Basketball Intifada

Last Sunday, the NBA and basketball in general reached a milestone. The All-Star game of 09/10 was played in front of the record crowd of 108,713. It may be true that more fans came to see Shakira than Allen Iverson (here’s a humorous twist), but this game set the bar high and it’s not unimaginable any more that we’ll see a play-offs game in a converted football dome some time soon. Or some future Olympic Games Finals played in front of the 100K crowd. This game compares well with and surpasses most other sport events, even the ones traditionally played outdoors in big stadiums. (The game which still stands alone is the famous soccer game “Maracanaço“ [video, Spanish], in which 199,854 fanatical Brazilians witnessed their country’s loss to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup, in one of the greatest sports upsets of all time.)

The number of people present doesn’t always equal the intensity of the crowd. The most unusual basketball game I’ve watched, when it comes to the fans, could have been the late eighties match-up between Partizan and Maccabi (Tel Aviv), played in Belgrade. It was one of the loudest, too. I had to show up an hour early because having the ticket didn’t guaranty that I would get in. There was no such thing as my own seat, in stark contrast with my first NBA experience in the Garden in Boston. As soon as I found a decent spot, a good angle to see the game from, I saw a group of maybe 300 rabid Partizan fans who chanted with a very strong accent. Their head gear wasn’t much different from the hats and scarves regular Partizan fans wore. As a visitor to the city, not too familiar with the Grobari rituals (“grave diggers” is what Partizan fans call themselves), I asked the guy next to me who they were and he said: “These are Palestinian students, they come every time we play against an Israeli club.” Read more ->

Partizan, Cibona in 2009

Although I haven’t published any articles about Cibona or Partizan this season, I’ve followed both clubs very closely.

Partizan had a lot of success last season, but most of its key players were traded in the off-season (Tepić, Veličković, Tripković, Lasme). As always, Partizan does good scouting and they acquired new players (Alex Marić, McCalleb). It is still early to say, player-by-player it reads like a net loss to me. Marić seems to be somewhat of the force inside and McCalleb has speed, quickness, and mindset to score a lot of baskets, but their long-range shooting is not as much of the threat this year and they don’t have a clear leader on the court when the game is on the line. Partizan started slow both in the Adriatic League and Euroleague.

Cibona has struggled financially, players played without the pay for some time. They were blown out by Sienna in their first Euroleague game at home. Then, they lost two more, but finally won a game at home against Zalgiris. Cibona is trying to incorporate some younger players into the roster while relying on Marko Tomas to break the defenses and score a lot of points. So far, the results have been mixed. They do have the best start in the Adriatic League in years as they haven’t lost the game their yet; coming back from Belgrade with a win against Partizan. Read more ->

The Outlook of the Season

First, let me remind myself and everybody else about the teams I am committed to write about. Cibona and Partizan from Croatia and Serbia respectively; Boston Celtics, arguably the most famed NBA team (LA Lakers come as very close second); BC Eagles and Harvard Crimson for college basketball; and Belmont Maruaders for high school basketball. This year I am adding the Maine Red Claws NBDL team, associated with the Boston Celtics and the Charlotte Bobcats.

Why did I chose exactly these teams. Either because they are geographically close to where I live, so I am more likely to watch live games, or because of the memories from years ago (I used to watch Partizan in the late-eighties and Cibona in the mid-nineties).

Read more ->

Partizan Gets Their First Win, Cibona Loses Big

Partizan 84 – Lottomatica 76

Partizan won their first game in the Top 16 this year by beating Lottomatica Roma. After first five minutes, the game was never really in question. Partizan was carried to victory on the wings of an excellent game by Novica Velickovic who scored 19 points and added 10 rebounds. He was active the whole night and he also had 3 assists and 1 block. The guards did their part, too. Tripkovic’s shooting was sharp last night and Tepic added 4 assists to his 9 points. The whole game, Partizan was playing off the energy of some 7,000 fans, who never stopped chanting and singing. This is a very important win for the Belgrade team. Panathinaikos defeated Unicaja in Malaga, keeping the group wide open. Most likely, Partizan will be contending for one of two spots that leads to Top 8 with Unicaja Malaga. They play Unicaja in Belgrade next week and after that game it will be clearer who has an upper hand in the fight to the next round.

A side note: Partizan has been in financial troubles for years. Every year around Christmas, these problems resurface when the arena Pionir shuts down the heat during practice (actually, they don’t shut it down completely, just turn it down to 16C, which is roughly 60F). This year is no different. Partizan management blames the city and state governments for not helping one of the premier clubs in the country. The government says that there are many segments of the society more deserving of help. The fans are frustrated, some are asking where’s the money from all the players sold in the previous years to wealthy European clubs while others are offering to send checks to the Partizan’s bank account. It counts as almost incredible that Partizan remains competitive year after year, mostly on ther home-grown talent.

CSKA 87 – Cibona 61

Cibona didn’t expect to win in Moscow, but they did expect not to be blown out. Losing by 26 points can only ruin their hard-won confidence, and almost wipe away the momentum that the great win from last week gave them. CSKA had evenly distributed scoring, with Trajan Langdon’s 18 points leading the stat sheet. For Cibona, Anderson had a decent game, with 15 points and some rebounds and assists. The veteran Prkacin added 10 points, while Calloway scored only 6 points. The most surprising stat is Davor Kus’ 0 points, and I’ll say it again: zero. Not that he didn’t play much, he was there for full 24 minutes (which is about as much as you can get in European basketball). Kus was supposed to be the leader of this team, and with this kind of leadership they won’t go very far.

The good thing is this was a sort of throw-away game for Cibona. The next game is a must win (they are playing Fenerbahce, a not particularly strong Turkish squad). Cibona has to win consistently at home and steal at list one game away. For their last game, they may play it in the newly built Zagreb Arena, especially if they are close to making it to the next round. Who knows, in front of 16,000 fans they may even give CSKA a game.

Partizan Loses First Top 16 Game to Panathinaikos

After leading at the half and playing and trailing by three at the end of the third quarter, Partizan’s game fell apart. The game ended 81-63 for Panathinaikos. The game was tipped the green way when Slavko Vranes fouled out, somewhere in the middle of the fourth. Up until then, it was a close game, certainly within the reach of Partizan’s sharp shooters. After that, Partizan’s inside defense became porous and Nikola Pekovic (a former Partizan player) dominated the paint. Jan Vesely couldn’t patch up all the holes and nobody else rotated in time to prevent Pekovic from scoring at will. He finished the game with 26 points and 6 rebounds, all offensive. Read more ->