WHEN UGLY IS ACCEPTABLE - EVEN WELCOME!
There are many times in sports when coaches or players talk about an ugly win or winning ugly. Usually this refers to hard-nosed defense and grind-it-out offense that doesn't include much finesse or spectacular play. Well, last week Prokom and Dynamo played the UGLIEST professional basketball game I have ever been a part of! It was the Quasimodo or Elephant Man of Euroleague hoops - I can't imagine a game at this level being much more unpleasant on the eyes. We set back the game of basketball 50 to 60 years. That game would cause the recently deceased legend of basketball, Red Auerbach, to roll over in his grave. By the way, I don't know how closely the Euroleague fans follow the history of NBA basketball, but in my opinion, Red Auerbach is the single most important non-player in the history of the NBA.
OK, enough hyperbole about the Dynamo game - here are some facts that support my UGLY claim: Both teams shot less than 58% from the charity stripe. Our 7-for-25 from behind the three-point arc was like a Larry Bird hot streak compared to Dynamo's 2-for-16, but the Russian team's 16 turnovers were trumped by our 20 giveaways. The most interesting fact could have been the ZERO field goals Dynamo converted in the third quarter before they broke the ice with a fastbreak dunk with 4 seconds left in the third. Fortunately for us, we did enough - especially on defense - to end up with a victory.
The same cannot be said about our trip to Athens the week before that. Olympiacos is a terrific team with great size, quickness, athleticism, depth and coaching. They have to be considered one of the favorites to reach the Final Four. However, in athletic competition, the best team does not always win. Be that as it may, in this case we were totally outplayed, in all aspects of the game, by the better team. I am not going to lay too many more superlatives on the Reds, because they still have to come to our place to try to attain a victory in Poland - which has eluded them the last two seasons.
I blame myself for the Olympicos loss. Not because of my performance on the court - my 6 minutes of play hardly affected the outcome of the game. But rather, because I committed one of the cardinal sins of pre-game preparation superstitions. I got my hair cut on the day of the game. In my book, this is a no-no - along with trimming your fingernails on the day of a game (it might affect your shot - silly, I know), not making your last shot in pre-game warm-ups, and shaving (although, in recent years I have amended my "no shaving on game day" rule). The problem is - or was - that I have struggled to find a good place to get my hair cut in Poland (except for a great spot in Warsaw) so I had been growing my hair out for a few months. I wasn't planning on going Ryan Stack or Luis Scola length - just a change. However, with the longer hair, my thinning area on the top of my head - where a Yarmulke would sit - was becoming more visible. With the Euroleague TV cameras airing my bald spot for the world to see and my buddies calling me from around Europe to tell me I'm starting to look like Zizou. (For those Americans reading this Zizou is a soccer player: Zinedine Zidane. You know, the French dude who head-butted the Italian dude in the World Cup Final. Anwya, he's a bald guy) So I knew it was time for a cut, and I broke one of my rules by getting a hair cut on game day. Then, we got our butts kicked. The only good thing to come out of that trip was the block of feta, bottle of olive oil, and jar of kalamata olives that I brought home for my wife and I to feed on. I love feta!
Now, as the second most important holiday for us Americans approaches - Thanksgiving - we prepare for our MOST important game of the season, so far. With so many teams in our group sitting at 2-2, it is almost imperative that we are victorious against the teams that are below us in the standings. So it's off to Cologne on Thanksgiving Day to try to get a win that will move us up the standings. While our friends and family back home will be feasting on turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie - plus enjoying the NFL (the REAL football ; ) ) on TV - we will be dining on knockwurst, schnitzel and strudel, and enjoying our Euroleague competition. That German food doesn't sound too appetizing (especially in relation to Thanksgiving dinner), so I hope I will be able to wash it down with a celebratory glass of Deutschland's finest Hefeweizen.
POSTED BY
Jeff Nordgaard - Sopot, Poland
DATE:
Monday, November 20, 2006