Buvęs „Ryto“ ir „Lietkabelio“ legionierius paskelbė apie karjeros pabaigą

Vilniaus „Ryto“ ir Panevėžio „Lietkabelio“ marškinėlius praeityje vilkėjęs australas Benas Madgenas socialiniuose tinkluose paskelbė apie savo karjeros pabaigą.

35 metų gynėjas jautriu įrašu „Instagram“ pranešė kabinantis sportbačius ant vinies.

„Atėjo laikas krepšiniui pasakyti „sudie“. Daugiau nei dešimt metų gyvenau savo svajone žaisti krepšinį ir per jį teigiamai paveikti kuo daugiau žmonių. Krepšinis leido man apkeliauti pasaulį, o sutikti žmonės ir išgyventos patirtys buvo neįtikėtini“, – teigė australas.

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The time has come to say goodbye to playing basketball. For over a decade I have been living my dream of playing basketball and trying to make a positive impact on as many people as I could through the game. Basketball has taken me all over the world, the experiences I had and people I met along the way has been incredible; being able to live out my dream still seems surreal. As an athlete we are mainly judged by our on court performance, but I consider the most fulfilling achievement in my career as starting ‘Madgen’s Message of Hope’ and seeing those children have a smile from ear to ear after the game, win or lose, is something I will never forget. I’m blessed to have two beautiful boys with my wife Bria and the time has come to focus solely on them, particularly my little man Xavier. Xavi has been diagnosed with Autism and is being treated for PANDAS and the constant moving and strenuous schedule that comes with playing basketball puts a lot of strain and pressure on Xavi and my family. There is no more important role to me then dad and I know just how critical these formative years are for him and I know that helping him to put his best foot forward is something I’ll never regret. The last couple of years have been really challenging, however we have been shown so much kindness and support from so many people within the Autism & PANDAS community. We’d love to show the same kindness, so if there are any parents out there who’re just starting the journey and want to chat, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my wife or I. I’ve so many people to thank, all the great organisations I played for, all the coaching staff and teammates, my agent Warren, my family and friends for always being there for me, my mum and dad for their tireless efforts to give all us kids the best opportunity to live our dreams. I really want to say the biggest thank you to my amazing wife Bria! She has been on the ride with me the whole way, she squashed my self-doubts and pushed me to be the best I could be. She had our two boys in Europe and made sure everything was looked after so I could just focus on playing. I can’t thank you enough, I love you honey. I’m excited for what’s next!

A post shared by Ben Madgen (@imadgen01) on Jul 12, 2020 at 10:50pm PDT

B.Madgenas neslėpė, kad viena iš karjeros pabaigos priežasčių yra jo šeimos gerovė. Krepšininko sūnus kenčia nuo autizmo, o nuolatinės kelionės kelia papildomą stresą.

193 cm ūgio gynėjas per karjerą spėjo parungtyniauti Belgijoje, Lietuvoje ir Vokietijoje, o paskutiniam savo sezonui grįžo į gimtąją Australiją, kur apsivilko Melburno „Phoenix“ marškinėlius.

Tiek su „Rytu“, tiek su „Lietkabeliu“ B.Madgenas susišlavė Lietuvos krepšinio lygos („Betsafe-LKL“) ir Karaliaus Mindaugo Taurės (KMT) sidabrus.

Karjerą gynėjas užbaigė aukštai pakelta galva, nes Australijos pirmenybėse iki šiol demonstravo solidų žaidimą. Per 28 minutes jis rinko 12,1 taško (33 procentai tritaškių), 4,8 atkovoto kamuolio, 1,8 rezultatyvaus perdavimo bei 11,4 naudingumo balų.

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