BallinEurope today wishes a fond sayonara to longtime Montepaschi Siena staple Shaun Stonerook, who today announced his retirement from Euroleague basketball. Stonerook played in some 113 games for the Italian powerhouse and enjoyed two EL Final Four runs with the team. And so, as is the fashion here at BiE, today we present our YouTube-centric tribute to “Il Capitano.”
From last year, here’s a nice look at Stonerook’s life and times produced by the club itself; the video contains a mixture of Italian- (the commentary) and English-language (Stonerook himself) dialogue, but certainly worth a look by anyone not necessarily fluent in two tongues.
And while his career averages of 4.9 ppg and 4.8 rpg in Euroleague play may not exactly boggle the mind, here’s a great video showing how Stonerook’s presence has colored Siena’s play this past half-decade.
Official Euroleague writeup and more videos follow.
(Euroleague.net) – As announced by the player himself on his Twitter account, captain Shaun Stonerook is calling it a career. A central figure in the success of Montepaschi Siena in the last years, Stonerook came to the team in the summer of 2005 and together they won six consecutive Italian League titles from 2007 to 2012, a first in the 63 years of history of the competition. Montepaschi also won the last four Italian Cups, and Stonerook took tournament MVP honors in 2009 and 2010. In the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, Stonerook played a total 113 games in which he averaged 4.9 points (for a career total of 572) and 4.8 rebounds (551 total). With Montepaschi he reached the 2007-08 and 2010-11 Final Fours, always falling in semifinals.
Stonerook played college ball for Ohio State University from 1995 to 2000 and that summer he already came to Europe to play in Belgium with Antwerpen. After a season there, he already moved to Italy, where he has played ever since. He landed in Cantu, where he spent four seasons before joining Montepaschi for good. Stonerook also played two seasons in the Eurocup, in 2004-05 with Vertical Vision Cantu and in 2006-07 with Montepaschi.
Stonerook’s statements on Twitter:
“I’ve decide to hang up my Nikes. It’s been an incredible career, much more than I could have ever imagined. Thanks to all my fans for the Support over the last 12 years. Not sure what the future holds for me but I’m excited for the next chapter in life. I also want to thank all my former teammates. You guys made the last 12 years incredible and I have a lot of great memories. If any of you Ever need anything just call me. And coaches. And everyone else.”
BiE, too, has a lot of great memories of Stonerook’s play and we’ll thank him in return. Good luck to you, Shaun, and whatever you do, don’t ever lose that wonderful coiffure…
