Bertans

One of the most pleasing teams to follow in the OMNITEL U18 European Championship is Latvia who finished Group E in the 2nd spot in front of teams like France and Spain who usually see the Latvians from a higher ranking.

One of the bigger reasons why Latvia is such an eye pleasing squad is Davis Bertans who could easily compile a nice highlight clip from his performance in this championship.

Davis Bertans is a good shooter and likes attacking the rim which certainly helped in averaging 13.3 points per game

Standing at 2.05m supported with a long and very athletic body Bertans provided the fans some of their best moments with his high flying dunks and acrobatic moves.

Despite his great length the Latvian sensation is playing the small forward position and enjoys success so far with 13.3 ppg, 7.2 rpb and 1.7 bpg that are 3 of the 8 statistical categories in which he's ranked among the top 10.

Bertans wasn't included in the U18 team of Latvia last year and was still very limited in his game 2 years ago with the U16.

His big improvement can't be over looked as now he's one of the best players in his age category.

"I play with in the 2nd division in Latvia and playing against senior players all the year big minutes helped me improve my game," he explains the great jump in his ability in the last year.

Yet Bertans also brings to the court a great show, as the second he finds an open lane to the rim he will attack and probably finish with an explosive dunk thanks to his great leaping ability.

"It's always better to dunk than to shoot, because you have a better chance to score," explains the young talent.

"My idol was Michael Jordan, so maybe that's another reason why I like to dunk so much.

"When I see a path to the basket I try to attack it with full confidence and make the most of it, but also keep my eyes open in case one of my team-mates is suddenly open."

Latvia is doing more than excite the fans with highlight plays. They actually win games and do it in a convincing way.

"We play together as a team and care for each other all the time," he explains.

"There's very good chemistry in the team, because we know each other very well from the domestic league.

"Against Slovenia we just weren't focussed and dropped a game we shouldn't have, but in all the other games we played very well, even today in the loss to Lithuania.

"Our goal was to go out there and play as strong as we can to show them we don't fear anybody," he adds with confidence.

Medal dreams? Not yet, despite how close they are now after making the quarter-finals.

Big brother Dairis Bertans, now on the books of BK Ventspils is an explosive guard with great leaping ability

"We need to focus on the next game and once again be 100% focussed to play our game and fight the way we know to win the game.

"Hopefully that will be enough to make the semi-finals and then we'll see what happens."

If you follow the U18 European Championships then the name "Bertans" might ring a bell or two, and for a very good reason.

Davis is the younger brother of Dairis Bertans, who already made himself a great name in the youth categories competitions.

Latvia usually make a solid performance in the European Championships - rarely fight against relegation or for a medal, yet 3 years ago, in the U18 championship in Madrid something happened.

Dairis Bertans carried his team all the way to the podium where they wore a bronze medal and he earned a spot in the All-Tournament 1st team.

Davis is now just two wins from winning a medal as well, and if he keeps his ability on the same note he has a good chance to make the All-Tournament team as well.

The two brothers were born into the world of basketball.

Their dad - Dainis Bertans is a former player who played in 2004 in the FIBA Europe Cup and raised two kids that will probably go very far.

"My father is a former player and a physical education teacher, which is also the profession of my mother, so it was very natural for us to be around basketball," he tells.

"Nobody pushed us to play the game, but since we remember ourselves we were around it and we liked it very much so it was a natural choice."

Dairis is much shorter than his younger brother and stands only at 1.92m, but still posseses the familiar great athletic ability and great dunking skills.

With two skilled basketball brothers around the house it's only natural to bring up the backg yard one-on-one question.

"Actually I managed to beat my brother only once in one-on-one," says Davis shyly.

"He's still older and physically stronger than me, and even if I have height advantage I'll need to get stronger so I could post him up," he says and continues to share.

"Last time we played, before he went to participate in the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso, we played until 11 and I was leading already 10-8, so I'm getting closer."

Following the performance of Davis in Vilnius, his older brother should start worrying about his almost perfect record in their back yard.

Perhaps the next level would be to organize a back yard dunk contest between the two slammers.

In the meantime Davis wants to survive the quarter-finals and hopefully bring another medal to the Bertans house.