An end-of-decade lesson from Orleans
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| Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net |
Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. For the new 2009-10 season, he offers a series of opinion blogs about what's happening on and off the court in the Euroleague.
During these 10 seasons there have been as many as 61 teams in the Euroleague, and the only team that has never won a single game has been Ovarense of Portugal, which lost the 10 games they played in that first, 2000-01 regular reason. Until this week, it looked like Entente Orleanaise could suffer the same fate after a 0-7 record. However, the eighth time was the charm for this team. The French team beat Partizan as though a Top 16 berth was at stake for Orleans. In fact, Orleans had already been eliminated from that possibility. Still, the players fought, the fans supported them and coach Philippe Herve's plan had a prize: the first Euroleague win for Orleans. They deserved it. Two weeks ago, Olympiacos escaped from France with a miracle win, while Lietuvos Rytas went through a lot of trouble to defeat Orleans. By not giving up and playing with such pride despite its already-eliminated status, Orleans gave a sports example to follow for anyone who saw, not to mention a great moral for the end of the decade.
CSKA on the rise
This blog started the week when Lottomatica Roma defeated CSKA on the road in Moscow. But, as always, the end of the games are always more important than how they start. Roma has since entered a negative streak with five straight losses, and now they will struggle to make the Top 16. Meanwhile CSKA is completely back on the right track, qualified for the Top 16 and fighting for first place in Group C. The situation of the Russian champ with Euroleague bench debutante Evgeny Pashutin is somewhat similar to Ettore Messina's beginnings in Moscow. In 2005-06, CSKA lost the first game at home against Montepaschi Siena by 69-74 (Rimantas Kaukenas, now in Messina's Real Madrid, was the executioner with 21 points) while in the second game, the Russian team lost in Athens to Zeljko Obradovic's Panathinaikos, 92-82. By the end of that season, CSKA was King of Europe in Prague. I am not saying that history will repeat itself this season, but after the first three weeks this season, CSKA was standing at 1-2, with its sole victory having fallen from the sky on Viktor Khryapa's miracle three-pointer at the buzzer against Maroussi. Now, CSKA is 6-2 following its five consecutive victories... and still playing without Matjaz Smodis. The only conclusion? Avoid early conclusions.
3,509 games
This week, with 16 Eurocup games and 12 Euroleague ones, the number of games organized by Euroleague went well over 3,500. To be exact, in its tenth season, the Euroleague has organized 2,072 games while in six years of the ULEB Cup/Eurocup, another 1,437 can be added to the figures. Between October 16, 2000, when Real Madrid and Olympiacos opened a new page in the history of European basketball, and this week, with 28 games across Europe, there has been a long effort to check that this concept is valid and has a clear perspective. As always, time says who's right or wrong, and I think that 10 years is enough to demonstrate the validity of anything.
The numbers
Olympiacos' Theo Papaloukas dished 10 assists in Vilnius, record of the week, and increases his numbers to 795. He's only 5 assists away from being the first player in Euroleague history to reach 800. I think he will beat that milestone already in the first game of 2010. Papaloukas is also leader in steals (272) and co-leads the games-played standings, 185, with Regal FC Barcelona's Gianluca Basile and CSKA's J.R. Holden.
Talking about numbers, Zalgiris's Marcus Brown went over the 2,600 points mark this week with his 4 against Barcelona. He has 2,601, while his immediate follower, Nikola Vujcic of Olympiacos, is far away at 2,257. This week, CSKA's Trajan Langdon reached the 300 club with his 3 of 4 three-pointers. The five previous exclusive members were Basile (365), Holden (333), Jaka Lakovic of Barca (315), Barcelona's Juan Carlos Navarro (306) and Brown (302).
POSTED BY
Vladimir Stankovic, Euroleague.net
DATE:
Saturday, December 19, 2009