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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...