On Wednesday's EuroBasket 2025 action, Alperen Sengun and Turkey scored a major 95-90 upset victory over powerhouse Serbia led by three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. Sengun, the Houston Rockets star, was such a dominant force and he even outplayed Jokic, recording 28 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists compared to just 22 points, nine rebounds, and four assists for the Denver Nuggets star.
Sengun has drawn plenty of comparisons to Jokic over the years. They are similarly ground-bound, they are bruising presences on the interior who can score efficiently in the paint all while setting up their teammates with excellent handoffs or jaw-dropping dimes from the high post. They also have similar defensive shortcomings. The Rockets star even earned the nickname “Baby Jokic” in the process.
But for Sengun's teammate in the Turkish national team, naturalized guard Shane Larkin, that nickname should not sit well with the Rockets star as he has grand ambitions of being even better than Jokic — a lofty, if borderline impossible, goal.
“I don’t think he would want that nickname. You can see the similarities with their games. Alperen has big aspirations. Alperen is a very confident kid. Alperen has a very high level of basketball skill and a very high level of talent. The sky is the limit for him. I don’t think he’s anywhere near his ceiling. I think he’s going to continue to evolve and get better and better,” Larkin said, per Semih Tuna of Eurohoops.
Larkin added that Sengun has come into his own so well that he deserves to make a name for himself and not be put under the large shadow that the Nuggets star tends to cast.
“In his younger years, his first year, his second year, you could call him ‘Baby Jokic’ just because their styles are very similar,” Larkin added. “But he’s much bigger and much better than he was when they gave him that nickname.”
Rockets star Alperen Sengun continues to ascend
Sengun will always be compared to Jokic due to their similar play styles and due to the fact that they both hail from Europe. Domantas Sabonis is also a part of the European, do-it-all big man trio who are inevitably going to be compared with each other.
But Sengun deserves to be respected in his own right, especially when he's become a true star for the Rockets. Last year, he put up 19.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per contest, and he's only 23 years of age.
