SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Alperen Şengün is hurting.
The fourth-year Houston Rockets big man is a half-hour late to our interview to discuss his NBA All-Star candidacy, getting treatment inside the posh Kimpton Sawyer hotel that visiting teams call home in Sacramento. There are no injuries to manage at the moment, but the physical rigors that come with an 82-game season require constant rehabilitation, extra time on the training table.
Yet considering the painful nature of Şengün’s origin story, how he and his friends were always getting hurt by their own hijinks on the streets of his hometown of Giresun, Turkey, no one should be surprised that he takes full advantage of the first-class medical treatment afforded to him these days.
“I’ve got a lot of injuries from (his childhood) — like everywhere,” the 22-year-old Şengün said. “My arms. My knees. I have injuries and scars everywhere from climbing places. A car hit me — twice. I was almost dying. I’ve had a lot of stuff.”
He laughs at the irony of it all.
“And now I play every game.”
From his humble upbringing in Turkey to the Bandırma chapter in which he left his family as a 12-year-old to play his way into prominence to this charmed NBA life, he has come a long way. Şengün, who signed a five-year, $185 million extension with the Rockets shortly before the season, is one of the league’s fastest-rising young talents.
His rare offensive profile — high-level scoring, playmaking and rebounding without elite athleticism or strength — has drawn comparisons to three-time MVP Nikola Jokić. The Rockets (28-14), who have made this stunning jump from fringe playoff team to legitimate contender, rely on Şengün perhaps more than any other player (19.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.3 steals, 0.9 blocks per game).
While he might be as famous as Michael Jordan in Turkey, as Rockets coach Ime Udoka recently suggested, Şengün’s story is still largely a mystery to NBA fans. It’s time to get to know Alperen Şengün.
(This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.)
So I was chatting with my editor, and he basically said that we don’t know much about you. We know the basics — starting basketball around 8, playing pro by 16 and on your way from there — but let’s go deeper on your story. How did you get here?
My first coach (Salim Tasli) was a childhood friend of (my father, Kemal) who used to play basketball with him. He had been in America for a long time, like 10 years, working at gas stations, doing really hard work. When he came back (to Turkey), I was like 7 years old. And he said, “I want to start basketball here.” … He had three kids, and he couldn’t see them growing up when he was in America. So he comes back and says, “I don’t want to go back. I want to open a basketball company, so I can teach people basketball.”
So my brother (Alican, who is eight years older) is tall too, and he started (with Tasli’s team) first when he was like 15. But it was just too late. … So we were going to watch my brother practice every time, every day, and when they were stopped, I would just go and try to shoot it all the time. After one year, I started playing basketball. From then until I was 12, I was in my small town, and (my father) was always so surprised (at how good I was). I was just watching videos to get better, going to the internet cafe in town, just watching some YouTube videos — Michael Jordan, LeBron (James).
He didn’t have a phone…
Yeah, we didn’t have that stuff in our hands. My dad was a fisherman. My mom (Ayse) wasn’t working. It was just bad, bad times. Dad had his own boat, but money-wise, we weren’t in a good spot. He was going to The Black Sea, some other cities, and then he started working with the big ships and leaving for six months. I was playing basketball in the meantime. I started swimming at the same time. I was a really good swimmer. I was always swimming with my dad, but swimming was just so boring to me.
When I went to swimming, normally you pay to go learn, but the swimming coach was just so excited about my height, my body, that he said, “We don’t want anything from you. We just want you to come and work out.” He was saying, “We’re gonna go to the Olympics with him. I promise you.” He was so sure about that. But I just didn’t feel swimming. I tried it for four or five months, two or three times a week, but I was playing basketball every day.
Did basketball excite you?
Oh, yes. My character was (more in line with) basketball. I grew up on the street, and I never liked to lose. Whenever we were going to lose, I was fighting. In practice, I was fighting with everyone. My coach was seeing that (spirit) from me. Then at 8, 9, 10, after I started watching videos and highlights of (Michael) Jordan, LeBron and Kobe (Bryant), I started doing stuff that I’d watched. My coach starts telling my dad, “I didn’t even show that move to him, and he was just doing it.” He was always so excited about me. And then when I was 12, we went to a tournament with my team in Giresun where there were some big teams, and coaches are coming to scout. There was one of the biggest basketball companies there (Banvit), (and) in my opinion, the best coach for kids in that town, Ahmet (Gürgen). He taught me basketball. … He wanted me to go to a different city, which was really far from my city.
That city, where Şengün would join the youth league of a renowned Turkish club en route to becoming professional as a 16-year-old, was Bandırma. It’s 653 miles east of his hometown, on the southern coast of the Sea of Marmara.
At that time, they didn’t have an airport, so it was like a 15-hour, 16-hour (drive) with the bus. My dad was working (away from home), so I was just seeing my family for one week total in the season, from August or September to May. We lived in a facility where everything was on it — court, kitchen. Some rooms had 10 kids. Some rooms had four players. There were 50 (players, some of whom were as much as five years older than me). And I didn’t have a phone, so you can’t even see your family on FaceTime, all those things.
I was just talking to my family from the security (station). They had a phone in the security room. I was calling my family on that, crying next to security — “Come get me. I can’t do it.” I was crying every day to see my family.
Did you want to quit altogether?
I was saying, “I don’t want to be here.” But where I’m from, they literally didn’t have anything in that town, you know? It was a small town, and I wouldn’t be anything in there if I grew up there. I would be working somewhere with some bullsh– places, you know? And they were just telling me, “Alpie, there’s nothing here (for you).” They were crying too. My mom was crying. She was missing me. But at some point, I understand that I’ve got to do this for my family. So there was just a quick time where I had to mature so quick. I understood that I’ve gotta do this for my family. I got over it.
I was already a street boy, growing up on the street. I was a bad, bad kid, you know? So at some point, I’m like, “F— it, I’ll do it.”
When you say you were a street kid and a bully kid, what does that look like?
I just grew up in the street. There were always fights. I was seeing all that stuff all the time, leaving in the morning and coming back at night — 8 or 9 p.m. I just grew up there, and I saw that life was hard. I didn’t grow up with money, so I’ve gotta earn what I want.
I was bad, (but) my friends were worse. We just didn’t have money. They were smoking, doing all the bad stuff, and I was with them in those times. If I was still with them, I would be one of them. I was still the good kid next to them, but I was still bad. Going to (soccer and basketball) games, fighting people. In Europe, fans are crazy, fighting all the time. So I’ve got a lot of memories of fighting. My arms, We were always climbing the backstop, high stuff. Old houses.
OK, why are you climbing the houses?
We were just being stupid.
What’s the worst injury you’ve had?
My arm, probably.
He turns his body to reveal the scar on his right elbow…
I got a big surgery on my arm when I was 5 years old. We were always jumping from here to there (in houses), so I jumped and I just stepped in the air. I was climbing, and it was a really high spot. So broken arm — surgery. That’s how it was. The broken arms, knees, everything. Every summer, something was happening to me. I was getting hurt.
And you didn’t have trainers waiting for you back then…
No way. It was really bad. My family was always afraid something was going to happen to me. I had a car crash, (where) a car hit me. I was almost dying.
What happened there?
When I was 6 or 7, there was a house with a gate, and we were playing inside of that. But you can’t see the outside of it. So I was running outside, and I just opened the door and there was the street. The car was there, and it just hit me so quick. It drove over my feet. It was really bad.
(My friends) picked me up and brought me to the hospital, (but) I had sandals on at that time, so the neighbors in the street brought my sandals to my mom (at her house). But they don’t say nothing (about me being at the hospital). My mom thought I was dead. It was really bad. My right (foot) was f—ed up. They were really bad times.
Yet some five years later, with swimming and the street life behind him and almost all of his time dedicated to hoops, that scrappiness would serve him well.
In places like (Bandırma), the bigger kids were always bossy — “Do this, do that.” But I was the only kid where I was never taking sh–. I was like, “No, I’m not doing it. And you can’t do anything about it. I’ll fight you. Or my coach is gonna kick your ass.”
(Gürgen) was a really hard coach. In Turkey, if you have hard coaches like that, they’re really hard. They’re cursing, you’re getting beat up — everything. But I was OK with it, because I was the guy (on the team), and I was sticking with it. I never took it personal. I look back now and think, “I’m glad I had those moments, because they made me a man. It made me a major guy.” When I was on the junior team, I was always dominating, always playing with the bigger kids. We’re coming from school at 1 p.m, and then do practice until 6 p.m. We’re practicing nonstop, running, heavy ball stuff, and then we were on the court at the end of the day.
While Şengün played for Banvit teams from the ages of 16 to 18, starring at the U16, U17 and U18 levels, the program went bankrupt in 2020 (it has since been revived). He signed with the Turkish club, Beşiktaş, that August, then went on to average 19.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.7 blocks in 28.3 minutes over 29 games (he shot 65 percent from the field). By the time he was named the MVP of the Basketball Super League — a huge honor considering it rivals the Spanish ACB as the strongest domestic league in Europe — he was officially on the NBA’s radar. In fact, he received that award on the same day he declared for the 2021 NBA Draft. The Rockets landed Şengün with the 16th pick after sending two first-round picks to Oklahoma City.
Alperen Şengün is quite familiar with the Nikola Jokić comparisons he’s received. (Thomas Shea / USA Today)
Hit the fast-forward button for me. So once you’re in the league, and you start hearing these comparisons to Joker that are pretty daunting, do you like that or not?
Yeah, I used to like it. But now I have all my game, you know? Now I have a lot of stuff. I’m using some moves from Jokić. I’m using some moves from Dirk (Nowitzki). All the stuff I’m using, I’m watching people and I’m seeing what I can do. I used to like (the Jokić comparison), but now I have my own sh–. Of course they still call me Baby Jokić, but that doesn’t bother me.
You took a leap last year (averaging 21.1 points, 9.3 rebounds, five assists and 1.2 steals in the first season under Udoka). What happened there?
Opportunity, and Ime believing in me. That was the biggest reason. He’s shown me that multiple times — last year, this year. He always trusted me. And that’s one of the things in life. You want to find someone that has trust in you. I was always the guy. So in my first two years (under then-coach Stephen Silas) … it was (Kevin Porter Jr.) at that time, Jalen (Green). I was the fourth, fifth option on the team. So I was just trying to earn my stuff, offensive rebound, all that stuff. But now, I’m the first or second option, and Ime gave this to me. I have that confidence now. Last year, there were some games where I was playing bad and Ime was still giving me the game ball. These guys trust in me, so I’ve gotta do something.
Whoever trusts me, or backs me up, I will take care of them all my life. That’s how I was when I was kid. … That’s my personality. And Ime trusted me, so I just couldn’t fail him, you know? Everyone wants to be successful here. I want to be successful, too, and I just want to give my everything, whatever I’ve got.
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So what do you think is the ceiling here? You guys are second in the West. You’re pushing for All-Stars. You obviously signed the kind of contract you never could have imagined when you were a kid. Where does this all go?
Yeah, I couldn’t have imagined. I think since I came here, I was always feeling we have good players. We have good talents. You know, we just didn’t know how to play together. But now we play together, and like even my first two years, we didn’t have a really good team. … But I knew it was coming, and we had a great group. Since Ime and his group have been here, everything has changed. Nothing was comfortable anymore, and that’s the biggest reason. I like that a lot. When I was playing bad, I was on the bench. That’s where I’m supposed to be. There’s no, “Oh, you’re the guy. You’re gonna play the whole game.” That’s not Ime’s mentality. If you’re not playing (well), someone (will play for you).
What about for you, individually? What’s the vision?
I was just talking to my family before I came here, and I was (saying how) I couldn’t imagine being in the NBA and being one of the best in the league — being one of the best players on the team. I wouldn’t imagine that. In Turkey, I was the guy on the team. But I couldn’t imagine coming to the NBA, where we’re playing this game (in video game form) on PS5 or PS4, come here and be one of the best players in the league. I couldn’t imagine that. But the ambition (drove me). You want to be. You want to be. You want to be. That was me all the time. I want to be the best. I want to be the best, you know? And I want to (make) my dad (proud), and my mom.
Can you imagine it now?
Yeah, of course. I’m still pushing myself every day. Yeah, I’m gonna be the best. I’m gonna be the best.
(Top photo of Alperen Şengün: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
