With the Top 16 of the Euroleague starting this week, there are 8 teams for which the Euroleague season is over now. To honor their performances and to speak about them a last time, I have established a little review about their Regular season, in music.
Union Olimpija (4-10)
It is like an eternal story. Olimpija is one win away to qualify for the Top16. And by reading the EL preview from before the Regular season, I could come up with a copy/paste of it now. A rash of injuries and some financial problems limited Olimpija’s chances last season. So I chose ABBA’s Money Money Money for our Slovenian team.
[youtube xmujxC8G1TQ nolink]Prokom Trefl Sopot (4-10)
What money can do, we saw this season in Sopot. With a huge budget increase and a plethora of stars, the Polish champs wanted to rule the Euroleague and go to the Final Four. However, mixing up different huge egos with a coach who does not speak English is some kind of an explosive formula. And all ended in a big bang. So the management of Sopot should at least ask their coach next the same question than did the German Schlager singer Chris Roberts – Do you speak English?
[youtube 27Lv4sNqzZE nolink]Cibona Zagreb (4-10)
Cibona was led by a trio from overseas this year with Sam Hoskin, Chris Warren and Larry Ayuso. but 0 wins at home in the second phase and 0 wins on the road in the first phase are not enough to qualify for the next round. At least we saw some crazy action by Puerto Rican guard Larry Ayuso. Unfortunately, he left the team at the end of the qualifying phase and informed the management by SMS. What should I add to what Vaya con Dios was thinking – Aie Aie Aie Aie Aie Aie Puerto Rico.
[youtube 1ezoHD_FynQ nolink]Chorale Roanne (4-10)
Roanne, maybe the funniest team to watch of the whole Euroleague. Playing an offensive basketball in the cutest jerseys, directed by a tiny widget called Marc-Antoine Pellin and orchestrated by a scouting talent and frankly speaking coach in the person of Jean-Denys Choulet. Additionally, they had some rock-star attitude players like Marc Salyers or Speedo blogger Adam Hess and they earned our sympathy directly. But their presence in the Euroleague is over now. So a big Hallelujah to them and their Hard Rock basketball style.
[youtube TdItwaLrv1U nolink]AJ Milano (3-11)
What a deception for Milano. Having one of the most promising young players in Europe, they were not able to give him the supporting cast to qualify for the next round. In addition, there were often more scouts in the arena than fans and the whole Euroleague season was closer to a nightmare than to an Italian Dream by Silver Pozzoli.
[youtube ZgiJQ1omhRY nolink]Virtus Bologna (2-12)
Another Italian nightmare happened in Bologna. The team made the news more with stories about the nightlife escapades of their players than with good results on the court. And I guess that you don’t know who were the two only players that were on the court on every of the 14 appearances. Yes, it was Roberto Chiacig and Luca Garri. Maybe that’s a sign for the 15 times Italian Champ, to get back to the roots instead of signing some headcases. Maybe by bringing back more players Made in Italy would help them next season.
[youtube hk51YBhBUH0 nolink]Le Mans (2-12)
A bit the same story than AJ Milano. The French have some of the best talent in France but no supporting cast. Still here, their future star Nicolas Batum is far away from having the same production than Gallinari has in Milan. One of the funny things on the other hand was the advertising campaign in order to sell season tickets before the season: “Come and watch them before they leave to the NBA”. So the management probably intonates together with Jacques Brel and sings Ne me quitte pas (don’t leave me) when they have Batum’s agent on the phone.
[youtube bJIZu37Hfr0 nolink]Brose Baskets (2-12)
Assembling the whole German National team except a certain forward playing in Dallas was quite an interesting roster management idea. However, if you add busts like Luke Schenscher, Kimani Ffriend or Mark Dickel, you have to put yourself in question very seriously. Either you have no idea what is going on in basketball or you are simply blind. The situation reminds me a lot the lyrics of Germany actual pop superstars Wir sind Helden song “Von hier an blind“. I don’t know how to continue, I don’t know where I am, I don’t know how to continue, I am blind from here.
[youtube 2KAcShfgq54 nolink]
