Let's dance the first dance
Hello to all the Euroleague fans out there. CJ Wallace back for my second season trying to step up my blog game to the Euroleague level. Thankfully, the amazingly intelligent and hard-working editors over at the Euroleague website have decided to bring me back for a second season of bloggage. Blogging last year for the Eurocup was my first experience in the blog realm, but apparently my attempts did not go unnoticed. I accepted several blogging awards over the summer, including Blog Newcomer of the year at the Blog Festival in Toronto, the Most Irrelevant Blog for last year's Mariokart piece at the World Blog Gathering in Tokyo, Japan, and Overall Blogger of the Year from the American Blog Association.*** Thank you to all for your support and admiration. However, please make sure you read the footnote marked above by too many asterisks. Honestly though, it's good to be back and I appreciate anybody and everybody who reads these. Though certainly not well written, I hope they are at the very least entertaining,
So the purpose of this blog is to talk a little bit about the upcoming Euroleague qualification rounds and how our team, Benetton Treviso, has been preparing in this preseason. As everyone who plays basketball in Europe knows, preseason is easily the worst part of the season. First of all, it's a ton of practice and very few games. It's a ton of running and conditioning, and very few days off. It's also after a summer vacation period which varies from player to player as far as the amount of hanging out/working out/self-conditioning that is done. Everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief when the first game rolls around, and for us, that is this next Tuesday, September 29, and the opening round of the Euroleague qualification phase. And because of the importance of this game, there can be no underestimating the importance, too, of the preseason. To be honest, as much as it blows, the preseason very well may be the most important part of the year for any team. Training camp, team camaraderie and hanging out together, getting a feel for the way everyone plays, all of these translate directly to success.
I could easily write several paragraphs about how hard we have been working and how we think we have been progressing nicely towards a position we will be content with for September 29th, but instead, I have decided to compare the Euroleague qualification rounds to your basic Junior High School Dance. Yes, the Junior High Dance, where in this case 8 boys (teams) and 8 girls (qualification spots) have come together to decide where the night (qualification rounds) will take them. Obviously, you are going to have to use your imagination, but I think this could work. Bear with me here...
So this is the deal, eight boys have come from all over Europe to this dance. I mean we have boys from Belgium, from France, from Italy, from Greece, from Latvia; virtually all across Europe; young men have come to show their moves at this dance. Each team from their various countries has their own flair and style that they hope will attract the attention of the girls. But just like every junior high dance, the girls are the only thing on these guys' minds. And this is where it really gets interesting. Luckily for these dudes, all the girls that came to this dance are good looking. Any guy in Europe would be more than happy to have the opportunity to flirt with these girls. Six are cute, and I mean really cute. But over in the corner whispering to each other are two super hot chicks that really stand out. And I mean they are stunners. Beautiful faces, fantastic bodies, and obviously great personalities too. (Any guesses? Yes, these are the Euroleague spots) So all these dudes are talking to each other waiting for the dance to start and waiting for their opportunity to make a move on the two girls in the corner. I mean, it's gonna be a fierce competition over these hotties. And this isn't just a one- or two-date thing, this dance has rules. These guys are making a commitment to date these girls for a minimum of a couple months, maybe even longer! This one dance will ultimately decide how the spend their Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights for the upcoming cold winter months. Once a week, this dance is going to decide if you hit the theater with a good looking girl (no problems in the grand scheme of things) or a ridiculously hot babe that all the other boys will be jealous over.
Now, I will admit that in my life, I have always preferred the ridiculously hot babe. Call it vanity, call it insecurity, call it what you will, but that is just CJ Wallace. I prefer the ridiculously hot babes. Sue me. As a member of the Italian squad Benetton Treviso, trust me when I tell you we have been (keeping with the analogy and a little Italian flair) tweezing our collective eyebrows and gelling our collective hair as a team. The Italian rep at this dance wants one of the ridiculously hot babes, and we are preparing as completely and as aggressively as we can. From practicing our pick up lines in the mirror (team communication), deciding which smiles work best in the rear view mirror (tweaking line-ups) and doing pushups and sit-ups before we go to bed (doing pushups and sit-ups before we go to bed), Mr. Italia (our team) plans on being as ready as possible to sweep a European babe off her feet. And the time is near, the moment when the music starts and Vanessa Williams begins to sing, "Sometime the sun goes round the moon/Sometime the snow comes down in June" **** is approaching. Come next Tuesday, we will be tanned, tweezed, gelled up, and ready for anything and everything. It also won't hurt that we'll be donning the latest male hotness from the United Colors of Benetton Fall/Winter collection.*****
And seriously, though all the competing men are certainly good looking (and worthy competitors), we have been working extremely hard preparing ourselves. The time has come. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky at the end of the night… and qualify.
Good luck to all the participants. And fans, make sure you cheer for our squad, so I can give you all the inside scoop on how the dance went down.
Ciao tutti! CJ
***None of these awards were actually given to me.
****Obviously this was my favorite slow dance song in my Junior High days.
*****Solid sponsor shout-out.
POSTED BY
CJ Wallace - Treviso, Italy
DATE:
Wednesday, September 23, 2009