Dylan Osetkowski, in his presentation with Valencia Basket: “I just want to win”

Dylan Osetkowski begins a new stage in the Endesa League. The American interior with a German passport has been presented as a new Valencia Basket player, a destination with which he returns to a competition in which he already demonstrated his best level during his time at Unicaja.

His arrival at the Taronja team comes after a difficult season in Partizanbut also with the guarantee of knowing Spanish basketball perfectly. In Malaga he was one of the important pieces of the team and was included in the Best Quintet of the Endesa League.

Now he changes scene, but he maintains very clear what his objective is in Valencia. Osetkowski wanted to make it clear from his first words as a Taronja player: “As a team, I understand that this year is historic after last year with the titles and now with the 40th anniversary. I am here to help the club and win. That is what I want to do here.”

The new power forward’s message points directly to the collective. Osetkowski does not arrive thinking about individual figures, but about joining a Valencia Basket that faces a special season and that wants to maintain its ambition after the successes of the last year.

One of the characteristics that made Osetkowski a differential player during his previous stage in Spain was his versatility. He can play in both interior positions, open the field with his outside shot and offer different solutions in both attack and defense.

That profile is precisely one of the aspects that he has already spoken about with the coaching staff and Xavi Albert: “We talked a little. You know, being able to play as a power forward and center, being able to help both in attack and defense. I think I know how to win. I think I know what it takes to play in the ACB. I think I know what it takes to play in the Euroleague.”

The experience accumulated in the Endesa League and the Euroleague is one of the arguments with which Osetkowski lands in Valencia. A competition, the Spanish one, in which he admits feeling especially comfortable due to the type of basketball that is played: “Yes, I feel very comfortable playing here in Spain. I think this league and this style of basketball suits me very well. Playing here requires a lot of concentration and a lot of reflection, and I am very excited to play as a team again, together, fast and with a lot of strength.”

The reunion with three former Unicaja colleagues

Osetkowski’s adaptation to his new team will also have a particularity. Despite arriving in a different locker room, the power forward will meet several familiar faces from his time in Malaga.

Kameron Taylor, Yankuba Sima and Mario Saint-Supéry shared the locker room with him at Unicaja and now they meet again at Valencia Basket. A circumstance that the player himself considers especially important in his first steps within the team.

“For me it is a unique situation to arrive at a new team, after having played with three previous players. I know many of the guys, so there is already a feeling of comfort and camaraderie between them and other players. But it helps me a lot to be able to integrate into a new team with new rules and a new identity, and to have the support of close teammates on and off the court, both from the coach and the other players. So right now there is a very good atmosphere in the team.”

Osetkowski’s reflection after his difficult year in Partizan

His arrival in Valencia also opens a new stage after a complex course in Partizan. Osetkowski did not hide the difficulties experienced last season, both individually and collectively, although he prefers to interpret them as part of his evolution.

“Last year was a difficult year, from beginning to end, not only for me as a team, but as a club. Does it help? Of course. I think that one of the greatest personal growth occurs in difficult moments, in struggles.

He even resorted to humor to explain everything he experienced during those months: “I constantly tell my wife that she should write a book about everything that happened last year, all the struggles, the ups and downs.”

After that experience, Osetkowski returns to an Endesa League that he knows well and in which he has already managed to become one of the most outstanding interiors in the competition.