Smelling the blood

I have to say, Euroleague’s regular season brought some interesting results. As for Real Madrid, I believe we have the right to be proud of finishing atop our group despite the fact that defending Euroleague champions Panathinaikos were among the opponents.

Speaking of our young guns, I’d like to mention that Sergio Llull is having a terrific season in Europe, even though he had to sit out five weeks with injury. In his comeback game in Milano Sergio wasted no time in showing why we missed him so much. With Llull’s and Felipe Reyes’ return to form, as well as with addition of Marko Jaric and Ante Tomic, we feel we’re getting stronger and it’ll be really interesting to compete in Top 16.

Tomic is a talented young player who’s developing really fast. Moreover, he seems to be a very nice, intelligent person. I’ve always stressed the importance of having good guys on the team, because you actually coach people first, basketball players second. We hope Tomic turns out to be a great addition to the club not only for the time being, but for the forthcoming seasons as well. Actually, we had an option to sign a veteran big man instead, but together with the management of the club made a decision that we had to build for the future as well. Right now in Llull, Velickovic, Dasic and Tomic we have a nice four-strong core of young players that allows us to look into the future with optimism.

Ricky Rubio’s showing the level of maturity which is unprecedented for such a young guy

Barcelona is surely the team to beat currently in the Euroleague; they’ve prevailed in all the contests while displaying good chemistry and athletic ability along the way. And this combination is really hard to get. Their players have speed, quickness and confidence but even more importantly – they share the ball. That’s something we liked about our CSKA teams and now Barcelona does it very well. Credit here has to go to the skills of the players and also to the philosophy and ability of their young coach Xavier Pascual who did a great job last year and is carrying it on today. Right now they have to be considered top favorites in the tournament.

Several signings have surely helped Barcelona’s case this season. I particularly like the way Ricky Rubio is playing. He’s showing the level of maturity which is unprecedented for such a young guy. Even though we’re opponents, I feel I have to say these words about the young star.

I also think that everybody in the European basketball community right now acknowledges the progress that CSKA made this year. After the team’s worrisome early results, word spread across Europe that the Moscow club is no longer the powerhouse it used to be. That’s why it was great to see CSKA go on a very long winning streak and prove those rumors wrong. I’m sure coaches Evgeny and Dima (Evgeny Pashutin and Dmitriy Shakulin) had a lot to do with that and the club’s veterans seemed to really step up and take responsibility. Right now with the addition of Pops Mensah-Bonsu CSKA has an improved roster full of experienced players who already “smell blood”, just like sharks. I mean, this is exactly the time of year when guys who have already won a lot of trophies start focusing on the possibility of claiming even more titles and awards and that makes them extremely dangerous. I won’t be surprised if CSKA becomes one of the main contenders for the Euroleague’s gold once again this season.

Right now Euroleague season is advancing to the Top 16 stage with only the best teams remaining in the competition. It’s going to be a very interesting tournament, especially considering that all the participants regard it as a crucial period of the season. Our group is surely difficult, because we’ll play really good teams and also the travelling schedule is going to be very harsh. But if you want to succeed in Euroleague, sooner or later you’ll have to beat all those great opponents and it doesn’t make much difference whether you have to do it earlier in the group or later on in the play-offs or the Final Four.

One local Spanish journalist confronted me with ideas like “if you’re with Real Madrid you’re obliged to say your team is going to win every time”

P.S. In my previous blog entry I mentioned a common opinion stating that a newly-assembled team needed two or three years to start contending for the Euroleague title. Somehow, that made one local Spanish journalist really unhappy. He confronted me with ideas like “if you’re with Real Madrid you’re obliged to say your team is going to win every time”. So, to make things clear for that young aggressive reporter and maybe make him relax a little bit, I want to stress that logical estimation of the amount of time needed to achieve a certain goal doesn’t actually exclude one’s desire and commitment to get the result as soon as possible. In my career I was fortunate enough to be a part of several teams that won Euroleague right after being put together. That happened when I returned to Bologna in 1997-98, then again in 2001, and finally a brand-new CSKA team won the title in 2005-06, my first season with the club. And at the moment we’re doing everything we can to make sure success comes to Real Madrid as soon as possible.

By the way, when one of my friends heard of the criticism, he made a WWII reference, suggesting Winston Churchill was very lucky not to have such journalists around when he promised his fellow countrymen “blood, sweat and tears” prior to the Battle of Britain. Otherwise, Churchill would’ve surely been burned in the press and accused of something like “diminishing the great power and glory of the British nation”.