Triple fun with the Pireaus

I am sleepless, once again. So I just came up with something fun to write, just as I promised. This is something I want to explain to the basketball audience, in case this blog is ever read by somebody who knows friends who play basketball together. It is the best game in the world ever, the funniest one,and it is about three-pointers. We call it... the Pireaus.

The more people, the better. It is about shooting three-pointers. You have an order of players and you have to shoot. If you hit, you shoot again until you miss or until you reach 3. Once the first player reaches 3, you have to complete the round. Once the round is over, the player with less three-pointers made is eliminated and the remaining ones start a new round.

If there is a tie, players who are tied for the least three-pointers made have to play the tie-breaker. Shoot until one misses and the other hits, then the first one is out. You eliminate one player per round until the two survivors play the final.

It is fun as it can be. Centers who cannot hit three-pointers and lucky and stay alive in the competition longer than elite shooters. You shoot under pressure and you laugh a lot. It is the best basketball game in the world ever, the best basketball game other than basketball. And sometimes, much more fun than basketball itself.

And why the Pireaus, I hear you ask? Only because we created the game out of the blue, in a practice of a team called Papadopoulos All-Stars in the City League of my hometown Sevilla. Since we had a Greek name, the loser was sent "to the Pireaus (al Pireo)". The shouts of "AL PIREEOOOO!!!!!" when someone lost actually gave a name to this game. Al Pireo was an euphemism for Al Carajo (go and fuck off).

Some friends can't play basketball anymore. But we meet to play in just one hoop and then we play Pireaus all the time. It is something you can play at age 60. It is great.

And we all love it. Long life the Pireaus and the three-point line!

Javi

 

 

 

 

Ever had the feeling that your life...

...might just well be way different than the one you expected to live?

Just think about it: what did you want to be when you were a kid? What did you want to be 10 years ago? How was it 5 years ago, who did you want to be? Any many of the dreams you had when you had 15 actually came true? Life goes on and turns out to be just different - sometimes radically different - that it actually is.

I must say I have been lucky. Five years ago I was working for an engineering company, writing basketball articles just for fun, sometimes because I was in Asia and I didn't have anything better to do. Working 14 hours a day and visiting three Taiwanese basements was not the kind of work I wanted, being 10,000 Km away from home, no matter how much money I was making. Now I do exactly what I want, what I think I am best qualified for, and the kind of work I like the most. So I cannot complain.

The biggest regret I have in life, just sometimes, is that I try to please everyone. That shows best with my trips to Sevilla. I like to come here, but I also love to stay in Barcelona with Belen. I know my parents want me here and Belen wants me there, it is logical. And I try to keep everyone happy - family, friends, wife, co-workers, everyone. Sometime I have to lie - say I have a meeting in Barcelona, or that I made a mistake while writing my flights list - in order to keep everyone happy. I am trying not to do it anymore, but sometimes I am kind of forced to do so.

This should be an exciting summer for me. As every year, I will be on the beach for 15 days and will go to the world-famous FIB Benicassim music festival.

I love it. It is a great festival, very well-organized, and it is even better since I met my good friend Luis from Valencia. I sleep at his place after a whole night out watching gigs from 6pm to 6am, Thursday to Sunday (this year 19-22 July). We wake up at 1pm, have a shower, eat the biggest and best paella we have with a good wine, get into the car and go back to the festival. It is the best plan in the world, watching a good gig with the moon on your back with thousands of other souls and a big beer on your hand, surrounded by friends and knowing they are liking it as much as you do. The FIB bill so far is disappointing - Arctic Monkeys, Muse and Bright Eyes are the only bands I am interested about, and they confirmed like 20 already. Still, it is sometimes more about being there and discovering new bands, why not?

Still, it is a long way to go now. The basketball season is on its best part but I cannot stop myself from thinking that life is not always what you make it, and keeping everyone happy is very, very difficult sometimes, and that it is clear that my happiness depends on others. I am only happy if only all the people I care about are happy. And that happens to be the toughest task in the world - only sometimes.  

I will keep on trying to be a good man. It is the only way I managed to be happy in my entire life. Being a laid-back guy who tries to make his people happy. People around the world have their own way to find happiness - and this is what worked better for me.

So you thought this was a basketball blog... It is, sometimes. I should try to put together some Top 5 lists or just any stuff I find interesting to tell. After all, it is my blog, innit?

I ain't going out, and it is Saturday night. Hope you did, whoever you are. We all gotta enjoy after all.

Javi

 

 

Ermal Kuqo - how to bounce back from injustice

Hello everyone from Sevilla!

Well, here I am to watch - and broadcast - the big game tomorrow. CSF takes Barcelona in San Pablo with a chance to get back to playoff territory. The goal is tough to achieve, but this is basketball and we have a nice roster, featuring an improved Filip Videnov. I am optimistic about this one, I must say.

Anyway, I want to dedicate my blog to one of my favourite players - and a great guy indeed, Ermal Kuqo of Efes Pilsen.

Ermal was born and raised in Albania, where his father and uncle are basketball legends just like he will be once his career is over. he joined Fenerbahce in his teens and has also played for Fort Scott and Seminole State College in the US, Split in Croatia, Pivovarna Lasko in Slovenia before joining Efes Pilsen in summer 2003. He got to the Euroleague when I got there - 10 points and 5 rebounds in his opening game against Tau, helping Efes to get a road win in Vitoria. He has been in the league ever since, just like me, only that he was forced to sit out for 6 months due to an unbelievable doping issue. Ermal was fighting hair loss and that product forced him to miss an entire Euroleague regular season. And this is when he showed his fighting spirit.

Some people would have got depressed, or fat, or just wouldn't have cared about basketball, but Ermal is a one-of-a-kind player and human being, a player who gives all he has for basketball. Instead of just sitting out, Ermal improved his game. Worked on his turnaround jumper, on improving his defense or his post moves and extended his shooting range to the three-point line. He already showed playing for the Turkish national team in the 2006 World champs and is paying off this season in Efes Pilsen, too. He just turned 27 and is about to enter the prime of his career and I hope he opts to stay in Europe as long as he can, because he is a soon-to-be dominant player. In a defensive-minded team like Efes Pilsen, Kuqo averages 9.3 points and 3.7 rebounds playing less than 20 minutes per night. What could he do with more playing time?

Ermal is also a laid-back, cool guy who loves basketball but has other interests in life. You can check his nice website www.ermalkuqo.com to get an idea. He is fluent in at least five languages - Turkish, Albanian, English, Italian, Slovenian - and I believe he can speak some others, too. You don't often see a very privileged mind when it comes to basketball players. And if you don't believe me, just check out his blog in Euroleague.net at this address: http://www.euroleague.net/news/blog/ermal-kuqo

Now that Efes is out of the Top 16 race, it is the best moment  - so that people don't think I always praise those whose teams are doing well - to speak about Ermal, a big guy with big brains - hoping to reach big in the world basketball scene, making a whole country proud of what he is doing.

Keep up the good work, man.

 

 

A glamourous job - sometimes

Hello all,

Here I am, it's 2:40 am and I am still at least 2 hours away from finishing my Thursday job - already on Friday. The work at Euroleague Basketball is a cool one. I gave up everything I had in Madrid to come over here and work in basketball - a dream coming true to me. You get to know players, coaches, fans or legends, the people in the office are cool and I am happy to be around. But Thursday nights means that we have to update our own Euroleague Fantasy game - the Euroleague Basketball Fantasy Challenge.

It is not fair for me to say good things about the game because basicly, I put the players prices, I adapted the rules from other games and I manage it until deep at night sometimes, but it is a terrific game for all basketball fans out there. It might be too late now with just 2 games to go in the Top 16, but you all should try next season - even when that means I will go even more sleepless. We had over 65,000 teams this season and people don't complain too much about it - we even get some love mail from time to time and ideas - some quite good - to improve it. The fantasy fever will disappear in two weeks and people will be ready to do their teams next October.

I must say I love MySpace. I got to know that a lot of bands who never made it still exist in here, bands like Power of Dreams, Airhead, Thousand Yard Stare or Northside - who are even back and touring around the UK!

I am in the process of losing weight, which in my case means suffering. I wish I could be one of those guys losing weight just like that, but I am not. I will be flying to Sevilla tomorrow at 13:45 and I plan to go to the gym before going to the airport and after hitting the bed at 5am or so. If I make it, the scene will be pathetic - me falling asleep on a static bike or something. But if I don't want to look like a circus seal this summer, there's no other way.

The fantasy process just finished it's second phase - out of 12. I better say goodbye and make some coffee.

Have a nice weekend!

 

 

Hello everyone @ MySpace,

Well, here I am, fresh from a very exciting Euroleague game last night. CSKA beat Joventut in Badalona and I think it allowed 3-4 easy shots in the _entire_ game. That's the way CSKA wins game, as it is one of the best defensive teams in the world - you can ask the LA Clippers about it. CSKA was without David Vanterpool and superstar Theo Papaloukas did not have a good game, but Matjaz Smodis and J.R. Holden took care of business and their defense did the rest.

I got the chance to meet David Vanterpool before and after the game. He is a terrific guy and we know each other well since the 2004 Final Four in Tel Aviv when he played for Montepaschi Siena. If the Euroleague ever wants to promote the competition and try to attract a new group of fans, David is the man to do it. He's handsome, charismatic, outgoing and knows how to speak in public. Hope he gets well soon from his back injury and returns to court just in time to help CSKA in the most decisive phase of the season.

What else happened around the league? Luis Scola became the all-time Euroleague top scorer. A good prize for a hard-working, hard-nosed guy who deserves the Euroleague title like few others around. Tau beat Maccabi while Pau-Orthez got its first Top 16 win since 2004. Olympiacos had to battle hard to beat Partizan, too. And tonight we have a pivotal game between Benetton Treviso and Unicaja, plus three other games, including Efes - Panathinaikos. Nice!

Like I said, I will be going to see my family and check my team in Sevilla next week. I told Belén  - my wife - that she shouldn't go to Euroleague games that often, because then she will see Caja San Fernando and dislike it. Should be a nice weekend in Sevilla to go out, see some friends and luckily enough, smell some orange tree flowers. Sevilla is full of them and that smell shows Spring is almost here. With global warming around, I just hope flowers will be out there now and not in July...

Peace to everyone! And thanks to Fara for getting me introduced to MySpace. She is the one to blame for this blog, believe me.

Javi

First blog ever - and it was about time

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! I just decided to copy all MySpace blog entries in here - without any order. It is difficuly to know what to say, since this is my first-blog ever, so let's start with what's going on in my life this week. I am pretty excited because Euroleague Basketball is in its second phase now - the Top 16. We went down to 16 teams and only the best eight will survived. Tomorrow I will be working from Badalona to write the report of arguably one of the best games to be seen in Europe these days: Joventut vs. CSKA. Joventut is the most fun-to-watch team in European basketball right now, but they are without Lubos Barton, a key piece in the puzzle. CSKA is the current Euroleague champion and has been unbeaten in 14 straight games. So what can get better than that?

I got to see Kasabian last Sunday and it was one of the best gigs I have seen in the last couple of years. They opened with Shoot the Runner and Reason is Treason and most of the songs from their last album (Empire, the Stuntman, By My Side) sounded quite imporved live. "Old" classics like Club Foot or Processed Beats sounded great, too, and it was quite difficult, because they played in RazzMatazz 2. The sound in the bigger RazzMatazz 1 is quite good, but every gig I went to in RazzMatazz 2 had a terrible sound. It is supposed to be a dance place, and good live bands like The Darkness sounded terrible in there... but Kasabian did alright. They closed with LSF, the best song they have in my opinion, and the best way to finish a very good gig.

I will be in Sevilla next week checking my team, Caja San Fernando. We have a new coach, new ambitions and 11 games to go to see if we make the playoffs for the first time since 2000. We face Barcelona, so we will have to do really well to win that game. I have good friends in the Barcelona team, so having them around will be quite nice, too.

Will let you all know anytime soon. Tomorrow it will be time to meet David Vanterpool - who is injured - and CSKA Moscow. Check back often and send your comments, please!

I miss my man Hugo Bloch

Hello all,

Life in Barcelona is cool, I must admit. Living with Belén is the best thing that ever happened to me. But life would be even better if my good friend Hugo Bloch would be back in the city.

He was the frist true friend I had in Barcelona, many years before I actually moved in here. He likes basketball and has the same addiction to Toni Kukoc and Larry Bird that I have. And also the same sense of humour, even more absurd. The most important thing is that he is having the time of his life now. He used to work for a big company but oted to do something different.

Travel around the world.

He was single, didn't have any attachments and had the will to do it, so he decided to see some of the best hidden places in the world. I remember that he told me during the Final Four in Prague and I couldn't believe my ears, but he was determined to do it. Had a dream and went for ir. Ole sus cojones.

He has been to Brazil, Nepal, climbed the everest and saw some unbelievable views I can only dream to imagine.

Also went to Singapore, Indonesia, back to Brazil and then to Argentina. He could write a book with everything that happened to him lately, but he opted to have this amazing blog on http://hugobloch.blogspot.com that I strongly recommend to visit - even when it is in Spanish.

I miss him. I have met quite a lot of cool people in my life, but Hugo is the coolest guy I ever met, and well, I just hope he is back after such a long trip so that he can tell me everything about the trip. Until that moment, e-mail is what we have.

Y bien buena que está, por cierto. :)

Javi

On Pau Gasol and how much I enjoyed

Hello all,

It was a very lazy weekend for me. I was too tired to even go out and all I did was go out there are see 300 - the movie. A major disappointment by any means. I expected something as good as Sin City, but it wasn't.

So, I stayed up late last night, insomniac as I can be, watching Pau Gasol a little bit. Memphis got him really involved in the first quarter, and Pau simply delivered. 6/6 two-pointers, 4/6 FT, 16 points and Memphis in the game. He did not get his usual shots in the second quarter - double teamed by Williams all the time - and had only 2 points in this period. As a result, Utah broke the game and Memphis failed to get him involved.

I love Pau Gasol. It took me a while to believe, but he is a terrific guy, very smart, who treats everyone around him really well. Plus, he is an incredible ball player, superb ballhandling for his size, talent, intelligence... He has the complete package. I never met him in person, but he is the #1 player I want to meet. Why? It's easy to say...

 

My teams are Caja San Fernando, the Denver Nuggets and the Spanish national team. Only CSF and Spain make me take it really personal. And I never won anything in my life. Every Real Madrid, Barcelona, Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Tau or US fan - and that includes most of you - knew what it feels to win. I didn't, and Pau led the team that won the World Champions. I would like to thank them one by one for the moments I spent over there. It was really special for me, because I was working as a TV broadcaster for LaSexta in non-Spain, non-US games during the World Champs.

Speaking as a basketball professional, it has been the best moment of my entire life. Those days in LaSexta are a treasure for the people who were there. Not only Spain won the Championship, but also lived it to the maximum. I will never, ever thank César Nanclares enough for counting on me for that project.

That's my Dream Team, Spain led by Pau. And this is where I had some of the best moments I will ever experience as a basketball professional and fan. We all laughed. Most of us cried. And overall is was amazing and we will be the World Champs until 2010! :)

I just hope to be part of EuroBasket 2007 one way or the other. I have to be there. All the hard work pays off in moments like this, and this is what makes basketball special compared to everyone. Above all, the Spanish national team is a group of friends, a regular bunhc of guys who are dying to get together and play excellent basketball every summer. The atmosphere can't be better.

And I am proud of the Golden Boys.

Arctic Monkeys - RazzMatazz, 19 March

Hello all!

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you guys, but here I am. I went to see the Arctic Monkeys on St. Patrick's Day and it was way different from the last time I saw them, also in the great RazzMatazz 1. Last time around they were at the end of their tour and it was a sort of historical night because they changed their lineup after that gig. Now, well, it is the chance to listen to the most anticipated album of the year - one month before its release, and live. Sound quality is perfect and it one of the best places to see a gig in Spain. Not to mention it is the best disco in Europe and that everybody should get there when DJ Amable, their in-house DJ, is running the show.

First of all, I must say I haven't see so devoted fans since The Smiths. People now every lyric and every moment and even sing the guitar bits. And that's when the lyrics are very complicated sometimes like "Look here comes a Ford Mondeo, isn't he Mister Inconspicuous and he don't even to have to say 'owt". Every guitar bit! You don't believe me? Check this out.

Also, I think we are ready to see a major disappointment with their second album. The tracks are not as good as in their first album. I love "Whatever People Say, That's What I Am Not", I think it is a fantastic album, with smart lyrics to feel identified with. Musically speaking, looks like their second album is not that good. Still, I think that the Arctic Monkeys are a long career in front of them, and just like The Strokes, they may never match their debut, but they will always be ready to pen tracks such as "Brainstorm", that is brilliant.

There were no encores, just as usual, which allowed me to get out of RazzMatazz with Belén sooner than anyone else. Once again, I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor was one of the first tracks to be played, and of course people went absolutely mad. I wonder what will happen in Benicassim this July. They saved the best for the end, even when they played When The Sun Goes Down midway through. They played Brainstorm, followed by Dancing Shoes, A View From The Afternoon, Fake Tales of San Francisco and A Certain Romance. Total, 63 minutes.

Compared to the Kasabian gig - both British bands, successful, with two albums ready to be played - it was way worse. It is logical, because Kasabian is already one of the best British rock bands. Still, I had a good time despite a fully packed Razz 1 and it was worth it. 

Next stop, The Scissor Sisters on April 25. It was a Xmas gift for Belén, a couple of tickets. I will also see Bloc Party when I get back from the Final Four in Athens.

More good news: The White Stripes will play at Primavera Sound Festival. Now that's gonna be something. Last time they were around, they got mad with the audience and did not play Seven Nation Army. We'll see what happens this time around.

Peace,

Javi

 

By the way...

Two things, quickly, before I forget...

1) If you wanna know what Euroleague Basketball is all about, you can check it in my own MySpace. Go to my own space and click on that YouTube video. Now that's Euroleague Basketball. Excitement. Passion. Drama. Top quality basketball. And great cheerleaders, too.

2) Is there anyone who is NOT in my extended list? I am wondering that. If so, please let me know!!!

Have a nice weekend, people out there!

Discos Revolver, James and a demolished Javi

Hello everyone! Looks like 176 people already read my blog. Probably 100 or 120 is just me, checking it out from everywhere in Barcelona, but oh well, I like to see people actually read whatever I have to say.

Fridays and Saturdays are my days off from October to mid-June, so I decided to go to the city center and check out Discos Revolver - possibly the best CD stor not only in Barcelona, but also in Spain. There are two shops close to each other. The red one is a regular CD store, very professional and with helpful staff. But the green one is just fantastic. It is a big store with rarities, second-hand stuff and dirt cheap bargains. CDs are not ordered in that store, so you just have to check one by one to find a hidden gem. Of course, all CDs are around 5-8 Euros other than the ones you really want to buy, whose price is always 10 or so. :) If you like Britpop or British rock, you can have it all in there with a little bit of patience. Same if you are a heavy metal fan. I went there at 4pm, while everyone is working, so I took my time to see it through. It's funny to find The Waterboys close to Frank Zappa, Ride close to Love or Kaiser Chiefs close to Joy Division.

Anyway, I bought three CDs for less than 20 Euros, one to complete my collection, the others just because. I ain't going out tonight because tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and the Arctic Monkeys gig, a deadly combination indeed, so I decided to rest a bit, especially since I returned from my first proper basketball game in like 2 months. This is what I bought:

Muse - Origin of Symmetry

I have a love-hate relationship with Muse. Their third and fourth album are great, Time is Running Out in fantastic, Supermassive Black Hole is the bollocks, but I saw them live twice and it was crap. Once in front of 700 people in Sala Arena, Madrid, and the other in FIB 2002 in front of, say, 30,000 people. It's funny, because I know they are a great live band. Will see them in FIB 2006 and they should change my mind. Hopefully.

The other two are an Embrace compilation and a weird James album with B-sides and big hits. Embrace had a good first album with a super song like All You Good Good People. Stadium British rock at its best - with possibly no fans to fill a stadium. Their second album, Drawn From Memory, had ups and downs while their thrid album was terrible. Chris Martin rescued them by penning a song for their fourth album, Out of Nothing... but it is mostly an underacheiving band with, however, 5-6 great tunes and a good live band, too.

I'm glad to see that James are back!

James are just one of the best British bands in the last 20 years. They have three consecutive albums - Gold Mother, Seven and Laid - that left a legacy. Even they latest stuff was great, with songs like I Know What I Am Here For, She's A Star or Getting Away With It. I just hope to see them live and have them around for many, many years. Tim Booth is a natural-born frontman with a terrific voice. And English music has to be glad about these news. Let's hope the Stone Roses or Ride are next, since everyone knows that the Smiths will never, ever come back.

I'll try to listen to Irish bands tomorrow, nothing else. Ash, the Waterboys, the Pogues, Therapy?, The Frank & Walters, Power of Dreams - of course! - and of course the all-time number 1. That I don't need to look for a CD, every Irish pub will end up playing One by U2 sooner or later...

If I am not around tomorrow, Happy St. Patrick's everyone! I will dance like a robot from 1984 in the meantime...

Javi

 

Split and basketball globalization

Hello all,

I was writing the Croatian League report for Euroleague.net at halftime of Joventut - Partizan, possibly one of the most intense game in the Euroleague so far this season, and I saw that Split beat Zagreb with 8 three-pointers from veteran bomber Larry Ayuso. They recently signed Erick Barkley, who also did well in that game.

Split is a legendary team in Europe, as you all may know. The club won three consecutive Euroleague titles with players like Toni Kukoc, Zoran Sretenovic, Luka Pavicevic, Velimir Perasovic, Zan Tabak and in the first two titles, Goran Sobin, Dino Radja or Dusko Ivanovic. Most of them are well-known coaches now and that team stays as possibly the best-ever in European basketball, up there with Ignis Varese in the mid-seventies, the 2001 Kinder Bologna, the 2004-2005 Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv or the 1987-1988 Tracer Milano, with Mike D'Antoni, Bob McAdoo and Dino Meneghin running the show. Split - or Jugoplastika, or Pop84 - dominated the European basketball scene with a homegrown team. Only Avy Lester joined the team for the 1991 title and played a crucial role against all odds.

Split carried on producing top quality players, the first to come to mind are Roko-Leni Ukic or two-time All-Euroleague center Nikola Vujcic.  They have nice players like Mateo Kedzo or Hrvoje Peric, but the whole situation now is way different. Split won 2 of its 4 opening Adriatic League games and lost 20 in a row, and now they rejoined the Croatian League with Ayuso and Barkley, who have become the leaders of the team.

It's tough to see something like that now, like the Split dynasty. European and NBA scouts take away the players out of the best farmyards before they get to develop and become better players. The exception could be Partizan and of course FMP Zeleznik. Partizan won in Badalona last night with a generation of players that have been playing together for 5 years. Uros Tripkovic, Kosta Perovic, Luka Bogdanovic or most recently signed Milenko Tepic and Nikola Pekovic got their perfect complement in veterans Predrag Drobnjak and Dusan Kecman. Things have began to roll for Partizan in the Euroleague scene.

And then FMP is amazing.

They have the best school of young players in Europe, as simple as that. Every year, their best players leave the team but their replacement in ready. Right now they have no foreign players, just a nice group of talented, ambitious youngsters ready to beat anyone, anywhere. Players like Zoran Erceg, Dragan Labovic or even Aleksandar Rasic could play anywhere in Europe. Suddenly, the closest thing to the glorious Split is FMP. If only they could keep their players for 3-4 extra years, FMP would be a top contender to reach the Euroleague playoffs and even fight for a Final Four spot.

We have a big game coming up tonight, none other than Unicaja - Dynamo Moscow. Should be a big showdown. Also, the Arctic Monkeys are coming to town and they have their new video available. Here it is, for you all to enjoy it:

 

 

Have fun everyone!

Top 5 moments - when basketball changed

Hello everyone! There is something that keeps me busy these days while being at home. And I guess that it will go on, and on, and on for at least more than one year until I finish it. I am converting my whole basketball tapes collection from VHS to DVD. I am discarding some games, those with poor image quality or those that are totally meaningless and unimportant, but you get to see a lot of good stuff here and there. Just today I was watching a Greece - USA game from the 1990 World Championships. USA still went with NCAA players like Alonzo Mourning, Kenny Anderson, Mark Randall or Billy Owens. Meanwhile, Greece was without Nick Galis but had an splendid, amazing Panagiotis Giannakis, who played one of the best games of his career. The game down to the wire and Kostas Patavoukas took a 15-meter (from beyond midcourt), desperation shot at the buzzer that danced around the rim and incredibly enough, went out and took the game to overtime. The desperation faces on some people in the stands were great!

USA went on to win that game but lost against the united Yugoslavia (one of the best teams ever in world basketball with Divac, Kukoc, Radja, Drazen Petrovic and surprinsingly enough, Zeljko Obradovic) in the semis, ending up with bronze. Greece beat Spain with an outstanding Fanis Christodoulou and went to the top 8. Due to that loss, Spain had to play for places 9th to 16th and finished 10th. Things have changed for Spain in the World Champs, I tell you that.

It shows how basketball has changed these days. I was considering which were the key moments in basketball that provided that change. Well, here we go with a Top 5 list:

1) The 1972 Olympic Final. The Soviet Union beat the US 51-50 in controversial fashion. Don't have time to explain it properly, but the final seconds had to be played three times until Aleksandar Belov beat the buzzer once he picked up a length-of-the-court pass and put it in, possibly after travelling. The US team never accepted the silver medal, that are still in a safebox in Munich. It was the first time that the US did not win a gold medal in basketball.

2) The 1988 Olympic semifinal, once again USA - Soviet Union. Coach George Thompson brought a very defensive team to the event, that still had soon-to-be solid NBA players like David Robinson, Danny Manning, Mitch Richmond, Dan Majerle or Hersey Hawkins, who did not play that game. The USSR coach and a total basketball legend, Aleksandar Gomelsky, took advantage of that and opted to get Rimans Kurtinaitis involved. He fired in 5 triples and got enough help from Aleksandar Volkov, Arvydas Sabonis - who killed Robinson despite being out of shape - and Sarunas Marciulionis to win the game. It was th Munich revenge - and it had consequences...

3) The Dream Team - all games. For the 1992 Olympics, USA Basketball opted to bring NBA players for the first time and put the best team ever in basketball, the only Dream Team in basketball history. Magic, Jordan, Larry Legend, Stockton, Malone, Barkley, Mullin, Drexler, Robinson, Ewing, Pippen and erm, Christian Laettner. They dominated everyone - even when Yugoslavia was no more and they never came with the team that had dominated European basketball for three years - and gave a lesson to the world. Despite being stars, the collective was even better. Everyone took note and the Dream Team, in a way, helped world basketball to become more competitive. The NBA-based US team would go on to win the 1994 World Champs and the 1996 and 2000 Olympics - even when Lithuania was a shot away from beating them in the 2000 semis.

4) The 2002 World Championships: the US team was flooded with solid NBA players - maybe not the best ones, but enough to dominate. Argentina gave a lesson on how to play team basketball with Ginobili, Scola, Nocioni or Sanchez and simply dominated the US team. Moreover, Yugoslavia - with an outstanding Milan Gurovic - beat them in the quarterfinals. The US finished sixth because Navarro and Gasol helped Spain to beat the States and be 5th overall. It was the beginning of a revolution that started with the Dream Team. World basketball would never be the same.  

5) The 2004 Olympics: Italy beat a very competitive US team in a pre-Olympic friendly game, then Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico!) downed the States in the group stage. Nobody celebrated better than Carlos Arroyo, who just stood still holding his jersey pointing at the words Puerto Rico. Sarunas Jasikevicius would hit 3 three-pointers down the stretch to make Lithuania beat the US, and then in the semifinals, Argentina (once again) downed the States with a huge Ginobili. Three Olympic losses in two weeks, when the US had lost two games in more than 50 years.

What now? Teams like Argentina, Greece or Spain are at the top of their game. If the US doesn't bring their best players, they will be in trouble. But what a fantastic basketball tournamente we will all follow in Beijing 2008!!!!

Still, right now it's the Euroleague Top 16 and the ULEB Cup semifinals, enough excitement for the present time.

Enjoy it all!

Javi

 

 

Johnny Marr in Barcelona - what the hell!?!?

Hello all,

Well, shocking news today. I knew Johnny Marr was playing with Modest Mouse lately, but I just knew today that not only he will be touring with the band, but also that they will be in the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona at the end of the Spring! Marr is one of my all-time idols, as he penned most of the Smiths tunes with Morrissey. And that's enough to give the whole festival a go.

Even when I already had bought the ticket way in advance, anyway.

The Smiths always meant a lot to me, and their song are ageless. Morrissey always _has_ the exact lyric at the right time, no matter what happens in your life, and that's only making four studio albums together, plus B-sides compilations like Hatful of Hollow, The World Won't Listen or Louder Than Bombs. You love The Smiths or hate them, but their legacy is still there as one of the most influential bands of all-time. A lot of people had written tracks about being depressed or sad, but never about being lonely, with so much frustration, irony and dark sense of humour than anyone ever in music history.

So, Johnny Marr will be in town and that's good news. What else is happening? Nothing much... Looks like my lifestyle and my doctor are wild enemies. I went to the doctor and says I should do more sports, eat less and healthier and quit alcohol. I told her I do sports, I eat healthy and that there is no way that, having to work at night four days a week, Friday night arrives without me going out and drinking some. No way at all.

I have been listening to a They Might Be Giants compilation all day long and I like most of it, but it is too intellectual music. They Might Be Giants are music for nerds sometimes. I mean, what kind of lyrics are these?

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Weird, huh? I wonder what they were thinking about when writing it. Or better, I don't wanna know. :) Some songs like Birdhouse in Your Soul or Don't Let's Start are cool, and their gigs are always fun... but to me it's just a band to listen from time to time.

If anyone out there watches EuroSport 2, I highly recommend the ULEB Cup semifinals tonight. Unics and Madrid already provided an instant classic in the regular season, while the game between L.Rytas and FMP is going to be wild, too. Keep an eye on that, or get to ULEBcup.com for more info!

Gotta run. Take care, everyone @ MySpace!

Javi

Exaggeration, pronunciation and the week ahead

Hello everybody,

Well, I am back in Barcelona, seeing that my goal of becoming more famous than Jim Harmor is going nowhere. Who is Jim Harmor, anyway, I hard you ask? If you are a male student of any computer-related degree at any university with Internet connection, you will know. You might not see his face ever. Actually, no-one did anyway. :)

This is going to be an exciting week. First, the ULEB Cup semifinals, then the 5th round - out of 6 - in the Euroleague Top 16 and finally an Arctic Monkeys gig on Saturday night. I will be in Barcelona for an entire month starting today, which is kind of bizarre, as I never ever stay that long in here .Too many places to see, too many cities to discover - with my wife Belén, the perfect travelling companion - and I miss Sevilla quite a lot, even when Barcelona is the bomb. A great, modern, state-of-the-art city to live in, with the best clubs in Europe and enough world restaurants to drive you crazy.

I have been crazy about this the entire day:

  
  
  
 

This woman is the Sasha Djordjevic of Carson's City Council!!! I mean, how ridiculous you can be?

Definitely, YouTube is a good thing. It has changed the way you can see Internet. And that's tougher every day, in a world in which nobody is surprised by anything anymore. What a revolution it has been!

As usual, comments will be welcomed. And suggestions, too. From writing about restaurants, to basketball, music or how to pronounce Tskitshvili without going paranoid. Speaking on pronunciation, you gotta check this out:

http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php

It is a ton of people reading this text in English all over the world:

"Please call Stella.  Ask her to bring these things with her from the store:  Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.  We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.  She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."

It can be hilarious sometimes. This, people out there, is a funny, complicated world.

Javi

 

 

FC Barcelona and new CDs

Hello all, once again. I got an e-mail suggesting I should promote this blog all over the Internet, but what for? I am a guy who is used to write about certain things every day and this is just my way to write about whatever the hell I want. Just that!

As you may know, my Caja San Fernando played a fantastic game against Barcelona and lost 85-95. Barcelona hit 8/10 three-pointers in the first half, in a total exhibition. Any other team would have given up, but CSF fought backed by an outstanding Videnov. What a shooting exhibition he gave, it was about time! We got within 74-77 but Barcelona escaped with a big win for them. CSF faces Gran Canaria and Pamesa in the next two weeks, the most important games of the season, since they are direct opponents and we beat them already. 

Anyway, I am working on domestic leagues today, writing about most of the leagues in Europe, and writing about basketball now seems a bit insane, so let's write about music. I got 5 Cds from SecondSpin.com and this is what I have been listening to this week. Of course, if buying CDs online in the US and bringing them here is cheaper than buying them in Spain, is that something goes wrong in here. And anyone who is addicted to buying CDs like me knows it. 

Weezer - The Blue Album (Deluxe Edition)

  Well, nothing much to say, since I have had the normal version of this CD for a while. Great songs, Buddy Holly is great, Undone simply rocks and I have a new-found love for No One Else and Surf Wax America. It is back from B-sides from that era and kitchen demos which are just a good complement. One of the best Deluxe editions I have bought. Last one - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me by The Cure - was a bit disappointing, as the extras were not that good as this.

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights

Surprinsingly enough, this CD was missing in my collection. I think it is the closest that an American band has even sounded to Joy Division. Classics like PDA, Hands Away or Obstacles 1 & 2 are the highlights. I never saw Interpol live. I hope they come around to Spain anytime soon. Everyone prefers this album to Antics, but not me. I love Slow Hands and Evil, and I would give it an edge over their first record.

Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations

What a terrific record this is! I have been playing it non-stop this weekend. It is all about loss, life, death and where do we go in the end the Eels style. Quiet songs with a warm message and a pleasure to listen to it while working or just while trying to solve the latest Sudoku of the day. :) 33 songs altogether and the best Eels record I ever heard. Better than my longtime favourite Beautiful Freak. We will see ow I like it in two years' time, though. Music tastes change here and there.

Wilco - Kicking Television

It is supposed to be one of the best live albums of all time. I do believe it is right there with Live at Leeds by the Who, 101 by Depeche Mode or Rank by The Smiths - of course, I am being way too partial now, as always when it comes to Morrissey & Marr. best ones are Handshake Drugs, Hell is Chrome, Heavy Metal Drummer or Jesus Etc, but it is a pretty recommendable album to own. I can't wait to see Wilco in the Primavera Sound festival next Spring here in Barcelona.

The other one - When Do We Start Fighting by Seafood - I just started listening to it, so I can't give an opinion. So far I like it, even when it reminds me of Sonic Youth, Grandaddy, Placebo, Pixies and Fugazi mixed together. Not a bad mix anyway. We'll see.

Well, back to work. I won't tell about my shootaround hours before the Caja San Fernando game, I just can't shoot worse in my entire life. Imagine a fat guy missing one three-pointer after another - and you will be close. But don't get too overconfident, because in a month I will be ready to play again once I get my shooting skills rolling.

And I lose some weight, too. Like someone said once, when you are younger you eat what like and still fit into slim clothes and sit them clothes. Then you go beyond 30, your muscles give up, begin you wave a little white flag and without any warning at all you are suddenly a fat bastard.

So let's change the story, shall we?

Javi