Edy Tavares is one of the EuroLeague's most dominant players. He is been named Defensive Player of the Year three times and is presently the Final Four MVP. But, things could have turned out quite differently if he had not made that decision six years ago.

According to MARCA's Jose Luis Martinez, there was a great possibility that Tavares would have joined Barcelona in 2017 before joining Real Madrid, which would have drastically altered the European basketball landscape.

After Ognjen Kuzmic suffered an injury in October of 2017, Real Madrid considered Tavares as a replacement. Nonetheless, his representative told at the time that the player's preferred option was to stay in the NBA G-League before joining a European project.

Barcelona was that project in Europe. They had a pre-contract deal with Tavares to replace Ante Tomic in the 2018-19 season. That is when Real Madrid swooped in, proposing a three-year, €2 million-per-year contract that the player's camp found enticing.

On November 7th, 2017, three weeks after Kuzmic's injury, Tavares signed with Real Madrid. The rest, as they say, is history.