Juan Gomez de Liaño takes talents to Lithuanian pro league

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Young superstar guard Juan Gomez de Liaño finally broke his silence regarding the next step in his professional basketball career.

After winning the 2022 PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, the leftie product of the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons is headed to Lithuania and will play in the Lietuvos Krepsinio Lyga professional basketball league.

De Liaño will be rendering his services to the Lithuanian basketball club BC Wolves and already secured a one-year contract.

The Wolves also formally welcomed the Filipino hoops star after posting a video uploaded on their YouTube channel last Thursday.

De Liaño will be joining a talented BC Wolves team that is currently holding an impressive 4-1 win-loss record in the ongoing season.

The leftie combo guard will have the chance to make his highly-anticipated debut in Europe when the team squares off against BC Siauliai next week.

Before accepting the offer from Lithuania, de Liaño also had a one-year stop at the Japan B. League after playing with the Tokyo Z basketball club.

However, de Liaño wasn’t able to play all games during his stint due to recurring injuries and was always deployed on minutes restriction.

After Japan, de Liaño came back to the Philippines and played for the Gilas Pilipinas men’s national basketball team together with Dwight Ramos and Thirdy Ravena under the tutelage of Chot Reyes.

De Liaño also had a brief stop-over in Indonesia and dazzled the Southeast Asian fans with his wide array of offensive moves in the 3×3 scene.

The former UP Fighting Maroon is the second Filipino to play in Europe after former NU Lady Bulldog Jack Animam’s stint with the Radnicki Kragujevac in the Serbian basketball league.