He’s only listed at 175 centimeters (about 5 foot 9). But Yago Santos from Sao Paolo is one of the quickest players in basketball.
He’s a blur on the court at FIBA AmeriCup in Managua, where he’s a spark plug for the offense of defending champion Brazil. Yago had 25 points (including 4 three-pointers), 7 rebounds, and 4 assists in Brazil’s quarter-final victory over Dominican Republic, who couldn’t slow him down with multiple defenders.
He also showed that size in basketball isn’t always about how tall you are. Yago is adept at getting low under defenders, blowing by them and then exploding to the rim.
Yago played for Palmeiras from 2016 and won the 2022 FIBA Intercontinental Cup with Flamengo in Brazil. He was German Bundesliga Finals MVP in 2023 with Ratiopharm Ulm and also played with Chicago Bulls in 2023 NBA summer league. He signed with KK Crvena Zvezda in the Serbian league where he faces his Brazil teammate Bruno Caboclo, who plays for KK Partizan.
At age 26, Yago is quickly taking over from former former point guard Marcelinho Huertas, who retired at age 41 after winning FIBA AmeriCup titles in 2005 and 2009.
“This generation is good because of Marcelo,” Santos said. “I text him all the time when I come to Brazil for the summer on vacation, and I practice with him. I think Marcelo is special, and he did a lot for this generation. We’re happy to have had Marcelo in the past.”
Santos, while sharing ball-handling duties with Alexey Borges and Georginho De Paula, is also creating more space for his teammates on the floor. Thanks to open looks, Brazil is shooting 47.6 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from deep.
De Paula, who didn’t play against USA in the group stage, had 28 points and 7 assists against the Dominican Republic in the quarter-finals.
Caboclo scored 21 on USA in their first matchup and had 19 points and 9 rebounds against Dominican Republic.
Though they were blown out by USA at the Paris Olypics 122-87, Brazil beat USA twice at the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, most recently in February 2023. With Santos running the show, they have a good chance at a FIBA AmeriCup title.
(words and images copyright Christopher Johnson Globalite Media all rights reserved)
Globalite Magazine 
You must be logged in to post a comment.