Very few players in the world are better positioned than Maciej Lampe to speak about the pitfalls of starting playing professionally at the very early age. He made his debut in Euroleague at the age of 16 and entered NBA 2 years later. His meteoric rise then took quite an unexpected turn and had a frustrating 3 years in America with New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns, (being their youngest ever player), Oklahoma Thunder and Houston Rockets before returning to Europe in 2006.
Since then his career was perforated by a series of serious injuries which however didn’t stop him claiming MVP of the Russian League. Maciej also led Unics Kazan to the EuroCup Championship defeating Cajasol Sevilla 92-77 in the final. He dominated the court with an outstanding 26pts and 11rbs to help clinch the title and was elected to the EuroCup All Star team as center of the year. Unics also took 3rd place in the VTB United league where Maciej was named center of the year by Eurobasket.com.
Lampe is currently now staring for the Spanish powerhouse Caja Laboral.
In a conversation with Future Stars, Maciej candidly looks back at the beginning of his playing days in the NBA aswell as more currently with Caja and their progress in the Euroleague.
31.10.12