Barcelona’s Willy Hernangomez reveals he hasn’t ‘felt this much support in all my years in NBA’

Willy Hernangomez played for seven campaigns in the NBA, but never really established himself despite throwing up some good numbers in his first years. The Spaniard made a bold move back to his country to represent FC Barcelona, and he recently revealed he couldn’t be happier with the choice he made. 

According to the 29-year-old, he has never felt this amount of support from fans before, despite spending most of his career in the United States. Just before a match against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, the big man admitted he realized this at the very start of the season.

“I’m very grateful for the love that people have been giving me since the first day. For example, they were talking about my free throws when the season started. I remember that I missed one, and the entire Palau [Blaugrana arena] stood up to cheer me on to make the next one,” recalled the elderly Hernangomez brother.

“I haven’t had this feeling of support in all my almost eight years in the NBA,” he then shared. “Feeling so important at Barca, supported by the people, only makes me more motivated to want to improve and bring titles to this great club.”

During his time in the United States, the Spanish center shot 30.6% from behind the arc, but only on made 0.4 attempts per contest. Now that he’s back in Europe, he feels more comfortable shooting from range.

“I’ve been working on my outside shot to be more versatile in creating more difficulties for the opponent and giving the team more advantages for many years. This season, I’m feeling very comfortable, although it is not something that I like to do much more because the game of fighting in the low post is what I like the most,” Willy expressed.

Both Hernangomez brothers are playing in Europe and dream of reaching the heights that the Gasols once accomplished together

Willy and Juancho were both born in Madrid only two years apart, and the pair would combine to play for nine NBA teams in their young careers. Today they are back in Europe once again, one playing for Barcelona and the other for Greece’s Panathinaikos.

However, the Hernangomez players aren’t the first couple of Spanish brothers to compete in professional basketball, as Pau and Marc Gasol conquered the world through the sport. “It is impossible for two brothers like the Gasols to emerge at that level,” Willy told Eurohoops. “Two All-Stars. It is very difficult for something like that to happen again.”

This Friday Barcelona will welcome Panathinaikos in what will come out as a family affair between the Hernangomez brothers 🤝🏼

Willy spoke about facing Juancho, how tough it is to defend against him, and potentially playing in the same team in the future:https://t.co/X2aUuy9noP

— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) November 1, 2023

Not only did the Gasols win a combined 20 medals while representing Spain internationally, they are also NBA champions. Pau went on to become a Hall of Famer after winning two rings with the Los Angeles Lakers and Marc conquered another with the Toronto Raptors.

“It will be very difficult for something similar to the Gasols to be repeated,” echoed his brother Juancho. “If we reached half of their level in the future, it would be fine.”