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PRO BASKETBALL
Former New Mexico State standout Peter Filipovity thriving back in his Hungarian hometown
He's part of a growing wave of Aggies and Lobos making their mark in pro basketball overseas.
WARSAW — Three members of the New Mexico State basketball team from last season are now first-year pros in Europe: Robert Carpenter in Sweden, Peter Filipovity in Hungary and Dionte Bostick in Slovenia.
But it is clearly Filipovity who has the easiest adjustment among the trio of former Aggies — the top scorer from 2024-25 is now playing in the city where he grew up in western Hungary. That turned out to be his best option as a rookie pro.
“For me the NBA was not realistic and I did not really like the G League,” Filipovity, 24, said in a recent telephone interview. “I was there (in the United States) for seven years and was excited to get back to Europe, at least. Hungary was not first on my list, but I felt nice to be near my family.”
Filipovity played in 29 games with 21 starts and averaged a team-best 13.1 points per outing for New Mexico State last season — his only year with the Aggies after transferring from the University of Maine.
He is now playing for the club in Kaposvar, a city of about 64,000 people nearly 100 miles west of capital Budapest in central Europe. Filipovity, at 6-foot-7, was averaging 17.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in late January.
He began playing hoops in the city south of Lake Balaton, a popular summer tourist spot, when he was in elementary school. He played for the local junior club in Hungary before two years of high school ball in the United States, one year of junior college at Utah State Eastern, then three seasons at Maine before heading to the Land of Enchantment.
“I had a great experience. I was really glad I chose to go there,” he said of his season in Las Cruces. “It is a smaller city and the community is really nice. The White Sands National Park was really special and I got to El Paso a few times.”
Filipovity — who got a business degree at Maine and his MBA at New Mexico State — is now flourishing in Hungary for one of the top teams in the league.
“I think it has been a good situation. My coach here lets us play freely,” he said.
Americans abroad
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The transition to pro hoops in Europe is certainly more challenging for the 6-7 Carpenter, who is from Detroit and playing in Sweden, and the 6-2 Bostick, who grew up in Clearwater, Florida and is playing in Slovenia.
Carpenter played in 32 games with eight starts for the Aggies last season and averaged 10.1 points per game while Bostick played in 32 contests with 22 starts and scored 6.5 points an outing.
Carpenter was MVP of a game earlier this season, scoring 21 points in 25 minutes for BC Lulea in a win over Sloga Uppsala. He was averaging 15.4 points and seven rebounds per outing in late January.
Another rookie pro is Bostick, who averaged 13.7 points and 3.2 assists in his first 13 games in the domestic league with Terme Olimia.
“I had a great time playing with Dionte and Rob at NMSU. I became close with them throughout the season and became good friends,” Filipovity said. “I have talked to Dionte a couple of times (overseas) but haven’t caught up with Rob yet. My advice to them playing overseas would be that it’s a long season and they should try out all the new things that each country has to offer.”
Other former New Mexico State players who have seen action overseas this season, per eurobasket.com, include (not a full list):
- Bandja Sy (Romania)
- Jordan Rawls (Cyprus)
- Troy Gillenwater (Taiwan)
- Donnie Tillman (Georgia)
- Tshilidzi Nephawe (Japan)
- Jemerrio Jones (Kosovo)
Jones played in six games for the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2018-19 season and two more with the club in 2021-22.
Sy has also played in Spain, France, Greece and Serbia, per eurobasket.com, while Gillenwater played for pay in several Asian countries as well as Russia and Turkey, and Tillman made previous stops in Germany, Montenegro, and Portugal.
The New Mexico Lobos also have several ex-standouts who have played for pay in 2025-26, per eurobasket.com, including:
- Nelly Junior Joseph (France)
- Alex Kirk (Japan)
- Sebastian Forsling (Sweden)
- Mustapha Amzil (Kosovo)
- Morris Udeze (Spain)
- Tony Snell (France)
- Makuach Maluach (Australia)
- Emmanuel Kuac (Sweden)
Udeze earlier played in Poland, and his team reached the league finals in the spring of 2024 in his first season overseas.
“Mo may be the most pro-ready player I’ve seen as a rookie,” former teammate Avery Woodson, a guard from Mississippi, said of Udeze. “He’s very mature and professional, you can tell he comes from a great background.”
Kirk, from Los Alamos High, played in five games for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014-15. Snell played in the NBA from 2013-22 after he was a first-round pick by the Chicago Bulls.
Junior Joseph was averaging 13.2 points and 9.6 boards per game for SIG Strasbourg in late January as another rookie in Europe. Amzil also played last season for the Lobos and was averaging nearly 16 points per contest in Kosovo.
Editor’s note: David Driver lived three years in Hungary, now lives in Poland and is the author of “Hoop Dreams in Europe: American Basketball Players Building Careers Overseas,” available at Amazon and daytondavid.com. He is the former sports editor of papers in Baltimore and his native Harrisonburg, Virginia.
