Over and out: but gossiping the Final Eight!
The Eurocup season is winding down. Seven of the eight teams have already booked their tickets to the Final Eight. Unfortunately, the Artland Dragons are not one of those teams, but I am proud of our team nonetheless. This leaves me an opportunity to gossip about some of the teams still playing.$0$0Team I would most like to win the Final Eight:$0$0This one is a no-brainer....Bilbao. Finishing second in our group makes them an underdog, and I always root for underdogs. Also, we were able to squeak out a victory at home against them. Therefore if they win, I can say, "Oh well, we may not have won the entire competition, but our team was able to get a win against the 2009 Eurocup champions." My second pick would be a dead tie between Pamesa Valencia and Lietuvos Rytas. In this case, if either team won, I could at least mention that our team played in tough groups, I mean geesh, we had the 2009 Eurocup champion...of course leaving out that we lost to both of them twice.$0$0Team outside of our group that I would like to win if the other options fail:$0$0Benetton Treviso. After the CJ Wallace blog about MarioKart, I feel intellectually inferior...the guy dabbles with book writing in his free time. Also he is a lot cooler, he plays DS with all of his teammates. I watch my teammates play NBA2K9, but I am too nervous to actually play amongst them. So putting his better qualities aside, he makes a good point about building chemistry. I think teams with good team chemistry are more fun to watch and if a team like that wins, it will encourage more coaches/managers to hire good people over the jerk who can score 20 but will not speak with his teammates ever...and those guys are out there, let's not kid ourselves. I would also like them to win because my friend Rado Rancik is on the team. He likes to call me when things are going well, so if they win a championship, I will actually get to talk to the Slovakian. It is funny, sometimes I think he believes I live on Mars. He will call me up and say, "Hey, the team I am on won another championship." Like I was not already checking the Internet and knew exactly what was going on. I usually appease him and ask him how he did, already knowing the answer. But seriously, I would rather a guy calls me with good news, than those miserable people who are always calling when things are going wrong or what they consider to be things going wrong. I believe in being there for friends, but people who always think the world is out to get them are the worst. That is why I like Rado types, ultra competitors who like to spread good news. Ultimately, for this reason and because we would get another Wallace blog, I would be happy to see their team win.$0$0Player to watch:$0$0Sometimes the NBA baffles me. They have hundreds of scouts scouring the globe for talent. They have coaches/players/managers who have been around the game for their entire lives. They even have a psychologist who goes around watching the way a player moves and all of his interactions on the court to judge the athlete's personality and how it might translate to a successful NBA career or not. But some players still slip through the cracks. I have been lucky enough to play against or with a lot of former NBA guys, NBA prospects and some European guys who were NBA draft picks who just decided to stay over here. Chuck Eidson is better or just as good as all of them. It just does not make sense and I wish someone could explain it to me. I am in uncharted territory by giving a compliment to another guy who plays in Europe and saying it out loud (I mean writing it down). My teammates will make fun of me for it, which is odd because we spend hours on end doing the Jordan/Kobe/Lebron comparisons, as well as comparisons of many other guys in the league. So I will just say he plays multiple positions, most importantly can play the point, fills up the stat sheet and wins. I could say more, but to avoid more ridicule from my teammates, I will leave it at that.$0$0Team that has a really good shot at winning:$0$0If I had to say one team, I am going to saying Khimki Moscow because they are due for something big with all of that talent on their team..if they are healthy. I threw them out there, but I am also putting up a disclaimer. The teams that are already in and the two that have a chance, seem to me to be very evenly balanced. So buy tickets and go to Torino to see who is crowned champion. As you can see, I am trying to work on my plugging of the event. Another example: fans who can't go to Torino should check to see who the winner is at www.eurocupbasketball.com, which can also be reached by typing in www.euroleague.net, clicking on ULEB and then on the tab that says Eurocup. Again, I am not going to be a wimp and not pick a team, so I am going to pick Khimki. Second disclaimer, I consistently go to the casino and lose at blackjack. I tried to teach myself to count cards like the people in the movie "21" and still failed. Then again, I only spent about one hour learning because in the movie it only took them that long in movie time to learn, maybe another indicator of my incompetence and another reason not to think my educated guess is worth anything.$0$0Team that would have had a shot at winning the competition if they had made it, but they did not:$0$0Well the Artland Dragons of course, we would have dominated. Oh, umm, another team, hmmm, not sure, I think it would be weird to name another team because as a player I will always say my team and it would be unfair to the teams that made it to mention another team.$0$0Player from the Eurocup to watch who is not competing in the Final Eight and who is dangerously good looking:$0$0ME$0$0I would say thanks to the fans for reading my blog, but honestly, I have no idea if anyone reads this thing. I guess I should say thank you to the Eurocup people, mainly Frank Lawlor, for giving me something to do and editing out all of the gRammatical mistakes. Good luck to those teams still remaining and if I did not mention your team, it is probably because I hate you - just kidding - it is more than likely I just did not know enough about your team and did not want to make a fool of myself making something up. Or make more of a fool of myself than the level I already have attained.
POSTED BY
ADAM HESS- GERMANY