In a player’s career, certain performances can prove to be turning points, for better or for worse. For FIATC Girona’s Dominican forward Jassel Pérez, Sunday’s game against Leyma Coruña should undoubtedly be one of them. With his team missing several key players —American point guard Stanley Whittaker and forwards Pep Busquets and Maxi Fjellerup— Pérez erupted for 40 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, to lead Girona to a crucial victory. It was the Catalan side’s second win of the Liga Endesa season and came against a direct rival in the battle to avoid relegation from Spain’s top basketball division.
With nine three-pointers, two rebounds, two assists and four steals, Pérez finished with a performance index rating of 41, capping a historic display that offered another glimpse of a talent that has long been widely recognised but has yet to show itself consistently throughout his career. His progress has been punctuated by disciplinary issues involving the 25-year-old, who was born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic.
In the fourth round of the Liga Endesa, Girona entered the final quarter trailing 74–76 but ultimately pulled away for a convincing 110–90 win, outscoring their opponents 36–14 over the final 10 minutes. Pérez was sensational down the stretch, knocking down all five of his three-point attempts in the quarter. His 40-point haul was a rare feat in the modern Liga Endesa, where tight rotations and the demands of team basketball make such scoring outbursts increasingly uncommon. Only Mario Hezonja had reached the 40-point mark in the previous five seasons. Pérez now ranks among the competition’s most impressive individual scoring performances of the 21st century, although he remains short of Sylven Landesberg’s 48-point benchmark, which has stood since 2018, playing for Estudiantes. His outburst also shattered Girona’s previous club record for points in a Liga Endesa game, surpassing the 30 scored by Ike Iroegbu in 2023.
Pérez was also instrumental in helping Bàsquet Girona set several club records: most points in a game without overtime (110), most three-pointers made (20), highest performance index rating (129) and largest scoring margin in a single quarter, with the team’s 22-point advantage in the fourth. His next challenge is to prove that this performance —packed with the offensive weapons he has demonstrated for years that he possesses— was no one-off. There were already encouraging signs of consistency this season, with Pérez averaging 23.2 points per game through the first four rounds.
Yet the main label Pérez must continue to contend with has little to do with his talent and everything to do with his behaviour. He grew up playing basketball on the streets, where his natural feel for the game was evident from an early age, but did not enter organised basketball until relatively late. As a result, more than a few coaches who have worked with him have described him as a “raw talent who still needs taming.” On the one hand, despite his undeniable technical ability, he must learn to embrace tactical discipline and the demands of the team game if he is to build a lasting career at the highest level. On the other —and perhaps more importantly— he must get a handle on personal habits that, at various points in his life, have spiralled out of control and fallen short of the standards expected of a professional athlete.
Pérez began his professional career in the 2021–22 season with the Dominican Republic’s Titanes del Licey before moving to the Mexico City Capitanes of the NBA G League. He then spent several seasons splitting his time between Titanes del Licey and Venezuela’s Spartans Distrito Capital. In 2025, he signed for Covirán Granada in the Liga Endesa, reuniting with Spanish coach Ramón Díaz, who had previously coached him at Capitanes and whom Pérez has described on occasion as a father figure in basketball.
Aware of the Dominican’s enormous potential, Díaz has consistently sought to strike the right balance between nurturing him and holding him accountable, recognising that Pérez is an exceptional player both for what he can do on the court and for the challenges he can present off it. That relationship helps explain their reunion in Granada, although Pérez spent the first few weeks of the season on loan at Alega Cantabria in Primera FEB, Spain’s second tier. Injuries at Covirán soon forced the club that held his registration rights to call him back.
Pérez began to showcase his ability on the court, but also revealed that he could struggle to adapt to the collective demands of a team environment. Ultimately, Granada’s relegation released him from the second year of his contract. Last summer, despite all the controversy surrounding him, FIATC Girona emerged as the club most willing to take a chance on him. The team is already beginning to reap the rewards of that decision.
Pérez’s journey, however, has always been accompanied by questions about his behaviour and his competitive and personal maturity. A year ago, he was even sent home from a Dominican Republic national team camp for disciplinary reasons after videos emerged showing him at a nightclub in the early hours of the morning. During the same camp, the forward also arrived late for the pre-game warm-up ahead of a matchup against Mexico, ultimately prompting the Dominican Basketball Federation to remove him from the squad. Similar incidents occurred during his time in Granada, where his behaviour even cost him a place in the lineup for some games towards the end of the season.
With Pérez, therefore, the equation involves weighing everything he can bring on the court against the risks posed by his undisciplined approach off it. His talent and ability to tilt a game in his team’s favour on the offensive end are beyond question. Whoever can help him bring his personal life into line with the demands of the professional game will have a rare piece of raw talent to mould —one of the most intriguing prospects in European basketball.
For now, FIATC Girona appears to be moving in that direction. If the club succeeds, Pérez could emerge as one of the breakout stars of the season in Spain. And a player who begins knocking on the door of the EuroLeague.
Ultimately, his future is in his own hands, and will depend in no small part on his behaviour. For now, just four rounds into the season, he has already made history with his new team.
