Hello again everybody. I am back for my second blog post. We spent the past week in Kazan practicing and getting ready for the qualifying tournament in Desio that starts Tuesday. We just had our last practice before we leave for Italy, flying through Moscow. I am excited; the team is excited about the opportunity to play in this tournament which will mark the official beginning of the 2012-2013 season. We have had a variety of exhibition games in Bormio, Antalya and Kazan and now we finally get to play in games that matter. Our first opponent is the German team Ulm. We spent the week scouting them. They finished second last year in the German League and from what we have learned, have brought back the same coach and many of the same players from last year with a couple of new additions, which in my opinion make them a better team than last year. In general they have a young team. What they may lack in experience, I am sure they make up for in team energy and enthusiasm. We will have a difficult opening game as this team has an advantage because they kept the same core as last year, so they make some movements offensively and defensively automatically. We will be ready for the challenge and we definitely respect the way they play after watching them on video.

I believe we have had a good week of practices. The team was focused as we zero in on our... more

Hello to all of you Euroleague fans! This is my first blog and I am excited to be talking to you about the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Qualifying Rounds that take place next week in Italy. At this moment I am on the flight from Istanbul to Kazan, Russia. My new team, Unics Kazan, has spent a week or so in Antalya, Turkey taking part in the Rixos Cup Tournament to get ready for our first goal of the season – to quality for Euroleague!

My summer vacation was cut short to join my new team in Kazan on August 1, the reason being that the Euroleague qualifiers are held at the end of September. This qualifying round is a very important goal for us as we will battle against seven other teams for one spot in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Regular Season. Some good teams will be there, all of them eager to quality, too, I am sure. It's difficult playing such important games this early, especially when it's a knockout situation, meaning that if you lose any game, you're out! I am sure it will be a very exciting tournament and I believe that if we play up to our potential we will have a good chance of winning it. Of course we are not 100-percent ready for this challenge, but then again no team I think can be totally ready this early on.

My Unics Kazan journey started early when I came to Russia with my friend and former Panathinaikos teammate... more