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Brain scan and fearless forecast

Wed, 02 May 2007 07:16:11 GMT

The Final Four is upon us and the eyes of European basketball fans are turned to Athens. As a regular blogger on the Euorleague site, I have been asked to give my "expert" analysis and a plausible prediction to the outcome of the action in Athens. The bloggers were also asked by the powers-that-be at Euroleague.net to relive some of our Athens memories and tell some stories about some of our friends/former teammates that are competing this weekend to explain why we are rooting for them. Well, I inspected the rosters one last time just to be sure and I realized that there isn't a single player or coach on any of the rosters that I have ever met (off the court) or played with. I have played professional hoops for eleven years in several different leagues and countries, but apparently I haven't been fortunate enough to play with the elite players of 2007. As I quickly scan my brain, the only Euroleague Final Four champion that I have ever played with is Manu Ginobili, when he was a raw, talented, yet innocent 21-year-old in his first season in Italy.

Now as for memories of Athens. I think it is a wonderful city with a unique history, great climate, rabid sports fans and a wild nightlife. However, the five weeks that I spent in Athens while playing for Olympiacos coincided with the nadir of the storied club. I would love to live and play in Athens, but it was hard to enjoy Athens when the team was at rock-bottom.

So, that leaves me with simply analysis and a prediction. I had planned on surveying my teammates to get their input and give you Prokom's prediction rather than just giving you mine. However, after losing the fourth game of our semifinal series on Monday to Anwil, I didn't feel like talking to anybody, let alone strolling the aisle on the bus polling a bunch of other dudes that weren't much happier than me. So, as it is, you are stuck with my prediction.

CSKA

Why they will win:
- They will be motivated to honor the recently deceased former premier, Boris Yeltsin.
Why they will lose:
- It's just so darn hard to repeat in professional sports these days. Miami just got swept by the Bulls. CSKA thwarted Maccabi's repeat bid in 2006. Some soccer team probably did something one year and not the next year - how should I know, I'm American.

UNICAJA

Why they will win:
- Everybody loves a Cinderella story. Just like Golden State's improbable late season streak to end the regular season and make the NBA playoffs and now are about to knock off the top team. Malaga snuck out of the regular season and played their way into the Final Four.
Why they will lose:
- Come on, they might not even make the ACB playoffs, how the heck are they supposed to beat the defending Euroleague champs AND either of the giants they would have to face in the finals. George Mason's carriage turned into a pumpkin at the NCAA Final Four last season and it's almost midnight for these Spaniards.

TAU

Why they will win:
- They have the best team (in my humble opinion, of course). They have the best mix of inside/outside(Scola/Rakocevic), veterans/youth (Prigioni/Splitter), passers/shooters (Planinic/Erdogan) and food/wine...

Freak feet, blogger bonding and Euroleague look-alikes

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:54:34 GMT

The boot is off! After seven weeks of wearing the only thing that could look goofier at the end of my leg than my size 18 shoes, the big gray walking boot has been retired. Before I go any further I should comment on the fact that I am a freak of nature. Wearing size 18 shoes does not inherently qualify me as a freak - plenty of basketball players wear size 18 or bigger (Shaq wears size 22!). However, most dudes with feet my size can dunk without leaving the floor - they are GIANTS! I'm only two meters tall (some would argue I'm shorter than that), I'm supposed to wear size 13 or 14. It used to be a real struggle to find shoes that fit. Thankfully, the internet has made it possible for freaks like me to find plenty of cool shoes for any occasion. However, back in high school I had to squeeze into the same size 15 football cleats for two seasons as I quarterbacked the mighty Blackjacks of DBHS. I guess that explains why my toes are so crooked and ugly. Seriously, my feet are pretty deformed and unsightly. I'm surprised I could find such a good-looking babe to marry me with feet as unattractive as mine. Fortunately, there are more than a few basketball players with jacked-up feet, so I don't feel so bad. In fact, my good friend and teammate, Jasmin Hukic, has feet so ugly they make mine look like they could qualify for a beauty pageant. Huka's east-west-facing toes and giant bunions have me convinced that if I investigated a little further I would find that he is either secretly Bosnia's tallest drag queen or he just likes to wear his wife's stilettos around the house. I kid Huka because I know that he will read this. Anyway, enough about crooked toes...

Earlier today, I walked out on the court for the first time since January, wearing TWO basketball shoes. I literally dusted them off before I laced them up. I know it is a cliche to say "It's time to dust off the old shoes and get back to work", but I honestly wiped a bunch of accumulated dust off my Shox before hitting the hardwood. I didn't really hit it hard - about 60 to 70 set shots and 40 minutes doing my Lance Armstrong impression on the bike - but it genuinely felt good to be back on the court. I know my return to health has no implication on the outcome of any Euroleague action - Prokom failed to advance. To be honest, even if we had qualified for the next round, I probably would not have been healthy enough to help the team. I am still two or three weeks away from being effective on the court. But, even though this has no effect on Euroleague, in general, it feels great to type it out for this blog, because it obviously has a huge impact in my life.

Last week we ended our Euroleague season with a loss to our oft-returning guests from Istanbul. Efes has been to Sopot so many times in the last few years that they have nearly become eligible to apply for Polish passports. That being the case, I decided I had better invite my fellow blogger, Ermal Kuqo, out for a beer at a local hot spot to toast the end of our Euroleague action and further acquaint him with the land of kielbasa and Copernicus. I say "hot spot", but believe me, there are no hot spots in Sopot on a Wednesday night in mid-March. During the summer, Sopot is THE place to be for Poles on holiday, but last week SPATiF (the afore-mentioned hot spot) was...

Injured, sick and getting lapped by old men in Speedos

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:33:46 GMT

I am so sick of being injured! Missing out on hanging with the guys on road trips and not playing in Top 16 and Polish League games is bad enough. But, I really just miss the physical act of basketball. I want to get out on the court and run, jump and shoot. One-on-one, three-on-three, or full court five-on-five (or as our coach here in Sopot calls it in his VERY broken English - five-TO-five). You know, I would even rather do some B.S. defensive slide drill or box-out drill than the stuff I have been doing the last two weeks to stay in/get into shape: swimming and biking. I don't know how guys like Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich do it. I'm on the bike for three 12-minute intervals and I feel like I just climbed Mount Everest. Not to mention that the boredom is exasperating. If it weren’t for PTI podcasts on my ipod to keep my mind off the biking, I'd soon need to be fitted for a straightjacket. Those guys are on those sperm-killing seats for hours at a time - EVERYDAY! But, the biking beats the swimming workouts - no ipods in the pool. I have a new respect for guys like Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe. I used to think I was a pretty good swimmer - I actually have a swimmer's body: broad shoulders, long arms and flippers for feet. But my size 18's don't work very well - at least not when one of them is broken. When I stroke with my arms I can get somewhere at a decent pace (that's what she said - The Office), but when I have the floatey-board and just use my legs I go at a snail's pace. One 25-meter lap takes me longer than it took Mark Spitz to win seven gold medals in Munich. I can't imagine sprinting longer than 50 meters in the pool. One good thing about a pool workout is that after getting lapped by old men in Speedos and grandmas in pool caps, I am so exhausted that my normal nap turns into a three-hour hibernation.

So, I'm sick of being injured and on top of that I went ahead and got sick, too. Well, to be honest we are in the midst of running a sickness relay within my household. My wife ran strong out of the blocks Monday through Friday, which is when I got the hand-off for the second leg (fever, headaches and congestion). My 21-month old, Langdon, took the baton today (Monday) and has a constant stream of snot flowing from both nostrils. We will go through a ream of kleenex this week with his nose. My only hope is that Dawson, my four-year old, doesn't get the hand-off for the anchor leg. The good thing about being sick this weekend was the fact that it was conference championship week in NCAA hoops. That meant plenty of great basketball on TV as teams vie in their conference tournaments for positions in the Big Dance, March Madness, the most exciting three weeks of sports America has to offer! I won't take the time to explain my devotion (to steal a theme from the Euroleague) to March Madness. By now, I think most Euroleague fans are aware of it's importance to American basketball fans. If not, ask any of the Americans on your favorite team or any European player who went to college. Each March I look forward to seeing which mid-majors surprise the big schools and make a name for themselves nationally - teams like Butler, Princeton and George Mason. As well as the history that is made as stars cement their legacy on the college game with...

LONG TIME COMING - BUT ALL WORTH IT!!

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:53:57 GMT

Wow!!! Finally, after eight futile attempts over the last three Euroleague seasons, Prokom has defeated Efes to earn the first-ever Top 16 victory for a Polish team. Ermal Kuqo had stated in his blog that he feared our team the most in Group F. I'm sure there were more than a few people who laughed when they read that - considering the other teams in our group (Barca and The Greens) - but we couldn't have been more excited about the win. I say "we", but as it was, I did not make the trip to Istanbul - due to my previously documented foot injury. So, unfortunately, I missed out on the exuberant post-victory celebration with my teammates. Well, actually I missed out on two "victory" celebrations. For those of you who didn't get a chance to see the end of our game last week, you missed out on a very rare occurrence. After letting a 16-point fourth-quarter lead evaporate, Prokom had the last possession with the game tied at 61-61. For some unknown reason our point guard, Rashid Atkins, waited till only 3 seconds remained to make his move. At the last moment, he dropped the ball off to Mike Andersen for the game-winning dunk. Celebration ensues and Prokom heads to the locker room to shower up after a hard-fought victory.

Meanwhile, I have been at home in my living room following the game via the euroleague.net website's live game-cast. As I have mentioned in a previous blog, I have Sky satellite from Britain and do not get any Euroleague games on my TV. Usually, well, the two previous away Euroleague games that I did not play in, I had gone down to a nice Sports Bar in Sopot called Pick and Roll to watch the games with many Prokom fans. But on this night, I had to stay home with my family. The web-cast is a good service for fans who can't watch the games, but it is enough to give a guy a heart attack during a game like ours. You see, there is not an actual clock running down the time as the screen refreshes, but rather, at each minute interval it says that an action took place during that minute (i.e. Karem Gonlum lay-up 39th minute or Jasmin Hukic rebound 40th minute). So, as I watch our lead dwindle, I am becoming more and more nervous and worked up. I believe the 39th and 40th minute had to have lasted about 39 or 40 minutes!!! Until finally "Mike Andersen dunk 2pts 40th minute". 63-61, but still no Final Score officially stated. So I call my buddy Tomek who is at home watching the game. He explains to me that Prokom is in the locker room while Coach Mahmuti and other Efes officials are at the scorer's table with the referees protesting that the dunk came after the buzzer had sounded. Tomek explains to me that the dunk clearly came after 0:00, but overtime was in question because Prokom was still in the locker room thinking (or maybe just hoping) that the game was over. I hung up with Tomek and anxiously awaited the next game-cast action.

My wife patiently awaited the end of the game so we could watch "Little Miss Sunshine" - one of the films on our must-see list during our movie-marathon week, as we led up to the Oscars on Sunday. Meanwhile, my teammates returned to the court to face 5 minutes of overtime and I'm going crazy at the computer as the game-cast says "Drew Nicholas 3-pointer" followed by "Drew Nicholas 3-pointer". 68-63. Thirty seconds later the score changes to 64-68 Prokom and Rashid is icing the game at the FT line. Prokom wins (again), celebration ensues. Obviously, the game-cast had made a few statistical errors during the overtime, which caused me much undue stress that would not have been necessary had I been actually watching the game. Regardless, with the controversial ending to this game, I had to actually see it. So, the next day I got a copy of the game and watched it at home. I was thrilled to see the energy and intensity our team played with through most of the game. I was equally pleased to see my guys regain their composure after a long contentious "pause" before...

BREAKING NEWS OF BROKEN FOOT

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:41:11 GMT

Well, I guess I spoke too soon when I hailed my triumphant return to Euroleague action. "Norgy is back" is no longer accurate. During Wednesday's practice I broke my foot - spiral fracture of the fifth metatarsal in my right foot, to be specific. I'm out again, before I even had a chance to return. I can't express how upset I am about this - at least not in the same words I used when I first found out I would need surgery (my second in two weeks) that will keep me out at least six weeks. I can't honestly say that my absence will have the same affect on the game as the absence of Climamio's stars - James Thomas and Marco Belinelli. My gaudy stats are far from impressive. I expect the outcome to be very similar to what it would have been had I not been injured, but that doesn't give me any solace.

The injury in and of itself is bad enough, but the fact that my parents made a trip from Dawson, Minnesota to Poland (only their second visit to Europe during my hoops career) to see me play makes it even worse. As it was, my dad was at practice to witness more "proof" of what he likes to call "The Norgy jinx". He is the original Norgy. As I think back on my career, my dad's assessment seems to be accurate. Any game that my parents have been to has seemed to lead to bad luck for me. The "jinx" did not exist during my high school or college playing days - they saw me play many times with very few, if any, bad games. However, they have probably been to only 10-12 of my professional games (CBA, NBA, ABA and European) with only one or two games whose result was not "jinxed". Whether it was early foul trouble, poor shooting, or - in the case of Bucks at Timberwolves - not seeing a second of action all game, my parents seemed to bring bad luck. I never put much credence into a jinx, but after this stroke of bad luck my dad has declared that he will no longer come watch me play.

Whether he will stick to that claim is yet to be seen, I just hope the jinx doesn't affect the outcome of our game tonight. I don't expect it will, but I don't think I will be inviting my parents to the hospital to look in as the doctor opens me up Friday morning.

OLD MAN WINTER AND NORGY ARE BACK

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:59:05 GMT

Winter has finally arrived in Poland, and probably the rest of Europe (though I can't be sure, because I haven't checked out CNN lately). It had been so unseasonably mild that I was starting to think I was playing in Northern Italy rather than Northern Poland. Now, the snow is here, the Molten balls are finally worn in, the Super Bowl is Sunday, and it is seriously do-or-die time for many Euroleague teams - including us! I just finished watching the Euroleague highlight show and saw the intensity that was displayed in so many of the penultimate matches of the first round - overtime games, big plays, and buzzer beaters. With so many Top 16 positions still unfilled, I expect nothing but the same this week. This is the time of the season when teams on the edge can really show their character, show their heart, and show other metaphoric body parts which I shouldn't print in English (so I'll do it in Spanish - COJONES). It's going to be an exciting week.

Unfortunately, Prokom was not an exciting part of the highlight show. Despite being down by only three points at halftime (while shooting 78% from two-point distance) to an uninspired Tau team last week, we played a horrible second half, ending the game with a double-digit loss. The loss alone is not a huge issue - Tau is one of the top teams in Europe playing on their home court - but what stands out form this game was the nearly unfathomable difference in rebounding. Tau had 20 offensive rebounds and we had one! I don't know which is more unbelievable, but in my fifteen years of college and professional hoops I cannot recall any team having 20 offensive boards NOR any team finishing the game with ONE offensive rebound!!! I can't say what exactly accounted for this strange disparity - effort, tactics or just plain dumb luck (probably a combination off all three, weighted on effort) - but it was ugly nonetheless.

The previous week we didn't look much better. In the first half it seemed like we were about to get blown out of our gym, Hala Oliwia, by Marcin Gortat and the rest of the bottom-of-Group A squad from Cologne. Fortunately, we turned up the defense in the second half - just in time to gain a crucial victory. I say, "we", but actually I should say "my teammates", as I didn't get my warm-ups off. I did have a good view from the bench of a pretty interesting occurrence, however. I wouldn't necessarily say there was a passing of the torch, but the stellar performance of Polish legend Adam Wojcik and the obvious talents of future star, and Polish native, Marcin Gortat highlighted the night. Obvioulsy, Adam is nearing the end of his career, but can still impress the fans with periodic reminders of his "glory days" and Gortat seems to have a bright future ahead of him. An NBA team occasionally asks for my input on European prospects and I definitely feel Gortat is an NBA player. I don't see him as the next Dirk Nowitzki, but he does a lot of things well that impress me and can help an NBA team. A big man who is athletic, runs the floor, shoots the ball decently, and has great footwork on defense (stepping out on screens) is not easy to find. In today's basketball one doesn't NEED to make the NBA to have a successful, high-level career - the Euroleague is proof of...

PLANES, TRAINS, CASTLES AND ELBOWS

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 13:03:30 GMT

Happy New Year! Or as they say here in Poland - Szczesliwego Nowego Roku! Try pronouncing that as the clock strikes midnight after celebrating the New Year. A lot has happened in the world since my last blog entry. Christmas has come and gone, 2007 has come, and Saddam Hussein has gone....forever. I don't wish to get too deep on this blog so I will leave the politics of the entire Iraq situation alone and talk about a mess that is a little bit easier for Euroleague fans - and especially players - to relate to: Holiday travel.

In 1987, a hilarious movie titled "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", starring Steve Martin and John Candy, told the achingly funny tale of the tribulations and frustrations that one often has to deal with during holiday travel. I don't know if this film was popular - or even released - in Europe, but our recent road trip to Le Mans and back to Wroclaw (for a Polish League game) nearly mimicked the absurd, evolving travel itinerary of this film...minus the comedy. It was bad enough that our planned itinerary involved a flight from Gdansk to Frankfurt and then off to the worst big-city airport in Europe - Charles De Gaulle in Paris - followed by a hop on the train to get from Paris to LeMans. That day, although ridiculous (I can't imagine that all the Euroleague teams take the train to LeMans), was a walk in the park compared to what happened to us the the day after our big win in France.

Carlos Cabezas wrote in an earlier blog about the crazy travel his team endured early in the season and I know most people who travel as much as we do as professional athletes have their own "entertaining" travel stories, so I won't go into every detail of our trip from Le Mans to Wroclaw, but it is no doubt the longest travel day in my life. A 6:15 wake-up call started us on our way via the train to Paris. From the TGV station it took us nearly an hour to get to the correct terminal at CDG - great airport! Thanks to a flight delay, we missed our connection to Warsaw, but we had options. A six-hour bus ride to Wroclaw or sleep in Warsaw and get on a 7:30 flight the next morning. Keeping in mind that we were not going home, but rather, to Wroclaw for a game that day against a team who was ahead of us in the standings. To make a long story short, we wound up getting a charter flight that night which got us to Wroclaw and into our hotel rooms at 1:15 am...nineteen hours after our day had started. My wife often tells me how jealous she is that I get to go on these Euroleague trips. She believes it to be some holiday that I am on while she is "stuck" at home with the kids. Some holiday this trip was! At least we won both games (thanks to Donatas Slanina's 10 three-pointers against Slask Wroclaw) before we hopped on the bus for an eight-hour ride back to Sopot.

Christmas is a time that most of us ballplayers really look forward to - even for those who don't actually celebrate the holiday. Most coaches give a four- to seven-day break to their teams, which usually leads to a quick trip home for Americans and/or any foreign players. After our game on December 22nd, we had to be back for practice on the evening of the 27th. It wasn't enough time for my wife and kids to head back and celebrate...

About shopping and meeting Larry Bird

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 15:01:45 GMT

I have really been looking forward to writing this week's blog. As a matter of fact, about midway through the third quarter of our Thursday game with Efes, I was so excited about our situation (we were up 13 at home and with a win would move to 4-4) that I was planning to write the blog as soon as I got home. At that point we had held the Efes perimeter players to exactly ZERO points and had made some adjustments to slow Nikola Prkacin's dominating first-half post play. The arena in Gdansk was as loud as I have ever heard it and the enthusiasm carried over onto the court as well as to our bench. But late in the third quarter something changed. I can't explain exactly what it was, but 23 Horace Jenkins' points, two huge Cenk Akyol threes, and about five amazing Marcus Haislip dunks later, all our excitement had vanished into an 81-74 loss. Needless to say, I didn't rush home to blog about the opportunity we let slip away. However, I did find out that somebody reads my blog other than my wife, my mom and Flavio Tranquilo. Efes post player Ermal Kuqo met me at half court, and while exchanging the cheap gifts that nobody ever sees after we hand them to our team managers, explained to me that he also rocks out to the Killers, but questioned my classical music leanings. Actually, his exact words were: "I like the Killers too, but Beethoven before a game? Come on!". I assured him that the classical music never enters the locker room and is merely for long bus rides and post-loss blues. By the way, before I move on, I have to comment on the slighting of Marcus Haislip on the Euroleague Top Ten video highlights. He was on there twice, but should have been on there about five or six times last week. His dunk that came in at number 4 was his third best dunk of that game!!! He was a human highlight reel!!!

Well, my initial excitement for this week's blog was born of our trip to Bologna. At the time, it was a huge test for us to see if we could get back on the road to a Top 16 spot. We came in with a better record than Climamio, but were definitive underdogs in most people's mind. Climamio has not had the season they had hoped for, thus far, but the tradition of Fortitudo alone was enough to make them favorites against their Polish League visitors. I felt that we really showed a lot of character in that road win - definitely our most well-played game of the season. I had already mentioned in my last blog that I was looking forward to the food in Bologna - I freely devoured about 33 slices of prosciutto during our meals - now we had a victory under our belts and the shops of the top designers in Italy in which to spend our bonus money.

I haven't mentioned it in this blog before, but one thing that some of the guys on our team (and I suspect most teams) like to do during free time on road trips is shop. I sometimes get teased by my teammates about my quasi-addiction to shopping. Most of it is done in the airports' duty-free Hugo Boss (my favorite), electronics, or watch shops during our layover between flights. But, when one gets a chance to shop the Italian (and some French) designers that line the streets of Bologna (or Milano last season) then one must take advantage. You see, Sopot, Poland is not exactly a shopper's paradise. So, several of us strolled through...

Classical is great - but I'll celebrate with rock'n'roll!

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:39:43 GMT

A mistake-filled loss on the road to RheinEnergie and a disappointing, winnable game at home against Tau in the last two weeks have really put our team in a must-win situation this week in Bologna. Combine that with the fact that my minutes are disappearing so quickly you would think my coach was David Copperfield and you shouldn't be surprised that I don't really feel like talking about basketball too much in this week's blog. Fortunately for Euroleague fans, Signore Tranquillo does a tremendous job providing insight on the recent Euroleague action in his blog. The Euroleague.net staff does a fine job reporting the on-court results as well. So, forgive me if basketball takes a back seat in my blog this week.

I am a pretty positive, glass-half-full dude, but I needed a little cheering up after the Tau loss. There is one thing that has always put me in a good mood. No, I'm not talking about beer - although a nice cold Hoegaarden or Leffe always puts a smile on my face. Who am I kidding? Pretty much any beer can put a smile on my face - except the overrated skunky Heineken. The thing I'm really talking about that puts me in a good mood is football - American football. I know most of the people who read this blog are European and their football is "The Beautiful Game" played by those multi-millionares who fake fouls and injuries every time a guy slides near them. But in reference to my blog, when I say football, I am referring to America's favorite sport, and my first love. Actually, growing up in small-town western Minnesota, the son of a college football and basketball player, I could never choose my favorite sport. I played quarterback (QB - the guy who passes the ball) in high school with aspirations of a college career (and possibly beyond). As it turned out, basketball has been where I have earned my living - and I love it! But, I really miss playing football and look forward to any opportunity to throw the pill (slang word for the oblong ball used in FB) around.

So to cheer myself up, I took my wife and kids to the gym to toss the football around. My boys aren't old enough to play catch yet, but fortunately my wife has a golden arm and some nice hands. OK, she's no Joe Montana, but she was a college basketball player at Butler University and played professional hoops in Italy back in 1997, so she has the athleticism to keep up with me. It was a fun day and a great way to get my mind off of basketball for a bit. I wish I could do it more often, but at least I get my football fix watching NFL games on Sky Sports every Sunday night (which is usually the time I type up my blog). Now, if only my Minnesota Vikings could win a Super Bowl in my lifetime, all the heart-breaking seasons would be worthwhile.

I recently found something else to help me get through the post-loss blues: classical music. Obviously, classical music has been around a long time, and I have had it on a playlist in my ipod at certain times -like when I want to have a glass of wine with my wife or subconsciously "educate" my kids via Beethoven and Mozart - but I had never listened to it in relation to basketball before. You see, I am a rock-'n'-roll guy. I don't listen to much hip hop, R&B, country or techno - although, I have found that there is a time and...

WHEN UGLY IS ACCEPTABLE - EVEN WELCOME!

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:02:12 GMT

There are many times in sports when coaches or players talk about an ugly win or winning ugly. Usually this refers to hard-nosed defense and grind-it-out offense that doesn't include much finesse or spectacular play. Well, last week Prokom and Dynamo played the UGLIEST professional basketball game I have ever been a part of! It was the Quasimodo or Elephant Man of Euroleague hoops - I can't imagine a game at this level being much more unpleasant on the eyes. We set back the game of basketball 50 to 60 years. That game would cause the recently deceased legend of basketball, Red Auerbach, to roll over in his grave. By the way, I don't know how closely the Euroleague fans follow the history of NBA basketball, but in my opinion, Red Auerbach is the single most important non-player in the history of the NBA.

OK, enough hyperbole about the Dynamo game - here are some facts that support my UGLY claim: Both teams shot less than 58% from the charity stripe. Our 7-for-25 from behind the three-point arc was like a Larry Bird hot streak compared to Dynamo's 2-for-16, but the Russian team's 16 turnovers were trumped by our 20 giveaways. The most interesting fact could have been the ZERO field goals Dynamo converted in the third quarter before they broke the ice with a fastbreak dunk with 4 seconds left in the third. Fortunately for us, we did enough - especially on defense - to end up with a victory.

The same cannot be said about our trip to Athens the week before that. Olympiacos is a terrific team with great size, quickness, athleticism, depth and coaching. They have to be considered one of the favorites to reach the Final Four. However, in athletic competition, the best team does not always win. Be that as it may, in this case we were totally outplayed, in all aspects of the game, by the better team. I am not going to lay too many more superlatives on the Reds, because they still have to come to our place to try to attain a victory in Poland - which has eluded them the last two seasons.

I blame myself for the Olympicos loss. Not because of my performance on the court - my 6 minutes of play hardly affected the outcome of the game. But rather, because I committed one of the cardinal sins of pre-game preparation superstitions. I got my hair cut on the day of the game. In my book, this is a no-no - along with trimming your fingernails on the day of a game (it might affect your shot - silly, I know), not making your last shot in pre-game warm-ups, and shaving (although, in recent years I have amended my "no shaving on game day" rule). The problem is - or was - that I have struggled to find a good place to get my hair cut in Poland (except for a great spot in Warsaw) so I had been growing my hair out for a few months. I wasn't planning on going Ryan Stack or Luis Scola length - just a change. However, with the longer hair, my thinning area on the top of my head - where a Yarmulke would sit - was becoming more visible. With the Euroleague TV cameras airing my bald spot for the world to see and my buddies calling me from around Europe to tell me I'm starting to look like Zizou. (For those Americans reading this Zizou is a soccer player: Zinedine Zidane. You know, the French dude who head-butted the...

DRACULA TALKS WINNING AND LOSING

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:00:10 GMT

I am writing this blog entry on the long, six-hour, bus-ride home after our Polish League victory against Ostrow on Sunday. Ostrow was 3-1 coming into this game, but are a tough team to beat any season because of their home-court advantage. They have the smallest gym in the league - referring to the size of the court. It is so short that you can take a half-court shot and still be in your range. And so narrow that I can barely fit my size 18 shoes in bounds for a baseline three-point attempt. In fact, one season, my coach - Andrej Urlep - told me not to even go to the corner as it would be too hard to keep my adidas Superstars from stepping on the sideline. One year, I would like to get a stagger screen at mid-court and throw up a smooth jump shot and see the results.

Speaking of half-court shots, during our preparations for our Euroleague home opener last week against Le Mans, we saw video of each of the players on the opposing team. This early in the season, there aren't a lot of games to pull clips from, so the backup three-man for Le Mans - Nicolas Batum - had only one clip on our scouring video...a shot at the buzzer from over halfcourt. Were we to assume that this is his normal game-shot and we must be ready for it? We were all laughing under our breath when we watched that clip. As it turned out, we didn't allow Batum a single half-court shot. Amazing defense and great scouting report!

It was nice to win in Ostrow tonight, but beating Le Mans was a much more important win for us. In the words of CTU agent Jack Bauer: "We didn't have a CHOICE!" We had to win! It is VERY crucial to win home games in the Euroleague and even though we had a big lead on them at halftime, to squeak out a two-point victory was a big relief. Especially after losing a hard-fought game against Efes in Istanbul the week before. We felt we played well enough to win in Turkey, so it was disappointing to leave with a loss. However, we weren't totally upset with the way we played.

The same cannot be said about our debacle two Sundays ago in the Polish League - losing at home to Polonia. There are many types of losses that athletes experience - blowout losses to great teams, close losses to good teams (like our loss to Efes), and probably the worst type of loss - the one that happened to us last week - a loss at home to a team that you are supposed to dominate. Before I go any further, I should apologize to all the Polish League teams for my statement in my first blog entry. I declared that "at least half of the teams in the Polish League have less than a 5% chance of beating us". Apparently I was wrong - as we were totally outplayed by my old team, Polonia, who will struggle to make the playoffs. I can't remember the last time I was so upset after a game. Not only because of the loss, but because I played poorly, as well. My play does not affect the outcome of my team's games as much as it did in my younger days with other teams I played for, but I still take losses hard. I grew up with a mentality which combined these two statements - "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing." - Vince Lombardi, Hall of Fame NFL coach. And, "The most important thing is to have fun. And the best way to have fun is to win." - Dave Vanderwerf, my high school basketball coach. However, over the years, playing ball, I have realized that the reason winning is important to me is not because it is the "only thing", but rather, because losing sucks so much. It's not a news flash that it sucks to lose, but I'm not sure if basketball fans realize that the lows from a loss are much greater than the highs from a win. In other words, it feels much worse to lose than it feels good to win. Each time I read that statement it makes me cringe at my English, but I think you know what I mean.

Fortunately for me, I have two kids to keep me...

A DEVOTED JOURNEYMAN

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 17:43:26 GMT

DE-VO-TION! DE-VO-TION, AHHHH....!!! I don't know about anyone else, but that song gets me pumped up. Okay, so it's a bit overplayed in the Euroleague arenas, but it's better than having to listen to "Who Let the Dogs Out" or "YMCA" over and over again. Actually, it may be the cheerleaders dancing to "Devotion" that really gets me excited - I don't know - but I like it.

I play for Prokom Trefl Sopot - the Polish League representative in the Euroleague. Having played for thirteen teams in eleven professional seasons, I can accurately say that I am a career journeyman. I have played for teams in France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and America but have found a second home here in Poland. I have spent most of the last five seasons in the land of kielbasa and vodka and look forward to my second Euroleague season here in Sopot. I'm a Minnesota-raised American, but I also have a Polish passport, which enabled me to play for the Polish national team this past summer. I will talk more about my experiences in basketball as the season progresses, but for the most part i will just talk about whatever is on my mind: American football, Italian cuisine, Belgian beer (Hoegaarden is the best), Polish girls in white pants...stuff like that. But I should probably talk about basketball this week.

As I was sitting on the bench watching our Polish League game on Sunday afternoon (I played some too) I was thinking aboutwhat I was going to write about. I was asked to focus on what goes through a player's head as the Euroleague season starts. In between cheers and moans (we won a very close game on the road against another 2-0 team that we should have beaten by double-figures) I realized that the Euroleague brings about different expectations and different pressures for different teams. There are those perennial powers like Maccabi, CSKA, Panathinaikos, Benetton and others whose seasons are nearly considered a failure if they don't bring home the trophy - or, at the very least, make a trip to the Final Four. That means a lot of pressure on their high-priced rosters and coaches. Many of the Euroleague teams play in domestic leagues (such as Spain or Italy) which are so loaded with good teams that they are tested every weekend. All four of the Italian Euroleague teams are 2-2, while Barcelona and Unicaja are 2-3 and 1-4, respectively. That puts a lot of pressure on these teams as they prepare for mid-week games with the best teams from the rest of Europe.

Then you take a team like ours here in Poland. We play in a league in which we are heavily favored each week, and I don't like to be arrogant, but to be perfectly honest, at least half of the teams in our league have less than a five-percent chance of beating us. It is not necessarily because we are the '86 Celtics (I prefer the Larry Legend-led Boston team to the '96 Bulls as the best team ever), but rather because our league is not as deep as some others around Europe. This brings a certain amount of pressure because anything less than a domestic gold is nearly a catastrophe. At the same time, it allows us more opportunity to prepare for the ultra-challenging mid-week Euroleague battle. As we get ready for the first Euroleague game of the 2006-2007 season we have to be excited, as players, to know...