By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Play hoops, see the world.
For most men’s basketball players, the NBA remains the ultimate goal, and the University of Virginia is well-represented in that league, with six alumni on playoff teams alone. But attractive and, often, lucrative opportunities to play professionally also exist beyond North America, as many former Cavaliers can attest.
“You realize there’s another world outside of the NBA,” former Virginia guard Devon Hall said.
This season finds Hall, Darion Atkins and Tomas Woldetensae playing in Italy. Justin Anderson, Kyle Guy and Sylven Landesberg are in Spain. Ben Vander Plas and Lars Mikalauskas are in Lithuania, and Jerome Meyinsse is in Israel.
Mike Scott is in France, Mike Tobey in Serbia, London Perrantes in Greece, Jayden Gardner in Belgium, Akil Mitchell in Puerto Rico, Kody Stattmann in Australia, and Nigel Johnson in North Macedonia.
“What a way to see the world and experience it,” UVA head coach Tony Bennett said. “They’ve carved out unbelievable careers, a lot of them have. Financially, they’ve made good money because they’ve been the consummate pros. They come over there, they treat people well, they work hard, they play the game the right way.
“Everybody dreams of the NBA over here, but to have a long, prosperous career in this game and get to experience different parts of the world and then save some money, all that stuff, that’s significant. And so when you add all of our guys in the NBA and all of them that are playing internationally, it’s amazing.”
Several of the UVA alumni playing overseas have NBA experience, including Anderson, Guy, Scott, Hall, Perrantes and Tobey, and that’s given them valuable perspective.
“Listen, if the NBA offered me a contract, I’d take it in a second. That’s where 99.9% of people want to play—in the NBA—and I still do,” said Guy, who’s now with Lenovo Tenerife after playing for another Spanish club, Joventut Badalona, in 2022-23 and for Panathinaikos in Greece earlier this season.
“But I did everything in my power. I proved myself at that level, and it still didn’t work,” said Guy, one of the stars of the UVA team that won the NCAA title in 2019. “So I accepted my time in the NBA had come to an end, and sometimes that’s the way life is. So I’m taking this one day at a time. I just take it all in and really try to enjoy the moments, enjoy the…