The Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most popular and highest-valued basketball teams in the world, has announced that they are signing Dominican Hungarian Vincent Valerio-Bodon. The 23-year-old guard-forward spent the last season with the Lakers’ reserve team South Bay Lakers, where he played 25 games, and averaged 6.0 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.2 blocks in 18.3 minutes per game, the Lakers’ press release reveals.
Valerio-Bodon has been very close to making it into the 17-time NBA champions’ roster before. Last year, in 2023, he signed a short-term contract with them for the pre-season, but ended up not renewing for the regular season games. In the same pre-season period, he also spent some time training with the Boston Celtics, last year’s NBA champions, before joining the South Bay Lakers.
While Valerio-Bodon was born in the Dominican Republic, he spent most of his career in Hungary, playing for the teams Budapesti Honvéd, Atomerőmű SE, DEAC, and Soproni KC. He has also represented Hungary on the national team level.
He stands at 6′ 9 (207 cm), which is tall even by NBA standards, and weighs 200 pounds (91 kgs).
Valerio-Bodon could be the second Hungarian player to play in the NBA after Kornél Dávid.
Dávid played for the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors, and the Detroit Pistons between 1998 and 2001, making a total of 109 appearances in the North American basketball league, averaging five points per game as a power forward.
Another Hungarian basketball player, Ádám Hanga came very close to making his NBA debut. He was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in 2011, but never played a league game in their jersey. However, he did have a successful career in Europe afterwards, playing for Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Crvena zvezda.
While Dávid was the only player from Hungary to make an appearance in the NBA, there have been two Hungarians who have made it to the WNBA. They are both Americans who took on Hungarian citizenships later in life while playing in Europe, then went back to play in the WNBA in their home country.
Point guard Courtney Vandersloot is originally from Kent, Washington. She got drafted by the WNBA team Chicago Sky in 2011, then transferred to play for European teams such as Beşiktaş (Türkiye) and Wisla Can Pack (Poland). She was granted Hungarian citizenship in 2016, and made her debut in the Hungarian national team later that year.
Point guard/shooting guard Allie Quigley is from Joliet, Illinois. She is actually Courtney Vandersloot's wife, the two Hungarian internationals got married in 2019. She too has played for the Chicago Sky; as well as the Phoenix Mercury, San Antonio Silver Stars, Seattle Storm, and Indiana Fever in WNBA and Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray (both Turkish clubs) and Famila Schiao (Italian) in Europe.
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