My name is Levente László Kupai (29.05.2006.), a basketball player. I am playing for the second year as a foreign player of the CBA Badajoz team in Spain in the EBA league. In position 3, I have been playing basketball for 14 years.
One of the most important motivations for me is my family background. I was born into a family where sport has always held a special place. My maternal grandfather played volleyball and then became a coach, and my mother swam competitively and played handball. My father still plays basketball to this day, training and playing in the old boys' court; sometimes he leads games and organizes basketball tournaments.
In a word, the family started and keeps me on this path, with their continuous support and help.
I started playing basketball at the age of 4 at MTK Dunaharaszti. I can thank this club and my coaches there, especially Viktor Tóth and my fellow players, for making me fall in love with this wonderful game for life; I will be forever grateful to them. During those times, when someone asked me, I confidently answered: "I want to be a basketball player when I grow up."
At the age of 8, we moved to the capital, and I became a player for MAFC. I played there for 6 years, and I also found the basics of my playing style there. I have a lot of good memories, routines and experiences thanks to the MAFC team and, above all, thanks to one of my coaches, Zoltán Csányi. I was a member of the Budapest national team for 4 years, and that's when I became a member of the age group national team. In the U14 age group, we reached the national finals with MAFC, and I am very proud of my average of 29.5 points in the last year.
In 2021, I transferred to the SE team of the Paks Atomerőmű SE, where a very strong U16 team was formed over the years with Jan Pavlik, in my opinion the best U coach in the country. In the year I arrived there, we already reached the National Championship final, which we eventually lost, but what we achieved was still a huge achievement. My season performance: 23 PPG and 11 RBG.
I was also selected for the Hungarian U16 national team, where we achieved 3rd place at the Szent István tournament and I scored my first 4 points in the national red, white and green colors. It was an uplifting feeling to represent my country in the jersey with the crest. In that year, I was invited to the Italian Prep Academy team (IPA) for one more EYBL tournament, where I received the "Man of the match" award for my performance of 23 points and 14 rebounds.
In the following Paks season, I was able to train regularly with the NB1A team, and at the end of the season I was finally able to play in the Hungarian first division, where I scored the first points of my life among adults in the NB1-A.
We reached the National Finals in the U18 season as well, and I took home the "Player of the Team" title, with an average of 18.5 points, which was the second best performance in the entire field.
At that time I already knew that I would spend my next year in Spain with the CBA Academy team, so that I could continue to develop under Carlos Cardenas and Alexey Carvalho in the Spanish championship in the EBA league.
Stepping onto the international stage really helped me a lot in my development. It is very important to me that we are a community in the team, with similar motivation, dedication, will and goals, even though our languages, cultures and pasts are different. A family where everyone has a role, where everyone pushes the cart in the same direction. When someone is having a bad day, we stand with them and give support, and motivate and help each other, so we can lift the team and ourselves. The chemistry within the team must work so that the focus is always on the game.
For me, basketball means continuous dynamics. Development as an individual, development within the team, together with the team, as well as preparation for the opponents and the implementation of the coaching strategy, both at individual and team levels.
I will do everything to make my dream come true. I know that the road is long and the final goal is still far away, but I am prepared for further tasks. It's almost unbelievable to me that after so many years of hard work, invested energy and many, many setbacks, I can now talk about this as a realistic possibility.
