MANRESA (Spain) - JR Bremer, Jorge Garbajosa, Stephane Risacher. These are just a few names of Unicaja's protagonists in the club's second-ever trophy win, after the 2000-01 FIBA Korac Cup. It was February 20, 2005.
It was the Copa del Rey, held in Zaragoza, and the team from Malaga ultimately beat Real Madrid 80-76 in the final clash of the tournament.
Mario Saint-Supery wasn't even born. 18 years had passed since that date, and on February 20, 2023, he posted on Instagram a photo of him kissing the same trophy. Unicaja were once again Copa del Rey champions.
That same season, the Spanish teenager would have witnessed cruel moments as well - losing the Basketball Champions League Final Four at home must have been one of those.
The following season, Ibon Navarro's team found revenge by winning in Belgrade, claiming their first-ever BCL trophy. Mario Saint-Supery had started the season in Malaga, but left in January to grow.
In 2024-25, it was time to cut the cord.
But where could he have found another place that felt like home? Not that far away, keeping ACB and BCL as his guiding stars.
Manresa's the place to be
"I think he's in the ideal environment. Manresa, historically, is an ideal place for a young man who wants to grow and want to focus only on his development in the game."
Who's speaking? Well, the coach of that 2005 Unicaja team lifting the 2005 Copa del Rey trophy: Sergio Scariolo.
The Italian mastermind, in everyone's hearts when the topic is about the success of Spanish basketball, knows Mario Saint-Supery pretty well.
It's under the experienced head coach that the now 18-year-old managed to find his first real minutes with the senior national team. With La Familia.
Before making the jump with Spain at the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers, he had been a man on a mission representing his country worldwide at the youth level. Getting back-to-back silver medals at FIBA U16 EuroBasket in 2022 and FIBA U18 EuroBasket in 2023 was huge.
Despite not getting any medals, he also completely dominated the latest FIBA U18 EuroBasket in 2024, averaging 21.4 points, 6.3 assists, and 5.4 rebounds.
"Ibon Navarro will certainly have had an important decisional weight because he was in Manresa for a couple of years," Scariolo continues.
If he was the one giving Saint-Supery his debut with Spain, Unicaja's head coach gave him first opportunities with his city's beloved club.
Now, however, there's a new tactic guidance next to the young Spanish gem.
"Diego Ocampo is an excellent coach in general, and especially in coaching young players," Scariolo says.
"He had him last year, he wanted him back this year and he's proving with the facts that he's not afraid to give minutes to young players."
Indeed, that's not the first season the Spanish coach and the 18-year-old talent are working together.
After starting the 2023-24 season once again in Malaga, Saint-Supery decided to join Tizona Burgos in January, in the middle of the season.
"Going to Burgos last year was good for him because when you're in the bubble of an ACB team like Unicaja you think everything is like that. But the reality is different, isn't it?" Diego Ocampo rhetorically asked.
It's different. Mario adapted with 11.8 points per game.
"I remember the first game he had in Oviedo. From then on, all the experiences he had last year in LEB Oro helped him a lot. I saw that from up close," his current head coach recalls.
"He went to a place where he played with responsibility and where nothing was forgiven to him as a child out of the youth system: he had to meet certain requirements that all professional players of any age must ultimately ensure," Scariolo adds.
That wasn't the first time Mario was confronted with life-changing decisions. Those that can really make a difference down the line reflecting on what looks like a really promising career. As BAXI Manresa's coach remembers, in 2022 there was another turnaround.
"He took an important life decision when he was 16 years old, moving to practice with Unicaja in Malaga and starting to study online. It's a big sacrifice."
"You stop going out with your friends to go to practice and then, when you're at home, you have to be studying. But I think that gave him good maturity," Ocampo says.
Being able to breathe the same air as Unicaja has done in the past few years recently refreshed him.
"It was crucial for him to see the example set by Unicaja players, who compete very well. They are a team with very good cohesion, who do things with effort and discipline."
"Growing up in a very good youth system like Unicaja's was an important starting point. Then he had the opportunity to practice with a solid team, with good principles and with an organization, a system in which he lived his first collective basketball course," Scariolo says.
The first sacrifices in Malaga to follow the dream goal of making a name for himself at Unicaja, the short but intense parenthesis in Burgos, only two victories away from gaining promotion, and now Manresa.
Mario Saint-Supery "has always chosen where to go and he takes advantage of where he's at," according once again to the 49-year-old head coach.
Scariolo knows about it too, and he believes there couldn't have been a better place for his next step:
"Everyone knows that it is perhaps an ideal place, one of the best places in Europe to grow and focus on basketball in a healthy club, which chooses well."
Who's Mario Saint-Supery?
But who's really the 18-year-old next big thing for Spanish basketball? What are really his secrets? The Spanish national team's head coach has the answer.
"Mario is a player of great instinct, with excellent predisposition and a remarkable interest for the game: he likes it, and has passion. Unlike other players, who have a certain awe with me at the beginning, he's very open, sunny, polite, but definitely not a shy guy."
"I appreciated seeing him very open and able to say not the things you want to hear, but what he really thinks. I'd first underline his passion, openness, and extroversion," Scariolo describes.
"I have no doubt that he will become a strong player, personality-wise."
"Clearly, it will take time because he is a boy - and he's perfectly conscious of it - who is in an apprenticeship phase, he has many things to learn. But personality is really important."
If head coaches perceive, teammates are likely to know more. And Saint-Supery is lucky enough to have guys next to him like Cameron Hunt and Derrick Alston Jr.
"He's fearless, he doesn't play scared, he understands the guys he's playing against. I just see it every day. He doesn't care if he messes up. He wants to try new things. He just wants to get better every day," Hunt says of his young teammate.
"I honestly forget at times that he's 18. He's not afraid to fail. When you're playing against older guys, you gotta have that mentality. He has a really great mindset," Alston follows.
Manresa's #24 keeps on describing him with the nicest of words, considering Saint-Supery the "best young teammate" he has had, and "probably the best 18-year-old" he has seen in a while.
"He's a way ahead of his time in my eyes," Hunt continues.
If BAXI Manresa managed to arrive until the end of the Basketball Champions League Round of 16 still in the race for getting a spot in the Quarter-Finals, it's also thanks to him.
His 16-point performance against Bertram Derthona Basket at home to turn things around and get the tiebreaker at the end of the Regular Season was something out of the box for a guy of his age.
Generally, as the season progressed, he has always looked up to the challenge.
"In the BCL, games are always physical, against opponents with a high level of experience. There's good athleticism and the level on both sides is very high," Ocampo says.
"At 18 you can't have the same physical capacity you have at 25, and that's perfectly fine. Sometimes frustration may come out because one can see himself getting close to a certain level and then actually figuring out, he's not there yet."
"But a clear development motivates guys like Mario when they find out they're getting close to certain levels. Games like the ones we played in the BCL are important for his training," he adds.
The same thought comes out of Alston's mind, as the team's leader and highest scorer (18.7 points per game in the BCL) believes that "getting experience under your belt is always important, and being able to get it at such a young age is always great."
"Coming into this season I think everybody knew he had the talent, but obviously you got to put it, get the reps behind it also, and then be in those different environments. He's excelled."
Whether Manresa make it or not to the BCL Quarter-Finals, wherein the 2021-22 season they took out Unicaja to qualify for the Final Four held in Bilbao, the 2024-25 campaign will still remain a solid one for his trajectory, considering his first season playing also internationally.
"His growth has been constant, which is rare nowadays; there is certainly still much room for improvement, and his dimension is to have an even more important role in the upcoming year. There are not many guys who at his age had deserved to be at this point," Scariolo underlines.
Keeping your head up
Getting back to his usual shape after suffering a sprained ankle at the beginning of 2025, he returned home with a solid approach in a game that was difficult emotionally-wise for him.
With less than one month before his 19th birthday, it's a matter of taking his evolution day by day, without rushing or feeling behind anybody else. Diego Ocampo, who has known him now for more than some sporadic months, stresses this topic out.
"It's just a matter of evolving. Above all else, I'm happy because he's working normally. He's figuring out what he's going through, and that's a positive reinforcement for him and his growth."
"We have to understand ups and downs are normal when you're this young; those who accompany and help the player must have patience and tranquility when things go well, and must calm down when things go badly," Manresa's coach continues.
In February, he got even more experience by suiting up once again for the Spanish national team. Something that is a win-win situation for everybody involved.
"It helps him a lot personally and it helps us too, because instead of having him for a week doing individual training, he's practicing with an amazing head coach, competing during windows. That's an extra help in the process he's going through," Ocampo mentions.
Talking about his coach when playing for La Familia, he made sure he could react well to difficulties that could emerge. At the end of the day, this isn't youth-level basketball anymore.
"In the window, between the first game and the second, I expressed to him my disappointment to see him not use his great physical abilities also in the defensive phase; in the second game [against Belgium], he already gave me very good answers," Scariolo recalls.
While his personality seems unmatched at this age considering the kind of experiences he has gone through in the past few years, in which aspects can he focus on becoming a better player?
"He has all the tools: he's strong, he's a big guard. He can shoot it pretty well, he's pretty athletic for kids around his age and for his position. I just think it'll be a matter of time and experience, so the game will really slow down for him, and he will just see everything," Hunt believes.
"With time and experience he will just figure out how to use his tools in the right way and put it all together. I think that takes time, but he's learning that game by game, practice by practice. As time goes on, he'll continue to have the game slowed down for him and learn how to really use his physical tools as well as his IQ even more to help him be more successful," Alston adds.
While physically he's already excelling when it comes to boosting his speed thanks to a powerful lower part of the body, which is very explosive, he still needs to get better on the upper side.
"He has a certain toughness in playing with contact, so he is not only an important player athletically, but he also doesn't back down physically. He has a great skill in going to the rim, and an ability to read the corridors that the defense leaves him," Scariolo says.
Moving on to the technical side of things, there are two parts of his game when he can make the next step. The first one regards the defensive adjustments.
"If stimulated, he is a player who can be very important in defense; he still has breaks, sometimes. It's still a bit up and down from this point of view."
Then, it's a matter of passing the ball better and better if you're aiming to become the next big thing in the point guard position not only for the Spanish national team, but even with club competitions, internationally, and in Europe's best domestic league.
"That's not a weak point in absolute, but Mario being a player who tends many times to put down his head and go deep into the area, the great step forward that is available only to very few players is to be able to pass the ball, especially outside, on the perimeter; but still to make the best pass choice when he is really under the basket."
"That's the big step of improvement, which will turn him into a truly multi-dimensional player with no weak points. In essence, there are stages to improve, but on which I think he can definitely improve; the defensive continuity and the fact of maintaining this aggressiveness in attacking the area, raising your head a little more," Scariolo follows.
So, keep your head up, Mario!
When it comes to passing the ball when double-teamed close to the basket, and when it comes to dealing with a difficult stretch of bad games and performances.
Time will tell if Manresa progresses to the BCL Quarter-Finals or if the team will manage to clinch a spot in the ACB Playoffs. What's sure is that having this gem around helps everybody.
At only 18 years of age, Mario Saint-Supery has already lived what most of his peers would never even imagine.
Now it's only a matter of keeping on progressing, normally. It takes something special to be part of a new generation of winning players from Spain.