of me, whatever that looks like,\u201d he referred to his role under head coach Kokoskov, \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a long season. It\u2019s gonna be a lot of ups and downs. So, just battling through that inconsistency and stuff like that is gonna be the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be healthy, you got to be hitting your stride at the right time of the season, you got to be a bit lucky, and you got to have great staff and teammates like we have here,\u201d he replied to a question about ending the Final Four drought of his new team, \u201cThere\u2019s no secret recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just never too high, never too low,\u201d he added, \u201cThroughout the season there\u2019s going to be things and you\u2019re gonna feel like it\u2019s the end of the world or on top of the world, and you just got to maintain and stay in the middle and good things usually happen when teams do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: FIBA<\/p>\n

Read the latest News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Semih Tuna\/ info@eurohoops.net On the way to his seventh EuroLeague season, Jordan Loyd talked to Eurohoops about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-169121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}