No, Dracula doesn't live here!
What's up from Slovenia everyone! First off, because I'm a rookie in the Euroleague, I guess I should introduce myself and tell you all a little bit about my basketball history. First things first… My name is Matt Walsh: yes, I'm "that white guy with curly blonde hair and a headband", yes, I used to date a Playboy Playmate; and yes, my dad is John Walsh from America's Most Wanted…OK, that last part isn't true, but the first two are,. Now, on to some real things about me. I'm proud to be from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the land of cheese steaks, soft pretzels, Rocky Balboa, the Phightin' Phils and the E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES! I grew up playing in the legendary Sonny Hill and Positive Image leagues and watching Philly greats like Marvin O'Connor, Aurthur "Ya" Davis, and Eddie Griffin play. Some of my earliest basketball memories are going with my dad to watch all the best area high school and college teams play. In fact, that's where I got my first taste of European basketball. My favorite college player of all time was Pepe Sanchez, the great PG from Argentina, who played his college ball at Temple University, and later played for some of the best teams in Europe. He's hands down the best passer I've ever seen at any level, including the NBA. After finishing high school in Philadelphia, I continued my playing career at the University of Florida, playing 3 years for Billy Donovan and playing with great players like Matt Bonner, Anthony Roberson, Joakim Noah, Al Hortford, Taurean Green, Corey Brewer, Justin Hamilton, David Lee, and Chris Richard. It's amazing that just about every player who I went to school with is still playing, either somewhere in Europe or the NBA. After an absolutely unbelievable three years at UF (unbelievable in every possible way, I might add), I decided it was time to turn pro, and that's really where my crazy basketball journey began.
It's hard for me to believe that this is already my fifth year as a pro. Since leaving school in 2005, I've been fortunate enough to play all over the world. I've enjoyed mojitos (among other things) in South Beach (Miami Heat), marveled at ancient ruins, while occasionally being called a "malaka", in Greece (Olimpia Larisa), ate tapas in Spain (Manresa), drank a beer or two (thousand) in Belgium (Spirou Charleroi), and now I find myself playing for Union Olimpija in Slovenia. I have to be honest, when my agent came to me about playing in Slovenia, my first thought was, where is Slovenia? My friends and family were no help, in fact most of them gave me a response that went something like this: "Slovenia? Sounds like somewhere Dracula would live". I was a little skeptical, but after talking to some former players and some other people I really trust, I was sold. I was going to be a rookie again, this time in Slovenia, playing in the Euroleague.
First of all, just to make this clear to anyone unfamiliar with Slovenia; as far as I can tell, Dracula does not live here. In fact, Ljubljana is by far the most "Americanized" city I have played in so far. Everyone speaks English, the restaurants are great, the downtown is gorgeous, my apartment is perfect, and the women are gorgeous. (No, really, I've lived in Miami and Las Vegas, and these Slovenian women are GORGEOUS) . I couldn't ask for anything more. On top of all that, I love my team and coaching staff. We really have a great group of guys and I think once we have a chance to play together more, we are going to be really good. Unfortunately, because of national team responsibilites and a couple late signings, we've only been together for about a month. Not to make any excuses, because I am the very last person to do that, but one month together just isn't long enough to gel as a team and learn the coach's system, especially not in the Euroleague group we have.
After only a few weeks together, our first challenge was heading to Maccabi for opening night of the Euroleague. We fought hard and stayed in the game for three quarters, but in the end, Maccabi and their 11,000 crazy fans were just too much for us. My boy Alan Anderson killed us with 23 points and a couple highlight reel dunks. (Speaking of, which, save some of the plays of the week for the rest of us Alan!) After that, we lost two tough games at home to Maroussi and Caja Laboral. It was cool to play my first Euoleague home game against Maroussi, in front of our great fans and against my former coach, Georgios Bartzokas. It's rough starting out 0-3, and we're dying to get our first win, but one of the coolest things so far this year has been playing against guys on other teams who I'm friends with. Knowing bragging rights are on the line against Alan Anderson, D'Or Fischer, and Doron Perkins of Maccabi, Jared Homan and Levon Kendall from Maroussi, and Carl English from Caja Laboral, make the games that much more fun and competitive. It'd be nice to win some of those bragging rights every now and then, fellas!
Even though I'm a rookie, and only three games in to my short Euroleague career so far, I love it here. Make sure to catch my blog, where I'll hopefully be telling you about some exciting wins and some other good stories from Slovenia. I'm off to Moscow now to take on CSKA this week, so wish me luck. Thanks, everyone!
POSTED BY
Matt Walsh, Union Olimpija
DATE:
Tuesday, November 10, 2009