By Xavier Sentis
September 9th, 2013. According to Ara.cat Joventut Badalona has decided to rescind Albert Homs’ contract. December 12th, 2010. The same newspaper online announced Albert Homs’ debut at the age of 16 with the ACB team. Homs is a 6’7” swingman, born in Mataró (Barcelona) in 1994. He has stood out from a very young age. He was a long guard with a good size for the wings and demonstrated good athletic abilities. His imposing stature and his ability to dribble enabled him to play various positions. Being too big for guards and too fast for wings, it looked as if he would be a dominant player. Playing with Spain’s National Youth Teams, he led the U-16 National Team to 4th place in U16 EC in 2010. He had great statistics: 12.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists. But FIBA did not select him for the All-Tournament Team. The following year, despite being a year younger than most of other players in competition, won the U18 EC for Spain. Despite having debuted in ACB, he didn’t play a lot of minutes (only 5.3 per game) but he was growing up very fast. In 2012 he went through a serious illness: mononucleosis. When he was totally recovered coaches decided that it was the right moment to move Homs to shooting guard or small forward position. Before, they tried to play him as point guard.
Not having totally recovered from the illness he couldn’t do the workout as well as he wanted. That year he played with U18 NT again. In April of 2012 they won the Albert Schweitzer Tournament in Mannheim (the unnoficial U18 World Championship), with a great Homs’ performance in the final: he scored 18 points and led his team to the victory. In the summer of the same year he played U18 EC for second straight year. It was a team with excellent prospects: Sebastian Saiz (now in Ole Miss, NCAA), Josep Perez (Barcelona B), Ilimane Diop (Vitoria, ACB), Willy Hernangomez (Sevilla, ACB), himself and others; but they lost in quarterfinals against Russia. Spain ended 5th in the tournament and Homs, despite being on the court longer than any other player (27' per game) gave a modest performance. He nailed 7.7 points and grabbed 4.3 rebounds. It was a difficult year for him, but maybe everybody wanted to see a great Homs. He was unable to improve much in 2012. But, did he have enough talent, size and ability to play at the pro level?
Last year he played in El Prat Joventut team in LEB Silver, the third level in Spain. He did not tally up great statistics. He played 20 minutes per game and his average score was the 7th of the team (5.7). Albert didn’t shoot well from the three point line (13.6%) and wasn't efficient from the free throw line either (54%). With these statistics Juventut has decided to rescind his contract. According to different sources team paid him a gross salary of more than €70.000 last year, an expensive contract for a guy that played in LEB Silver level without expectations of playing with Joventut ACB team in the immediate future.
What happened to Albert Homs? Did he succumb to too much pressure? Did he not have what it takes to play at the pro level? And, where will he play in a future? He is a good player, everybody says that he has great talent to play basketball (was one of the best players of 1994 generation). But, who will contract him now?
Twitter of the author: @garden7613
Foto: Penya.com (with president Jordi Villacampa after signing in 2010 for 4 seasons)
