Slovenia, Turkey, Germany, France and Spain. These are some of the countries that have welcomed Klemen Prepelič (Maribor, Slovenia, 1992) throughout his professional career. It was at Banvit that he met EJ Rowland seven years ago, and now they sit across from each other, chatting about the last stage of his career in Spain, his achievements with Luka Doncic in the Slovenian national team and his aspirations for the future in his current Valencia Basket.
As part of the motivational campaign carried out by the urban clothing brand GRRR, Prepelič begins this interview by recalling the path to glory of his national team until reaching gold in the Eurobasket of Turkey in 2017: “Slovenia for a long long time, basically for 25 years now, it has always been in the biggest circle of candidates for the medals of every competition… but never until 2017 were we able to win any kind of medal. Everything was paid back in 2017 when we did this run, nine games nine victories, and the biggest one against Serbia in the finals. So, obviously this is the biggest sport success in Slovenia and I think now with Luka we are going to be contenders for every competition”.
His arrival in Spain comes from the hand of Real Madrid, precisely after this great achievement in his career. In 2018, Klemen lands in the Spanish capital, although he admits, perhaps he was not prepared for what was coming to him: “Maybe I was not aware of the situation. I was coming to the biggest team in Europe, but obviously in a roster of 16 great players it is very hard to find your space. I didn’t play a lot, almost nothing and yeah, it’s hard. If you don’t play you don’t have confidence, you don’t have playing time. And yeah, it’s very hard to see your teammates play on a good level and you’re not able to help them”.
He would then come to a club that he admired, with players whom he had of course already had his eye on. So much so that his dog is named after one of his idols: “We were watching the Real Madrid game of Luka and let me saw one of the crazy performances of Sergi when he was playing with this signature energy that he has making transition threes and we decided to give him the name Llull after him because of his energy, and of course the fluffy hair”.
After a season at Real Madrid, Klemen would head to Badalona, on loan at La Penya: “The most important thing was to gain confidence back. Penya give me a lot, they put me on the right track. The coach Carles and the teammates trusted me and I think that was the best move so far in my career to go on loan in Joventut. Right now I’m living the best moment in Valencia as well”.
Many dreams ahead in his current stage in Valencia, the Serbian has clear that it is only the beginning of a long stage: “There is a big project here in Valencia. We are having a great roster this season and most of the players have multi-year deals, so I think it’s just the beginning. We have some very good performances like beating Madrid and Zalgiris on the road but we also loss some games that we shouldn’t have lost. I think this is the process of becoming a big team. With all the projects that they have and the new gym in 2023 Valencia is considered as a top 8-10 team in Euroleague“.
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