After winning the Cup, we had a short celebration because we had a very important Euroleague game in Greece against Panathinaikos. At the end of the week, we had played four games in seven days, a very NBA-like schedule!
Thanks to our depth, the week was a total success. That’s the key for us this season: depth. It’s a 10-month marathon, and you have to focus on the present or you will fall. It’s crucial for us to have home-court advantage to secure a spot in the Final Four. They asked me if I think the season would be a failure if we don’t win the Euroleague. To me, losing is not an option. We have a pro attitude on this team. Period. Winning the Cup is not enough! We have to keep focusing on scouting. Now the season is coming down to the wire and focus is key.
MY GUY FRAN
Fran Vazquez was named the MVP of the Cup. You know, Fran is a worker. He will give you rebounds, he’ll dunk everything under the basket and will play smart basketball. I know he would help the Magic a lot, but I’m happy he didn’t go to Orlando and is playing with us right now… I know he was a lottery pick, and 100 percent of American players would have gone to the NBA if selected. Instead of picking him, the Magic could have selected players like Danny Granger, David Lee, Brandon Bass, Ersan Ilyasova, Monta Ellis, NateRobinson… But they picked him because he is a very good player. He’s from Europe, and he was playing in the ACB by the time, and still is.
There’s no guarantee with European players. There’s a risk factor you have to consider. But NBA teams will keep drafting players from Europe because during the last years they are playing a lot, lot better. It’s worth the risk. You just have to take a look at Ricky…
I hope he’s playing with me a couple of years, with the behind-the-back passes, running the court… But I know that when the time comes, he’ll be ready for everything and he’ll do the right thing. Now he’s doing the same as the rest of the team… He’s thinking about the big picture: winning.
The coach has done a great job at scouting. Our defense is very good. We have very talented players, but some of them like Juan Carlos Navarro, maybe he has a mismatch in a game because he’s not very athletic. We have strategies to overcome it. Things like that. Last year I thought the team was the best I had played with. But with players like Navarro, Ricky… There’s a good chance I’ll change my opinion. I’ll wait until the season ends and then I’ll decide if this is the best team I’ve played for in my life.
LEBRON AND KOBE?
Read the article about the chance that LeBron James could end up playing with Kobe Bryant… That would be not fair at all! Two Rottweilers in the same team? You usually have one Rottweiler and a Chihuahua! Anyway, chemistry has a lot to do with it, so they still would have to win the championship. I don’t see it happening, but if it happens it would be the most amazing thing I’ve seen in basketball for a long time! The Lakers are such a good team now with Kobe and Pau and players like Artest, Bynum and Shannon Brown…
Finally, I want to tell Allen Iverson to keep his head up, to stay strong. I’ve heard he is in a really tough situation with his family. Family is everything. He has given a lot of joy to the city of Philadelphia. Philly is a tough city… If you don’t give it all, they will be on you in no time. Larry Brown is a coach that demands perfection, and Allen was up to the challenge. I hope they retire his jersey once he’s done playing basketball, and I’m sure he will be a Hall of Famer. He’s an example for the kids: a little brave man, so skilled, with a killer mentality as far as attacking the basket. A man with his size who played every night no matter how many bruises he had. Toughness. Focus.
Tough game the other day at Fuenlabrada. It’s always gonna be tough there. Last year, when I played with Baskonia, we lost. That team plays with so much energy at home. They fight till the end and they play particulary well at home.
Also, we beat my former team last week. It was a great game for us. Probably the best game so far. We are always asked how we feel when facing clubs you have played for. In my case, there’s no emotion involved. Just business, going out and play the game. Anyway, it was nice getting to see some of my ex teammates like Tiago Splitter, Mirza Teletovic, Fernando San Emeterio… I was looking forward to see them. I spent some time talking to assistant coach Ibon Navarro, who’s a very good friend of mine. Got the chance to talk to him for a few minutes. Just being in the same court and compete with all of those guys was great because I know how hard they work.
You know in Spain there’s El Clasico, the great soccer game between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. It’s a huge rivalry. I can’t say there’s a rivalry between Caja Laboral and Barcelona, but I can say we’ve played a lot lately. Last season I think we played 11 or 12 games! And I think we had beat them coming back to the Finals the year before eight times in a row. Then finally beat us one game and that’s when everything changed. It started a great rivalry. When I signed to play in Barcelona, I already knew the players so well because I scouted them so much.
ANYBODY WATCHING?
There’s been reports out there about low attendance in Euroleague games. I don’t think it’s worse than in previous. When we played in Zagreb, it was sold out. Then we played in Turkey against Ulker and they didn’t have a lot of fans. What I can tell you is that our fans have been great. Our gym is not as big as a lot of other gyms, but the supporters are fantastic. This season Barcelona started selling jerseys for the first team and I heard my jersey is sold out already! It’s a great deal to me, considering the players we have. Juan Carlos Navarro, Ricky Rubio… A lot of stars on our team!
Speaking of jerseys, I read a story that basically said that Michael Jordan doesn’t need LeBron’s support. He’s already Michael Jordan. Jordan is in another level. Everybody can wear the number 23. A lot of people who grew up in Illinois like me, we idolized Jordan. We were able to watch him on local TV every single day. I got the chance to see Chicago Bulls every day – games, highlights, interviews… I’m a guy who understands why people wear No. 23. If you grew up in Illinois, then you can understand why guys like Corey Maggette, Quentin Richardson, Dwyane Wade idolized him so much. It was all Jordan, all the time for them. So I think if somebody wants to wear No. 23, he should be able to wear it.
ON JENNINGS
Brandon Jennings had two good games last year against me in the Euroleague when I played with Baskonia. Actually, his two best games in the Euroleague were against us! Anyway, yeah, I watched the game. 55 points. European basketball, NBA basketball… Two different games. I think he scored 29 points in one quarter. In Europe, it’s highly unlikely you could have the chance to do that. He played one-on-one from the top of the key, screen and roll, shooting every time. That’s not gonna happen here. We can play zone defense, clog the lane. I don’t know what the scouting report was on Jennings, but I know it was wrong! He just played one-on-one from the top of the key and the big guy let him shoot. He didn’t show him respect, so he started getting that kind of confidence. And once you start making shots, you can penetrate to the basket, mid-range, three-pointers, everything.
This guy is great on screen and rolls. Left handed, so crafty with the ball… Now he’s going to get more attention and he can create more opportunities for other teammates. Now the big guy is gonna have to step out and help the guard on the screen and roll, so he will have the chance to find Andrew Bogut under the basket or find the guy on the weak side.
The main thing with Jennings is that he doesn’t play like a rookie. He’s more like a second-year player. Anytime you’ve spent your first year in Europe playing in the Euroleague, competing against some of the best players in the world, competing against men, you don’t feel like a rookie when you go to the NBA. You learn the team basketball, how to play the game. You spend a lot of time in the gym working on your shot, team defense, strategy. If you are a good player, you’ll be able to do the adjustment. It’s not easy to play in Europe.
NO AI IN NYC
So Allen Iverson is not going to New York finally. The Knicks will get it right soon. I got drafted in 2000, the year they went to the Finals and lost to San Antonio. Latrell Sprewell, Glen Rice, Allan Houston, Chris Childs… I know about the program. They had a great team in 1999 and ever since, it’s broken up a little bit. They have the city, they have the right coach, they just got to find the right players and be focused only on winning basketball games. That’s going to take some time, though. They’ve got the money, the cap space. And everybody wants to play in New York. It’s such a great media market. They’ll be back on top in two years. This is the biggest summer of all time in the NBA. There will be a lot of broken hearts when July comes. In Cleveland? in New York? In Miami?
They call Miami the Dade County, but now it’s Wade County. I don’t think he’s going too far.
This is Pete Mickeal from Vitoria, Spain. Little tibdits about myself for those who don’t know me: I play for Tau Ceramica, the current Spanish champion. I was the Finals MVP last year and I’m considered one of the top American players around here. I played with the Knicks and the Rockets back in the day, but the last few years I’ve been doing my thing in Europe. It’s not going bad! From now I will be blogging at HoopsHype.com about my experiences overseas. And hey, I’ll talk NBA stuff too!
The playoffs in the States have been amazing so far, but we’re playing for the title here in Spain too.
Last year was good for us, as we ended up winning the championship, but this time is different. This season we only lost four games (11 last year) and we set an ACB record for fewest losses. Now it’s expected for us to win, so we gotta deliver.
We are now in the semifinals and we’ll play against Real Madrid. We look at Real just like we look at any other team. We worry about ourselves and we need to do to win the game. Of course we respect Real Madrid, the most successful team in European history. They have very good players, including a small guy called Sergi Llull. I like the way he attacks the basket.
Real advanced after beating Joventut, a club led by other small guy. This one you may have heard of: Ricky Rubio. That guy is amazing.
First time I saw him it was like three or four years ago. I was playing for a team called Breogan in Northern Spain back then, my first year in the ACB. I saw a teenager on the court and I was like, “Who’s that kid?” They told me he was 15 or 16. Never saw something like that in the pros.
I saw his knack for defense, his ability to play the game of basketball at such a young age. That is something rare to see: the knowledge and the awareness of basketball at such young age. And that was when he was 15 years old. Then I’ve seen him turn into a star in the Spanish League, which is no small potatoes. Now everybody in the States knows him. Can’t say I’m surprised.
It seems that he would have to pay a lot of money of his own pocket in order to leave Joventut right now. Everyone’s situation is different, but I think any time you get a chance to be one of the top three picks in the Draft, you should go. Just my take.
I was thinking about entering the draft in my junior year. Projections were that I could be a late first-round pick, but I ended being a second-round pick. You can think, “Well, maybe I shouldn’t have gone out early.” But that’s a little bit of Monday morning quarterbacking. When you have that chance, and people are talking about you so well, it’s great to go out because you might not even have that opportunity again. You never know what can happen next year.
I’ve already heard that he may not want to play in certain places. Oklahoma City, Memphis… Teams like that. Having the fifth pick, I think the Wizards should try to do a trade to get him so he can learn from a great point guard like Gilbert Arenas, and play with some other great players. They are starting to have a lot of pressure to perform well and that would be a good fit for him.
The European transition
It’s my second season here in Vitoria. It’s the first time I have back-to-back seasons with the same team since my college days at Cincinnati, but although I’ve travelled a lot, it hasn’t been so hard because that was my plan from Day 1: improving every year whatever it takes. I’ve lived in Asia for two years, in Greece, now here in Spain… I’ve been through a lot of things, but I wanted everything to go up. I started in small teams and I worked myself up to the top teams. It worked out pretty well for me.
Now you see guys like Brandon Jennings and Josh Childress going to Europe. Now you have more people in the States who’s understanding European basketball. It’s not what it used to be, like, “OK, he’s playing in Europe, he must not be good enough to play in the NBA.” Now you have NBA players in Europe. You consistently have NBA scouts here, and I’m happy because I’m playing in the best league in Europe.
In the last Spanish Cup I hit the winning shot in the Final against Unicaja. That was a turning point in my career. That was one shot I practiced since I was 12 years old. Some things just happen. You saw what LeBron James did the other night? I just have that confidence in myself. The team had faith in me, got me the ball… So I delivered. (Then I blocked Unicaja’s last shot on the other end. Not bad, huh?)
Going back to the NBA
I live in Miami during the offseason and I get the chance to say hi to a lot of people there – guys like Kenyon Martin, but I have my own group of guys who I’ve been with since I was a kid.
I’d say the Cavs will get it done. I pick the Lakers in the West but I think the Cavs will win in six. LA has a big frontcourt, but the Cavs look so motivated. They have such a great chemistry. They love playing for each other, and actually cheer for each other to do well… That’s really difficult to see that on any team.
Like I said, I’ve played for the Knicks and Rockets, and if I had an offer this summer, money wouldn’t be an issue, because I’ve learned a lot about money since I grew up with nothing. I’ve learned life lessons about money when I was a kid, learning from experience, not having anything. You learn quick that way.
The key for me would be being able to be close to my family. Spending 10 months in Europe every year it’s kind of hard.
I want something great for my life, so I will continue to work for that. And my family understands, so that’s the best part about it. They support me and always keeps me going.
Hi everybody!
Hi everybody!
Hi everybody!