From Iceland to Peoria, one young prospect's basketball journey to Bradley

PEORIA — Almar Atlason could be the next big international thing for the Bradley Braves men's basketball team.

The program has had great success with foreign players under coach Brian Wardle, and Atlason passes the eye test. Think Missouri Valley Conference All-Newcomer Team candidate.

The kid from a non-traditional basketball nation — Iceland — is a 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward who is a lethal shooter from long range. His defense will need development, but he projects as an impact player in Bradley's system as a true freshman.

"After my under-18 European championship performance (Bradley assistant coach) Mike Bargen reached out," Atlason said. " I took my time senior year, made that decision. It just felt like a great fit."

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Atlason also had offers from UC Santa Barbara, Indiana State, Campbell, Maine, Nebraska, Jacksonville, San Jose State, North Texas and Chattanooga. Yet a visit to Bradley last April sealed the deal for the then-senior at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kansas.

"Bradley played the style of basketball I see myself fitting well in," Atlason said. "BU really stuck out. I left my visit thinking, 'This could be home.' "

Home is an island

Atlason grew up in central Reykjavik, the largest city on the island of Iceland. The nation's population is just 335,000 and the island falls just outside the edge of the Arctic Circle. It's 3,161 miles from Peoria, a flight of about 6 hours and 30 minutes.

"It's an amazing country," Atlason said. "Small, but very safe and a lot of outdoors activity, people take care of each other.

"It's actually a big sports nation."

Just not quite the way one might think. Handball is the national pastime in Iceland. Golf is the leading participation sport.

"In the summers, I do a lot of fly fishing and golfing," Atlason said. "Fishing is a big industry there, I mean, we're an island, right? I'm pretty good at fly fishing."

He tried handball, but there aren't many 6-8, 230-pound players bouncing around a handball court.

"I gave it a chance, I practiced it for a month," Atlason said, laughing. "Honestly, it was too boring. Great sport for a small nation, but it just wasn't for me."

The Northern Lights sit down low in the sky like a full-court press in Iceland. And the central part of the country is strewn with volcanoes, 32 of which are active.

"The lights are a regular thing, and we have those volcanic eruptions, things that just sound crazy to people when they visit," Atlason said. "You get used to it. In 18 years I've been through four volcano eruptions. The (Fagradalsfjall volcanic system) erupted in 2021, 2022 and early summer, and they were a 40-minute drive from where I live."

His name, his language and what's for dinner

Atlason speaks his native Icelandic language, but his English is also perfect because it's taught as part of mandatory classes in grade schools around the nation.

His last name is a construct of his father's first name, paired with "son" because he's a male. In Icelandic culture, a male-born child has "son" in his surname, and a female-born child has "dottir" in her surname.

Atlason's father's first name is Atli. A slight adjustment on the vowel at the end, and Bradley's player is Almar Atlason.

He has a sister, Gunnhildur, and a brother, Darri, both older. His mother, Jenny ("that's what we call her because her Icelandic name is really hard to use") is 6 feet tall.

And he has an aunt, Birna, who played for Iceland's semi-pro national basketball team.

As for the Icelandic language, there are 32 letters, including a symbol — Þ — that makes a "th" sound, like thunder. That letter was present in languages worldwide a thousand years ago, but today it lives only in Iceland.

The Icelandic alphabet has no C, Q or W, and in 1973 eliminated the letter Z. Those letters appear now only in historic references or foreign names.

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Hungry? It's an interesting menu in Iceland, a lot of lamb, reindeer, potatoes, carrots and bread.

One ceremonial meal includes bull tongue, sheep esophagus, sheep testicles, potatoes cooked in caramel and served with hot flat bread.

Another delicacy is fermented shark, usually caught in waters off Greenland.

"That's something from a small festival held in the fall," Atlason said. "Most people don't eat everything on that plate. The sheep testicles, I haven't been able to get myself to do it."

But in the Atlason home, a growing basketball player's hunger is for Kjötsúpa, a meat soup made by his mother.

"She will cook that meat soup, it's lamb with potatoes, carrots and it comes from pretty much everything people can scrape together," Atlason said. "I love it. It's my favorite thing."

Here in the U.S., he's fallen in love with Chipotle.

"We don't have that back home," he said. "Actually, we are also one of the very few countries in the world who do not have a McDonald's, either."

A basketball story

Almar Atlason was 4 years old when he picked up a basketball for the first time. He liked the game because his aunt played it, and his siblings were playing.

"I think I was 12 when I absolutely fell in love with it, made it something I wanted to chase," Atlason said. "I was always around my brother's or sister's games, I was always around the club. I looked up to the guys on the men's teams.

"It just made me fall in love with it."

In 2021-22, Atlason played in the Iceland Subway League for KR Reykjavik, putting up averages of 4.2 points and 1.5 rebounds in 22 league games.

As an 18-year-old, he participated in the European Championships for Iceland and emerged as an elite prospect internationally, averaging 17.9 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 3.1 assists through seven tournament outings.

He moved on, at age 17, to spend the equivalent of his senior year in high school at Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, flashing high-level skill as a multi-level scorer.

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"I watched NBA games, fun to watch the best in the world," Atlason said. "My favorite team is … whatever team LeBron James is on. I like the Euros now, too, and how they play.

"The main difference is athleticism between Euro and North America basketball. Over in Europe, there's a lot of thinking in the game. Not a lot of people there who can just blow by you with speed."

If he could have a dream moment in the NBA and face a player one-on-one? "Lebron, of course," Atlason said. "He's the one I've watched since I was 6 years old. I follow everything he's doing."

Wardle came off the court beaming after a practice in the final week of October. Atlason had just hit seven 3-pointers in a team scrimmage. His defense will dictate his developmental pace.

"It's a skilled league but also very physical," Atlason said. "I'm trying to get stronger defensively. I'll have to, if I want to play."

Atlason has the same dream every player on a basketball court has, to make it to the NBA someday.

Only two players from tiny Iceland have ever done so: Petur Gudmundsson, a 7-foot-2 center, played 150 NBA games with Portland, San Antonio and the Lakers in the 1980s. And Jon Stefansson, a legendary guard in Iceland's basketball world, was signed by NBA Dallas in 2003.

"Someday," Atlason said. "I'd like to make it three."

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Iceland to Bradley: One young prospect's college basketball journey