Injured, sick and getting lapped by old men in Speedos - Jeff Nordgaard

I am so sick of being injured! Missing out on hanging with the guys on road trips and not playing in Top 16 and Polish League games is bad enough. But, I really just miss the physical act of basketball. I want to get out on the court and run, jump and shoot. One-on-one, three-on-three, or full court five-on-five (or as our coach here in Sopot calls it in his VERY broken English - five-TO-five). You know, I would even rather do some B.S. defensive slide drill or box-out drill than the stuff I have been doing the last two weeks to stay in/get into shape: swimming and biking. I don't know how guys like Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich do it. I'm on the bike for three 12-minute intervals and I feel like I just climbed Mount Everest. Not to mention that the boredom is exasperating. If it weren’t for PTI podcasts on my ipod to keep my mind off the biking, I'd soon need to be fitted for a straightjacket. Those guys are on those sperm-killing seats for hours at a time - EVERYDAY! But, the biking beats the swimming workouts - no ipods in the pool. I have a new respect for guys like Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe. I used to think I was a pretty good swimmer - I actually have a swimmer's body: broad shoulders, long arms and flippers for feet. But my size 18's don't work very well - at least not when one of them is broken. When I stroke with my arms I can get somewhere at a decent pace (that's what she said - The Office), but when I have the floatey-board and just use my legs I go at a snail's pace. One 25-meter lap takes me longer than it took Mark Spitz to win seven gold medals in Munich. I can't imagine sprinting longer than 50 meters in the pool. One good thing about a pool workout is that after getting lapped by old men in Speedos and grandmas in pool caps, I am so exhausted that my normal nap turns into a three-hour hibernation.

So, I'm sick of being injured and on top of that I went ahead and got sick, too. Well, to be honest we are in the midst of running a sickness relay within my household. My wife ran strong out of the blocks Monday through Friday, which is when I got the hand-off for the second leg (fever, headaches and congestion). My 21-month old, Langdon, took the baton today (Monday) and has a constant stream of snot flowing from both nostrils. We will go through a ream of kleenex this week with his nose. My only hope is that Dawson, my four-year old, doesn't get the hand-off for the anchor leg. The good thing about being sick this weekend was the fact that it was conference championship week in NCAA hoops. That meant plenty of great basketball on TV as teams vie in their conference tournaments for positions in the Big Dance, March Madness, the most exciting three weeks of sports America has to offer! I won't take the time to explain my devotion (to steal a theme from the Euroleague) to March Madness. By now, I think most Euroleague fans are aware of it's importance to American basketball fans. If not, ask any of the Americans on your favorite team or any European player who went to college. Each March I look forward to seeing which mid-majors surprise the big schools and make a name for themselves nationally - teams like Butler, Princeton and George Mason. As well as the history that is made as stars cement their legacy on the college game with their Final Four performances - most recently Carmelo Anthony, Sean May and Joakim Noah. Unfortunately, my school - University of Wisconsin Green Bay (UWGB) - has not returned to the NCAA tourney since I played in 1996 (we made it '94, '95 and '96) so I have to cheer for my wife's alma mater - Butler. I haven't filled out my brackets yet, but here is my Final Four prediction: Florida, Kansas, Texas, Ohio State to the Final Four - and Florida repeats as champion!

Ok, enough about college hoops, this is the Euroleague. There is a lot to be discussed as we conclude the round of 16 in the next two weeks. However, there is nearly nothing is left to debate concerning our group - Group F. Panathinaikos will win the group, Barca will follow and we will battle Efes for basement bragging rights. Barcelona came into our place and dispelled the myth that nobody can shoot well in Hala Oliwia (which Dynamo can attest to). I really thought that we had a very good chance of beating Basile, Trias, Navarro and company after winning at Efes and really battling Panathinaikos. However, Barca shot 60% from two-point distance and 41% from three-point land, which was enough to thwart any run we would make. They were impressive, but Panathinaikos was the team that was most enjoyable to watch this season.

Before the Panathinaikos game started, someone asked me how I thought it would play out. I said that I felt - with no pressure and nothing to lose - we would come out of the gate well and keep it close in the first half. Eventually giving way to the better team and lose by 10 or 15 points. You have to understand that if I was actually going to play, I would NEVER have said that I felt we would lose. Not because my presence would ensure our victory, but rather because I believe a player should NEVER feel that his or her team will lose the game that is in front of them - or at the very least, never ADMIT to it. But I wasn't playing, so I could be objective. Well, as the game began and we maintained a nice lead I was starting to formulate an "instant blog" (kind of like ESPN - when a historic game takes place in front of our eyes it becomes an Instant Classic which is replayed soon after and often). I was going to rush home - okay, maybe stop off for a few celebratory beers with the guys - and write an "instant blog" which was going to include all of the biggest upsets that I can remember: Villanova over Georgetown 1985, USA over USSR hockey 1980, USSR over USA basketball 1972 (although this CANNOT be included in the minds of any Americans who have actually seen what happened - 3 times! - in Munich), George Mason over UCONN 2006, and the biggest upset in the history of sports - Buster Douglas over Iron Mike Tyson. This was going through my head in the first quarter when we were up nine. Obviously, the Greens made a run to bring me back to reality, but we were able to play at a level that kept us even with Diamantidis, Batiste and Becirovic until the last few minutes. We REALLY had a chance to pull off a monumental upset against the best team in Europe - a team that was not playing poorly. Coach Obradovic may have a different opinion, but his team was outstanding, in my opinion. I have never seen a European team pass the ball so well. I am not talking about making highlight reel, needle-threading passes or dropping behind the back, no-look dimes. They just know the right pass to make at the right time. They nearly always make the unselfish extra pass that turns a nearly open look into a man-on-an-island wide open shot. Very impressive and fun to watch. Not to mention their ability to turn the last five minutes into a virtual lock-down on our offensive end. They gave us NOTHING!

Panathinaikos got the victory in front of our enthused fans, but my guy Filip Dylewicz made some great plays that I just new were going to make the Top 10 on Euroleague.net. Each week there are a number of spectacular plays that get recognized on this site and when Filip crossed over "Jesus" at the top of the key and broke his ankle to finish with a flying and-one dunk, I thought to myself - "that may be the #1 play for the week". I should say that I have never met Fragiskos Alvertis so I hope he doesn't take this the wrong way, but he looks exactly like most images of Jesus Christ that I have seen. Anyway, on the Friday following the game I checked Euroleague.net to see Dylu's dunks on the Top 10 (he had a couple others that could have made the list). No Prokom highlights. Okay, Dylu is the top play of the week - Cool! Nope! Who is #1? A simple penetration, help up from the big guy with no rotation behind it, so it is an easy pass for an even easier two-hand dunk by Mike Batiste. Very ho-hum. I realize that Pao is the best team in Europe (maybe CSKA) and Mike Batiste is a great player, but I bet the Greens have dozens of better highlights from this season. Filip got robbed!!! Well, at least he got on there the week after, when he got posterized by Fran Vasquez. To be honest, I'm not too concerned about who makes the Top 10 - I think everybody realizes it's just fun highlights, but I told Dylu that I would mention his spectacular play on my blog. That being said, Jerimiah Massey's dunk that topped this last week's Top 10 was awesome! It reminded me of Tom Chambers climbing Mark Jackson to throw down perhaps the best white-man dunk in NBA history.

Well, I need to get to bed so I can recover from my illness and hop back on that bike tomorrow at "practice".

Stay classy, San Diego.

POSTED BY

Jeff Nordgaard - Sopot, Poland