|
|
Onward and upward in 2007
Back from the holidays, I'd like to say happy 2007 to everyone, and hope it's a good year for my team, too. In the old days, I heard that players had plenty time off during the holidays, but I can count the days off we had with three fingers...Christmas Eve, Christmas day and New Year's Eve. On January 1 we were at practice by the afternoon because we had a Spanish League game coming up. But we got to celebrate everything, and in Spain that means three different holidays, really: Christmas, New Year's and the Three Kings' Day, which is January 6. The whole country closes down for each of them. Because I am from this area, I lucky to have family and friends close by here in Malaga, so even though the basketball more or less keeps going, I get to fit in the family part of the holidays - and even a little rest - with no problem. And this year I was one of the kings myself! Florent Pietrus, Kostas Vasileiadis and I dressed up and delivered toys at a children's hospital that day, which we all enjoyed, which is the main thing want to do this time of year, give and enjoy!
I can say we are ready to start enjoying basketball, too, certainly more than before the holidays. As you know, we lost at home to Maccabi and then suffered a 53-point defeat against a team we know well, Joventut, in Badalona. We hit rock bottom in that one, and it hurt a lot. It was probably the worst loss and worst feeling of my whole career. But when you touch bottom, you have to bounce back, and we have started to do that. We haven't lost since, including a couple of 40-point wins in the Spanish League, and when we needed to beat Cibona by more than five, we were able to do that, too. So we had our downs and we're hoping we'll have our ups now and make the Top 16.
We understand that because of losing by more than 50 to Joventut, we can't hope that a points difference gets us to the Top 16. So today we left early for Ljubljana to play Union Olimpija knowing that, basically, we have to win all our games left to be where we want to be. That may seem like pressure, but we're not worried. We all know we can do it, especially with two of those games at home. But the only important one right now is the next one, which is why we're traveling early and will be ready on Wednesday for sure.
I don't forget that this time last year we were leading our group and headed into the Top 16 as one of the top-ranked teams. But I don't forget, either, that the Top 16 didn't go too well for us. Every season is different, and if last year we started very good, only to finish lower than we hoped for, we can hope this year will be the opposite. We have been played inconsistently and generated doubts so far, but I think we can see a stronger mentality on the team these days and we might be ready for big things. First we have to take care of the little ones, starting this week. We need the momentum and we can't look ahead until we get it and qualify for the Top 16.
POSTED BY
Carlos Cabezas - Malaga, Spain
|
|