Very superstitious, by any name
OK, now I'm worried. David Vanterpool is out for the whole Top 16, and he had just finished writting his blog a couple of days ago, where he actually underlined the blogger's jinx. I'm equally excited and worried to be doing this, since I do believe in jinxes and bad luck brought to athletes by doing something out of the ordinary, such as cutting your nails or you hair on game day (I think Norgy already mentioned this in one of his earlier blogs). And there is more to it when it comes to me: I guess after hearing this you will all think that I'm a freak. When playing at home, I always have to be the first player from the team to enter the locker room, and the first to shoot two layups (first right, then left). I always put on my right shoe first, and I always step on the court with my right foot first. There is also some other stuff I will not tell you about, because I think I might actually scare you off. On the road, I have to be the first player getting on the bus and the first to get off when we arrive at the arena. I have a certain routine of doing things before a game, and I do belive that it's important to me doing it this way since it helps me get focused better. Anyway, after reading all this, you can understand why I would actually be worried about the blogger's bad luck. I am just going to think that the bad fortunes have already spared me, and used all their powers on David and Jeff, both of whom I want to wish a fast and healthy recovery.
I think Jeff set the bar high with this thing, and all I can hope and wish for is that my blog is at least half as entertaining as his. I enjoy reading his stuff, it's very refreshing and down to earth, but most of all, it is very original. He is very honest with his stuff and that's something to be appreciated. I hope he will still be in Sopot on March 21, when we go to play Prokom, and maybe he and I could talk about his beloved Vikings, The Killers, and all that American sports talk, which I have missed dearly since my junior-college days. We will play Prokom for the 879th time in about three years, both in the regular season and in the Top 16. I think that Efes, Prokom and the Euroleague have made some kind of agreement between them, that allows these two teams to be in the same group whenever possible :-) We definitely are in a very tough group, but having won all of our previous encounters with Wojcik and the boys from the cold land, they are the team that scare me the most. Panathinaikos and Barcelona games can go either way, but since everybody expects us to win in Sopot, a loss in Poland is inexcusable. I personally don't agree with this kind of thinking, since I happen to believe that they are a very capable team, with great players like Wojcik, Dalmau, Besok, and Hamilton. And I think that every team in the Top 16 deserves to be there. Having said that, I do think that Prokom deserves to be called one of the best 16 Euroleague teams of this season.
At our last road game of the regular season in Bologna, a kid about 16 years old told me that I looked exactly like Ermal Kurtoglu, the center for the Turkish national team. Of course, at first I thought he was kidding, but when I realized he was dead serious, I had to break it down to him that Kurtoglu and Kuqo are the exact same person. I told him that I was born and raised in Albania, and my father and my uncle are living basketball legends in my country. After kindly asking Efes's management if I could play with my Albanian passport in the Euroleague so I could be the third Kuqo to play in a high level European competition, they said yes and granted me this request. Anyway, I passionately explained to the kid how my dad scored 24 points against Oransoda Cantu back in the 70's, and then later my uncle scored 27 against Aris and the great Nikos Galis in the early 90's. The kid just looked at me very funny and said: "Dude, why did you just make me regret asking you a simple question? I just wanted to know if you were the same guy or no. You didn't have to read me all the encyclopedia of Albanian basketball!!!"
At the moment I'm writting this, it is February 12th, which happens to be my birthday, my 27th to be exact. I remember as if it were yesterday when I first came to Efes four years ago and played my first Euroleague game against Tau Ceramica in Vitoria, back when Andres Nocioni was still playing for them and Macijauskas was on his way of earning his "Kalashnikov" nickname in the Spanish League. I am very proud and happy to be a part of all this, the Euroleague, Efes Pilsen, and high-level basketball in general. I am doing what I love most in this world - getting paid to do it, I might add - and although I think that basketball travelling is not as great as it is cracked up to be, I still think it's worth it. I look back at these four years and everything makes me feel great; all the games, all the experience I've gained, all of the players I've met and made friends with - it's amazing. The only thing that bothers me, is the fact that every year with Efes we've gotten so close to the promised land (The Final Four that is), but never got in somehow. Every year, around this time, I try to close my eyes and the first thing I see is Gianluca Basile with his "Skipper" uniform hitting a game-winning three-pointer with 4 seconds to go, then him being the first and only player running back on defense and successfully contesting my layup try on the buzzer, therefore forcing us to say good-bye to our Final Four dreams for the 2003-04 season. And now, Barcelona has the very same Basile on its roster, and my dreams are not as dreamy as I wished they would be. I just hope that the basketball gods are on our side this year and we make it to Athens come May, so finally my dreams can become a reality...
POSTED BY
Ermal Kuqo - Istanbul, Turkey
DATE:
Tuesday, February 13, 2007