Lamarr Greer is thriving on both the domestic and European fronts for UNICS Kazan this season and the American gives much of the credit to coach Stanislav Eremin.

The 1.96meters guard looks to be having so much fun during games, in fact, that some observers in Russia have labelled him a "playground player".

Others, including Greer himself, say that Eremin is only allowing the player to express himself on the court.

		Greer has been a key figure in UNICS' unbeaten FEL run

"It's very good that our coach doesn't restrict me and he likes initiative," Greer said in an interview with Sport Express.

Playground player or not, Greer has paid huge dividends. He's been immense in the FIBA Europe League and in the Superleague.

In Europe, they are unbeaten nine games into their Group A campaign. No one has been able to challenge them. In Russia, they are second only to CSKA Moscow.

He's been so good of late in Russia that the Superleague named him Player of the Month for December.

The former Napoli star scored 32 points in UNICS' recent contest against Ural-Great and against Avtodor he was equally influential, pouring in 22 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and totalling eight assists.

Greer has come a long way since honing his skills in America, where he was the New Jersey High School Player of the Year and a member the Parade All America second team.

He elected to play collegiately at Florida State, a university which counts actor Burt Reynolds among its famous alumni. The Tallahassee sunshine and Atlantic Coast Conference was a long way away from the northeast for Greer, but Russia is almost a world away.

Greer couldn't have imagined back then that he would be living in Eastern Europe one day but he's proved it's not the place that matters, but the game. And Greer is very good at the game of basketball.

He says UNICS, who also boast the sublime talents of Saulius Stombergas and Eurelijus Zukauskas, a couple of Lithuania's Eurobasket winners,  have a legitimate shot at the title in Europe.

"The FIBA Europe League is a realistic aim," he said. "We'll do our best to win it."

He is smart enough not to get too far ahead of himself, though.

"I wouldn't say that our rivals have been weak," he said. "It's just that UNICS is a very good team. We have former NBA players, players of high European level and Russian national team players."