WITH overseas focus on Andrew Bogut and home attention on Chris Anstey, David Andersen is the forgotten big man of Australian basketball. From time to time, his name surfaces as someone who has played well in Europe, but to leave it at that is doing a disservice to the man from Frankston.

Andersen, 26, and 212 centimetres tall, is in the top bracket of players in Europe. The very top. He is a starter with CSKA Moscow, reigning Euroleague champion and almost always Russian Superleague champion. He is paid millions and he earns every rouble. Before that, in Italy, he earned every euro.

And one reason he is not in the NBA with good friend Bogut is because the Americans won't pay the equivalent in dollars.

"Boges is always saying, 'When are you coming over to America? You should be here'," Andersen said from Moscow this week before leaving for Kaunus, Lithuania, to play a Euroleague game. "I say I'll be over when they pay me decent money."

"They" are the Atlanta Hawks and the offer just might be right next year after years of trying to get Andersen on the cheap. The Hawks drafted him in 2002 and hold his rights until they try him out. He said offers were, basically, the NBA minimum — about $US500,000 — until in the past off-season when the Hawks upped the ante a bit, although he was sidelined with a career-threatening injury.

Andersen broke his leg, dislocated his ankle and ruptured ligaments playing for Moscow on Australia Day this year. He flew home to have the repair work done by Melbourne surgeon David Young, who said that he had never seen a basketball injury like it and that it was a lot of work to repair it.

The operation and rehabilitation, also in Melbourne, were so successful that Andersen was ready to go again when Moscow started practice at the end of August.

He played all pre-season games and all early Russian and Euroleague matches, but took until this month to regain his starting spot as he rebuilt confidence and learnt to play more as a power forward than a centre in a stacked side.

Andersen scored 16, 20 and 16 points and grabbed nine, seven and six rebounds in the three games before Thursday night's 78-59 romp past Zalgiris, Lithuania's top team, when he had seven and seven.

The rebound figure matched his recent average; his points were down because he hit only one of six shots from the field (European games are 40 minutes, not the 48 played in the NBA and Australia's NBL).

Andersen is focused on getting back to the Euroleague final four in Athens next April. In his first season with Moscow it finished third and last year it won, with Anderson watching on. Clearly, he has unfinished business, although he did go all the way with Italy's Bologna in 2001, his second season abroad.

Moscow, 6-0 on top of the Russian league, is 4-1 and second to Barcelona in its Euroleague pool.

"As defending champions, everyone is gunning for us," Andersen said when asked if Moscow could win again. "I don't like to put us at the head of the pack.

"Barcelona is tough, they've got a hard-nosed coach. And the Greek teams, Panathinaikos and Olympiakos, are going all out because the final four's in Athens, but hopefully we'll be in the right frame of mind."

Andersen said there was more to Moscow than money and team. He likes the city, despite the grey days, and its restaurants and sights. One brother, Grant, spends most of the time with him, looking after day-to-day details and running his website, davidandersen.com.au.

Girlfriend, friends and other family visit and his parents plan to be there for the final four, when the weather will be better.

As he did in Italy, Andersen is learning the language. "I talk with the trainers," he said. "They encourage me and teach me all the bad words, of course.

"I get by in restaurants and with directions, and I'm reading the Russian alphabet. In six months I should speak it decently."

Andersen's injury also kept him out of August's world championships, where he would have played alongside Bogut.

He cannot commit to any Boomers game next year because if he takes the NBA route he might have training camps and other workouts. But, after enjoying Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008 is a possible target.

He has another season to go on his latest contract, although there is the usual NBA "out" clause. Taking it would bring Andersen more into the spotlight, but money is not the only reason for his reticence. "I don't want to go to sit on the bench," he said.

Andersen's father is a builder and he and other advisers have helped the player invest wisely, initially in property and lately with more diversification. He could quit tomorrow and live comfortably, but he said he loved the playing and the camaraderie, his time out reinforcing how much he missed the cut and thrust.

"It was a negative to get injured," he said. "The positive was that it refreshed my mind and made the game exciting again."

That helps in a club driven by a coach, Ettore Messina, whom Andersen called a "screaming guy".

"He's always on to us," he said. "We spanked a team by 50 the other day and he was still yelling when we were up by 40. He expects a lot from you. He wants you to focus, then when you're finished you go home.

"That's fine by me."