A great taste of Milano history! - MARCO MORDENTE - Welcome to EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL

A fantastic night! This is the only way I have to describe what happened on Wednesday at Datch Forum, when we were able to win against the reigning champions from CSKA Moscow for our second win in a row in the Euroleague, following our first win versus Panionios, also in front of our fans. The extraordinary fact was that we won this big match after recovering from 20 points down in the first half and 17 at the intermission - against such at team as CSKA, too!. It looked like an easy walk for CSKA but we showed great character and big desire to do something special, pushed by our crowd, which deserves special mention. It's crazy to think, as I write this a day later, about what happened: if you win a game rallying, it's great, but if you do so against a team like Moscow, it's more incredible! It's something that just does not happen every day.

We talked about the crowd: simply great! They participated in an extraordinary way, giving us a big charge. It looked like a final at times, and the celebrations we had on the court at the final buzzer will be something that will remain in our minds. A lot of my friends who watched the game on TV poked fun at me for celebrating, telling me that we just won a game, an important and well-played game, but just a game. But in my opinion, the TV didn't give to viewers the right feeling and the atmosphere we were experiencing at the same moment at Datch Forum, where there was a magic and unreal atmosphere. Many people still have in their mind the great achievements of Olimpia during the 1980s. To hear comparisons of this victory with Olimpia's incredible comeback in 1987 against Aris Thessaloniki, when Mike D'Antoni and his teammates rallied from a 31-point difference to win by 34 points (and later won the Champions Cup) made me feel proud. It's very exciting for me that a game in which I was a protagonist is compared, not from a technical point of view, but on the side of character and heart, to other unforgettable nights in the history of the club. To win this kind of game is always fantastic, but doing it in a Milano jersey, in a city like Milan, is more exciting.

What could change for us after this victory? I think we sent a message with our win and the way we got it, with everybody giving their best, showing the tools of a team effort. It was not so nice to watch on the offensive end, but on 'D' it was simply super, with an incredible intensity. I think and hope that this a great message to the people, our fans, that pushes them to come at the arena to watch the games, yell for us and get behind us, because we have to fight together. It won't be easy to produce results like this always, but we'll always fight putting our heart on the floor, and we want do it with our fans. When they came on the court at the final buzzer to celebrate with us, it was something I cannot describe. Believe me, it felt like we got the win all together.

In the locker room, we the players were really happy, because we needed a victory like this. Many people had written and said that the game with CSKA would be just like a friendly game, something we played with no hopes of winning. But we showed on the court who we are and we received a great boost from our win. We have to hold onto the atmosphere in the building, the magic moment everybody lived together. We tried to give all we had, and those are unforgettable moment in a player's career. At the same time, we have done nothing yet: this win opens the door again for us to reach a berth in the Top 16, but to advance, we must play with the same intensity, desire and focus in all the remaining games, starting next week in Istanbul against Efes Pilsen. This is the future, but for the moment we enjoy to the fullest one magic moment, and we are proud to have written a page of Olimpia Milano history.

Before finishing, my thoughts go out to our teammate Joey Beard, who flew back to the United State to attend to serious family problems. This victory also belongs to him, because its born from his part of our daily job on the court. A few minutes after the end of the match, Joey sent to me an SMS to congratulate us for the big win! Great man!

See you next time!

POSTED BY

MARCO MORDENTE - MILANO, ITALY