At just 23 years old, after delivering a spectacular performance in the Liga Endesa Finals to lead Valencia Basket to only the second league title in club history, Dominican guard Jean Montero has become one of the most sought-after players in European basketball. His recent move to reigning EuroLeague champion Olympiacos is the latest proof of that status. Even on a roster already overflowing with offensive talent, Montero is expected to play a major role from day one.
Known as “El Problema” (“The Problem”) —a nickname coined by a Dominican basketball website during the 2016 FIBA U16 Americas Championship to describe the havoc he was causing on the court— Montero has spent years clearing every hurdle placed in front of him, consistently proving he is ready for the next level. Named the Liga Endesa’s Best Young Player in 2023, 2024 and 2025 —the first player ever to win the award three consecutive times— and selected to the All-Liga Endesa First Team in both 2025 and 2026, the Dominican has firmly established himself as one of Europe’s premier offensive talents.
His numbers in this year’s ACB Finals against Barcelona belonged to another era: 23.8 points per game across the four-game series (24, 19, 29 and 23 points from Game1 to Game 4), along with 4.3 rebounds, 5.5 assists and a 30.3 efficiency rating on average. Statistical production rarely seen in a championship series since Arvydas Sabonis posted a 34 efficiency rating in the 1994 Finals and Jordi Villacampa averaged 26 points per game in 1990.
Today, virtually every top club in Europe would love to have Jean Montero on its roster. Less than four years ago, however, the reality could not have been more different.
In fact, as astonishing as it sounds today, by the end of 2022 almost nobody was willing to give him an opportunity.
Montero arrived at Gran Canaria in 2019 as a 16-year-old already carrying the reputation of being one of the brightest young prospects in world basketball. He quickly stood out with the club’s reserve team in LEB Plata, Spain’s third division, and even made his Liga Endesa debut with the senior squad, displaying remarkable confidence despite being only 17 years old. At the time, though, few could have imagined that he would play just five games for Gran Canaria’s first team.
During the 2021-22 season, Montero continued his development at Overtime Elite in the United States, hoping to open the door to the NBA. That opportunity never came. He went undrafted, with many scouts apparently unconvinced by his slender frame despite the obvious talent he continued to display.
It was after that disappointment that an almost unimaginable situation unfolded.
Gran Canaria still owned his Spanish rights but did not believe he was yet ready to earn a permanent place on its first-team roster. At the same time, a reputation —fair or not— of being a difficult personality followed him around. As a result, even several clubs in both LEB Oro (Spain’s second division) and LEB Plata declined the possibility of taking him on loan at the start of the 2022-23 season.
Montero therefore spent nearly half a season without a team, training in the United States, until Real Betis finally offered him a route back to the ACB early in 2023.
Betis were fighting a losing battle to avoid relegation —they would eventually go down— but Montero’s impact was immediate. He averaged 17.8 points and a 16.9 efficiency rating, instantly establishing himself as one of the league’s breakout performers. His subsequent stops at MoraBanc Andorra (one season) and Valencia Basket (two seasons) have only reinforced what many now take for granted: he is one of the finest talents to emerge from FIBA basketball in recent years.
Speaking recently on the Spanish basketball radio show Tirando a Fallar, former Betis head coach Luis Casimiro recalled the remarkable circumstances surrounding Montero’s arrival.
“Berdi Pérez, who was our sporting director at the time, knew him from Gran Canaria. He came to me and said, ‘We can sign Jean Montero. He’s in the United States and isn’t doing anything.’ I know there was one LEB Oro team interested in him, but nobody else wanted him. Nobody.
“What did I find? A wonderful kid, very affectionate, and once he started practicing with us we immediately saw the relationship he had with the ball. He was incredibly talented. There were things he could do that you simply can’t teach unless they’re natural.
“As a person he’s exceptional —someone you grow to love— and he genuinely wanted to learn everything he didn’t already have. What was he missing? Mostly team defense. Individually, he has incredible instincts for steals. You can be dribbling and he’ll just take the ball away from you, or he’ll jump a passing lane before you even realize it. But off the ball he was often lost defensively.
“The difference was that he wanted to learn. He was always asking me, ‘Coach, study me. Watch the game focusing only on me and tell me how I can improve.’ We’d break down every game in great detail. He was obsessed with learning the things that didn’t come naturally. That’s why I’m not surprised at all by what’s happening to him now.”
Looking back, it seems almost impossible to believe that less than four years ago Jean Montero had virtually no offers to keep playing professional basketball.
Yet that is exactly what happened.
