101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
by then, shared with us some details about the signings
made in the summer of 2005, just after he landed:
“Trajan was, together with Matjaz Smodis and David
Vanterpool, the signings I put as a condition for me to
jump on board. I thought that with them, I could try to
win the EuroLeague. Trajan had an unbelievable work
ethic. Everybody remembers the shooter, but I also
took notice of his great defensive fundamentals. On
offense, he was an old-school shooter. He was able to
play and shoot after contact, a feature of the greats.
Also, he was a very well-educated man, with a great
college formation. I think he had finished two degrees,
math and history.”
Langdon’s education was a family thing. His father,
Dr. Steve Langdon, was an anthropology professor
at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Trajan went
with his father on many of his trips around Alaska.
His name Trajan comes from the Roman emperor
(98-117 BC), known as the man who stopped chasing
the Christians. Langdon’s father helped him a lot between
the ages of 8 and 13, getting him ready for the
life of an elite sportsman. When his father was sure
that his son was ready for the top, he sent a letter
in the spring of 1992 to Tommy Amaker, an assistant
coach for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Once there, Langdon
started his true career, which would make him
into one of the best Americans to play in Europe in
the 21st century.
Shooters are, in most cases, a bit selfish, but Messina
assures us that Langdon was not your usual shooter
in that way:
“He was always a team player, with a strong personality
in the locker room, but always by the coach’s side.”
In the final stretch of Langdon’s first season in CS-
KA, the team made the 2006 EuroLeague Final Four
in Prague. It was another attempt at the crown, to try
to win it for the first time since 1971. In the semifinal
against Barcelona, which CSKA won 84-75, Langdon
was not the best man on the court, but he scored 13
points as great support for J.R. Holden (29 points) and
Smodis (17). The big final against Maccabi Tel Aviv was
waiting. CSKA won 73-69 and Langdon ended up with
11 points, but Messina gives us more insight into Langdon’s
performance:
“In the final game he hardly took any shots during
the second half, but when Maccabi erased our advantage
and even jumped ahead by a point with six minutes
left, I called for a play for Trajan. He answered with
a three. We never lost the lead again and we won that
game. Without trying to take credit from anyone else, I
think that was the basket of the game.”
Final Four MVP of 2008
Trajan Langdon won his second European crown
two years later, in Madrid in 2008, on the 50th anniversary
of European club competitions that had started
in 1958. CSKA won 83-79 in the semifinal against
Tau Ceramica and Langdon scored 9 points. But in the
final, he scored 17 points, making 4 of 5 threes, and
went on to claim Final Four MVP honors. His performance
index rating of 33 was the second best in any
single-game final this century. He was also selected
for the All-EuroLeague First Team in 2007 and 2008,
after having been on the second team in 2006. His
personal records in the EuroLeague are 45 minutes
played against Partizan on May 9, 2010, in the thirdplace
game at that year’s Final Four. He also matched
his career high with 32 points in that game and had an
index rating of 37, his best ever and the best seen in
any Final Four game this century.
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