Despite an MVP performance out of Dainius Salenga, Zalgiris fell to Asvel basket, leaving themsleves an uphill climb the rest of the way. AJ Milano and EWE Baskets did the same in a hectic Group D, and Partizan knocked off Unicaja to set themselves up for a Top 16 run. The Serbians’ win also means only one undefeated team remains…
At the airport getting ready to fly to Buresa to play tomorrow. My 1st time back people and I know I’m gonna be winded, but my motto is “Go hard or go home.” It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve been on the court and this has been a long, boring week. I’m a ball player, that’s what I do. I love to compete and I love challenges.
The win in Belgrade was huge; I felt like I was in college again, cheering so much. Sometimes you forget that it’s a game and it’s fun when money is in the picture. You face so many pressures of performing well and hoping your next pay check comes, that you forget why you’re playing this game: because you love it. And if there’s one thing I realized from being out with injury, it’s that I gotta have fun. That little orange ball has taken me so many places and allowed me to see so many things that I never imagined.
I had a guy off of Facebook send me a message that will forever change my life. A few years back, Francisco Garcia and I were at a party and this guy came up to ask us for our autograph but he didn’t have anything for us to write it on. Continue Reading…
After a week filled with fancy hotels and tall Serbians, Freaknick returns home to a cold, drizzly Syracuse and a lonely Slam. Slam is anxious to hear all about his trip—what’s it like to see Slavko Vranes up close? Is Jan Vesely the real deal? Do the Nuggets serve shrimp in the media lounge?—but Freaknick has hit it big time, and might not have time for goofy podcasts and other such juvenile tomfoolery. Will Slam get his answers or will he have to fly solo until Freaknick comes back down to earth?
The Partizan American Tour came and went largely without occasion, but in their eyes-and mine-the trip was far more successful than the 30-point losses against the Nuggets and Suns would indicate. After losing four players (Velickovic, Tripkovic, Tepic, and Lasme) who accounted for 63% of Partizan’s scoring in 2009, they’ve regrouped and will use seven players still shy of their 22nd birthday to go after a ninth straight Serbian title. Once again, Coach Dusko Vujosevic will need to work magic with the youngest team in the Euroleague. In my article for SLAM, I explain why there’s nobody more amply equipped to lead a youth movement than Coach Dusko. Here’s an excerpt:
As the game clock raced backward to zero, Partizan’s Strahinja Milosevic rose up and guided the ball upward off of his finger tips and toward the rim. The red lights illuminated the backboard’s edges as the shot found its intended target, testing the outer limits of the term “improvement” as it rattled in. Final buzzer. Phoenix Suns: 111. Partizan Belgrade: 80.
Not good. But not bad, either. With their 32-point loss to Denver in the rearview, a 31-point loss in the desert suddenly feels a bit more humane. After all, losing by a wider margin would be a step backwards for the Serbian team, and Head Coach Dusko Vujosevic has never been one for regression…
32-point loss against Denver; 31-point loss tonight against Phoenix. With that kind of improvement, Partizan’s only 31 more games away from walking away with a victory on US soil. If you had watched both games without scoreboards, however, you wouldn’t have guessed that Tuesday’s performance yielded a result anything close to the massacre in Denver. 39 turnovers became 34, 28% shooting bloomed to a much more respectable 41.3%, 13 out of 14 players got on the board, and Jan Vesely made people forget about his “disaster game in Denver”, as he put it, with a complete effort that made the trip worth it for the 12 or 13 scouts in attendance (a final line 16 and 5 with a few terrific hustle plays). Below are the highlights, and I’ll post a link to my SLAM article right when they publish it. Thanks again to all those who followed the action via Euro_Adventures on Twitter. I had fun with it, and I’ll see all my Olympiacos fans in Cleveland.
Here I sit in beautiful US Airways Arena, ready to get underway. A few notes before we get started. Remember, since the kind folks at the various media outlets around the world forgot there was a basketball game tonight, I’ll be posting updates on Twitter at Euro_Adventures. Click here to follow, or you can follow it here on the site on the upper left hand corner underneath the pretty blue bird. Now, to the game:
Serbia got off to a great start before the clock even started with a lovely performance by the children to the right. Don’t know what the dance is called, but I’m a fan.
2-time MVP Steve Nash will not be playing due to a chest cold
0-time MVP (and twin brother of the Nets’ Brook) Robin Lopez will not play with a broken metatarsal in his left foot, and everybody knows that’s the worst metatarsal to break.
ESPN.com’s Marc Stein is sitting to my right. Pretty cool. Not important, but pretty cool.
The three replacement referees are JT Orr, Brian Shelley, Riel Banaria. No word yet on if they’ve ever refereed/ever seen a basketball game.
Partizan starting lineup: Aleksander Rasic, Dusan Kecman, Zarko Rakocevic, Jan Vesely, Aleksander Maric
Suns starting lineup:Goran Dragic, Jason Richardson, Grant Hill, Amare Stoudemire, Channing Frye
Despite an MVP performance out of Dainius Salenga, Zalgiris fell to Asvel basket, leaving themsleves an uphill climb the rest of the way. AJ Milano and EWE Baskets did the same in a hectic Group D, and Partizan knocked off Unicaja to set themselves up for a Top 16 run. The Serbians’ win also means only one undefeated team remains…
