Devon Hall, one of the Olimpia newcomers, carries with him three brands that are often guarantee of quality. The first: he played at the University of Virginia and although the NCAA championship was won after his departure, the team has been one of the best in the U.S. for the last decade and was ranked at number 1 during his stay. The second: he was chosen, in the 2018 NBA draft, by the Oklahoma City Thunder, a franchise with a very solid reputation in terms of players selection. The third: in Europe, he played in Bamberg, in Germany, like many players, not only Americans, who then emerged at higher levels. Those are not evidence, but they are as close as they get.

Hall is considered a multidimensional player, who has the physical size (let alone the height, he has 205 centimeters of wingspan) to guard bigger players, but the ball handling to move at times at the point positions, with an outside shot – left-handed – which he has built over the years. For example, in college, he went from being a 33.3 percent three-point shooter, in his first season, to be a lethal 43.2 percent bomber during his last, when he became also a 90 percent free-throw shooter, another indicative number. Defensively, he was included in the All-ACC first team in 2018, and we are talking of one of the best conferences, if not the best, in the country, and he would have been defensive player of the year had it not been for his teammate Isiaiah Wilkins.

In his final season in college, Virginia had the best defense in America, statistically. During his time there, he built himself a solid reputation as a team-player, capable to excel at both sides of the court and good at adjusting to very talented teammates. Over four years, he went from 10 minutes of playing time per game to 32, while playing along Malcolm Brogdon (the Indiana Pacers starting point guard), Joe Harris (the Brooklyn Nets impressive shooter), Justin Anderson, another 226-game NBA player, DeAndre Hunter, a lottery pick of the Atlanta Hawks, Kyle Guy of the Sacramento Kings, Marial Shayok who is now playing for Fenerbahce, and Anthony Gill of the Washington Wizards, who used to be a top-level EuroLeague player at Khimki. Hall will make his EuroLeague debut this year, but he knows what it means to play alongside players of the highest quality.

Having been born in Virginia Beach, choosing college was easy for Devon. His brother Mark also played at UVA, as a defensive football player. “I’m part of a close-knit family, playing at Virginia gave my parents the opportunity to come and watch me all the time. It was important to me. The first year I didn’t play, and I wanted to, but my coach knew better than me, and I got to work in practice to improve and get where I got, knowing that our team was based on defense, and defense was where we won our games,” he said.”He is a complete player – his coach at Virginia, Tony Bennett, described him -, he defends well on the perimeter, he can shoot from outside, can score in traffic, always plays hard. It was nice to coach him.”

At Virginia, Hall graduated in “Media studies” and did so in just three years, ahead of his time, which gave him the chance, before pursuing his basketball career full-time, to take a master’s degree at McIntire School of Commerce.

As a professional, he started in Cairns in Australia (“It prepared me for the future, taught me to live alone, far from my family”), he was in Oklahoma City both in the NBA and the G-League with the Blues, then during the last season, but only starting from the end of October, he landed in Europe to play in Bamberg where he validated his known qualities, both in the Basketball Champions League and in the German league. “As a player I am a defender, but I’m also a shooter, I can play different positions, guard different type of players. For me it is important – he says – to always be aggressive in my approach on the court.”

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