Nik Caner-Medley thinks this could be the season he finally gets a chance to cut down a net.

Throughout his long and rewarding basketball career – four years at Deering High, four at the University of Maryland and a decade of pro ball overseas – Caner-Medley has come close but has never celebrated a championship.

“I’ve been fortunate to have some individual accolades along the way,” he said, “but as a veteran player, that’s one of my main goals, to play for a championship.”

Caner-Medley, who turns 33 on Thursday, spoke by phone last week from his apartment in Monte Carlo, sandwiched between the French and Italian Riviera and featuring a “ridiculously beautiful” view of the Mediterranean Sea.

After fulfilling a two-year, $2 million contract with a team in Kazakhstan, the 6-foot-8 power forward signed a one-year deal in July with AS Monaco, the reigning French League regular-season champion.

Monaco also plays in the more competitive European Champions League, made up of 52 teams from 31 countries.

“I was really drawn to the circumstances here,” said Caner-Medley. “Early on in my career, I didn’t have as many choices. But when you’ve put in the work and developed a reputation, as I think I have, you can reap the fruits of your labor. I’m grateful that I had a good amount of options.”

The money isn’t quite as much in Monaco as it was in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, but the locale more than makes up for any difference, Caner-Medley said. Plus, he’s on a team that has yet to lose this season through three French League games. Caner-Medley missed those games because of a pulled hamstring, but he said he expects to play Sunday in a French League game and in Tuesday’s Champions League opener.

“The weather is beautiful, the facilities are great,” he said. “I feel very comfortable and happy here.”

In August, Caner-Medley proposed to his girlfriend of three years, Shoni Golding. They met in Miami, where Caner-Medley has a place in addition to his home in Portland. They plan to get married in Maine in the summer of 2018.

Although Caner-Medley figures he has a few more good years of basketball remaining, he has become involved in real-estate development in Maine, including the recently opened Cloudport – a co-working, meeting and event space near downtown Portland.

“It’s off to a really good start,” he said. “We’ve gotten a lot of new members and events. It’s a new concept in Portland and the community seems to have really embraced it.”

Among those attending Cloudport‘s opening ceremony was his old Deering High coach, Mike Francoeur, who now coaches at Bonny Eagle.

“There’s not many people more proud than I am,” Francoeur said. “He’s done stuff that people don’t realize (because he’s played overseas). He’s been a professional basketball player and made a real good living, and he’s been one of the better players on every single team he’s been on.”

Cloudport is only the latest of Caner-Medley’s ventures. In early 2014, he founded Medley Properties with a friend, Josh Corbeau, to buy and manage residential and commercial real estate.

“I travel a ton but Maine is still home for me,” he said. “I plan on living in Maine when I retire and continue to find ways to be part of the community. We’re planning on opening other locations of Cloudport.”

For now, though, Caner-Medley is finding Monaco to his liking. So does his 11-year-old American Staffordshire terrier, Angel, who has accompanied him on every step of his professional basketball career.

“She likes it here a lot more than Astana,” he said. “And so far, it’s really lived up to my expectations.”

 

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