Back in Bologna, the blogger jinx dies

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:34:28 GMT

We are only four weeks into a new Euroleague season, but here in here in Sopot, it seems way longer already. Not only have we already changed some players, but we also played several games without key players like Milan Gurovic or Dajuan Wagner. I feel like we already had our share of bad luck for the rest of the season, or at least that is what I hope. You got it, we didn't really start out well, with big losses in home games against CSKA Moscow and Tau Vitoria and a last minute loss in Kaunas that might be important in the end. Luckily enough, we were able to go into the Bolognese Palamalaguti in Game 4 and get our first win. Soon after this blog is published, I hope we do the same thing in Athens, at Peace and Friendship Stadium. I think there is no gym in the world with a greater name...

And as I mentioned in my first blog a couple of weeks ago, going back to Bologna is always special to me. I spent three seasons at Fortitudo, made many friends (more or less half the city, as the other half are Virtus fans) and the air of Basket City still smells a little like home. Before our game I even wrote a big ‘F' on the palm of my hand and I told Virtus president Claudio Sabatini that I considered this game my own little derby. Now that I write it down, it all sounds silly, but it is not in Bologna: I guess you must have lived it to understand it. The booing by the crowd at the moment of team presentations even got me more motivated, and I probably played one of the best games in my career, earning weekly Euroleague MVP honors and getting almost more post-game text messages than I got best wishes on the day of my wedding…

Talking about derbies, a Polish one this time, my favourite blogger on Euroleague.net last season really tried all he had this weekend to send us back to Sopot with a loss. Yes, Jeff Nordgaard, I'm talking about you! Jeff was outstanding for his new team, ASZ Koszalin. He scored 24 points on us, coached his team on the court at the same time, got me into foul trouble, out of my free throw concentration and even found some time in between all this to chit-chat about EL fantasy challenge. (He let me know he had me on his team, which at that point wasn't too bad). It was a relief for all of us when he fouled out in overtime, which probably got us the win. And looking at the performances of the other EL bloggers lately, it seems the jinx that David Vanterpool was talking about last season is definitely history!

There are no Belgian teams in Euroleague, so as a Belgian myself, I'd like to focus one second on a great ULEB Cup performance last week. My former team Oostende, where I spent four seasons between 1997 and 2001, had a big home win over Dynamo Moscow, one of the favorites for the ULEB Cup Final Eight in Turin, Italy next spring. Since I worked out with them over the summer - the gym is literally around the corner from my Oostende apartment - it was great to see that Coach Sharon Drucker and the guys were able to show that Belgian basketball is moving in the right direction. At least, that is what I am hoping. Following Real Madrid's key player Axel Hervelle and my own example, I would like to predict that young Oostende point guard Sam Van Rossom will be the next best thing out of Belgium, making it to the Euroleague! Once we get to five players, we will form one team and apply at Jordi...

Old friends, new enemies: opening thoughts

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 20:59:58 GMT

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Video: Tomas Van den Spiegel

The circus is coming back to town… The first day of a new school year is Monday!… That is how I - and with me all of my Euroleague colleagues, I'm sure - have been feeling for the last days. Of course, the domestic leagues are important, too, but they are not the same thing. The Euroleague is special, and I'm not getting paid to say this. Special for me because I've changed teams over the summer. I moved from the noisy, chaotic and crazy - but don't get me wrong, also very charming - city of Moscow, to the quiet, peaceful and relaxing beach town of Sopot, Poland. If you look at all 24 Euroleague teams, a bigger change is hard to imagine. But I enjoy every minute of being here. Getting to practice takes me about 4 minutes, the mall is just around the corner and the airport within 15 minutes. That used to be 20, 60 and 120 minutes, respectively, last season. The air is clean and the beaches are beautiful. Life is easy here, so all we have to do now is come up with some results on the court to make it even better…

Although injuries made us struggle throughout our preseason, we do have a great team that should know what it takes to win championships. We count one Olympic champ in Ruben Wolkowiski, one world champion in Milan Gurovic, two European champions in Gurovic and Donatas Slanina, one NBA finalist in Travis Best, a double Saporta cup winner in Tomas Masiulis, and one Euroleague champion in myself, not to mention all the domestic league titles we have collected between us. What's even more important than that is that we like each other already. And in our difficult moments we always have Milan Gurovic, who comes up with one of his numerous imitations that kill everybody. He already does a perfect Tomas Pacesas and Christos Harissis, and the other day he gave me an imitation of Dejan Bodiroga shooting free throws that made me roll on the floor. From having played with Dejan in Rome, I can tell you the imitation was perfect. Milan should already plan on his stand-up comedy career after basketball.

On the day of the Euroleague Draw, I was in Athens together with Theo Papaloukas, who I've become real close friends with in my two years at CSKA. Suddenly, I started getting messages on my mobile from all over, telling me CSKA was in our group. No problem, I had thought about that already. But hearing later that we would holst CSKA in the Euroleague opener in Sopot really get me excited. It will be a great chance for us to show that we are ready for this Euroleague season, playing against the main force inEuropean basketball today. I know that Coach Messina has already been thinking about this game for a while, and he probably started talking to the team about it early last week, to get everybody fully ready. It will be up to us to do the same thing. In the meantime, I have been trying to find out some more about their preparation, bugging Trey, JR, Dave and Matjaz on Skype and mobiles all week...

Our Euroleague regular season group looks so hard that every game will count big-time to make it through to the...

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Back in Bologna, the blogger jinx dies

Old friends, new enemies: opening thoughts