Days after Olympiacos made European basketball history, we’re still amazed by another incredible run by the Reds and so discuss the context of this back-to-back title victory. Also up for discussion are reasons why Real Madrid and FC Barcelona should be proud and CSKA Moscow a bit ashamed. And what about that Red Army side? Will they blow up the team? What is the future of Ettore Messina, Milos Teodosic and Nenad Krstic with the club after a most disappointing Euroleague finish?

We also weigh in on the results and performances of the Nike International Junior Tournament, with particular reference to the finalists, champions Club Joventut Badalona and runners-up FC Barcelona – an extreme contrast in styles vis-à-vis club development within the economic realities of European sport in the 2010s.

Of course, this show’s highlight is the brief interview with none other than The Human YouTube Highlight Clip himself, Ricky Rubio. In remarkably succinct fashion, La Pistola weighs in on this year’s Euroleague Final Four, the past frustrating season with the Minnesota Timberwolves (and the importance of Nikola Pekovic) and the possibilities for Team Spain in the upcoming Eurobasket 2013 tournament.

Finally, our sports movie review of the week focuses on the 2008 film The Wrestler featuring Mickey Rourke in an outstanding tour de force career-comeback performance.

Check out the entire podcast here or to subscribe from this episode ad infinitum, enter http://heinnews.com/feed/taking-the-charge/ into iTunes or any podcast aggregator.

Thanks for listening and talk to you next week!

Olympiacos: They are the champions — again

Real Madrid jumped out to an early lead as All-Euroleague first teamer Rudy Fernandez accounted for six points and two assists on his team’s first 10 points, finding Sergio Llull again and again; the two would combine for 16 in the first quarter alone. Los Blancos’ 27-10 lead after the opening stanza might have been considered enough against an ordinary team – but Europe’s comeback kids are hardly ordinary.

Pero Antic’s three to start the scoring in the second quarter got the Olympiacos fans back to their feet –more importantly triggering a 13-2 run with contributions from Kyle Hines and Kostas Sloukas to bring the Reds to within seven at 29-22. And highlight-reel Reyes-to-Slaughter alley-oop dunk aside, the Reds fairly well owned the second 10 minutes, outscoring Real 27-14

Of particular note in the second 10 minutes was Stratos Perperglou stifling Fernandez, limiting him to just two points on free throws; in fact, Perperglou’s defensive play was representative of Olympiacos’, as nearly half of the Madrid points (six) in the quarter were made at the line, while six Real turnovers were forced.

Vassilis Spanoulis, remarkably quiet for so long, finally broke his personal cold streak with a three after the first minute of the third quarter and a subsequent three would give Olympiacos its first lead at 48-45 – must’ve been something concocted at halftime … another run – this one 15-5 – appeared to have Real on the ropes in the third, but Los Blancos weren’t finished yet, momentarily retaking the lead at 56-55 after a pair of jumpers from Fernandez.

Among the highlights in a pressure-packed final five minutes of the third were two consecutive stops of Fernandez after he’d run up seven in the stanza already; among the lowlights, Sloukas assessed for a technical after flopping. Nikola Mirotic, uncharacteristically plagued with foul trouble earned his fourth PF – one of 10 committed by three members of the Real frontcourt – late in the third quarter as well. After 30 minutes, it was a new ballgame: 61-61.

With 90 seconds gone, Spanoulis reentered the court to palpable tension. A section of Reds fans maintained their trademark noise, but many were strangely silent while the Madridistas clung to edges of their seats.
The death blow may have come on a hidden play, as Acie Law forced Llull to bounce a dribble off his foot and into the backcourt – Spanoulis’ followup three would ultimately seal the deal from 70-62:

While Law and Sloukas and Georgi Shermadini went on to score from various spots on the floor, Jaycee Carroll’s three-pointer – just one of three Madrid shooting attempts in the fourth quarter’s first five minutes – stood alone as a Real success from the floor. By that time, the Reds’ lead had ballooned to 82-70 and the Spanish side simply did not have an Olympiacos-like miracle comeback in ‘em.

And no Spanoulis, either.

Saras repeated similar sentiments in post-game interviews tonight, but not quite as poetically. See you next year, Mr. Jasikevicius!

(Regular readers of this ‘site of course realize what this likely means: Los Blancos take their first EL title since ’95 and, say, Felipe Reyes will take the individual award; wager accordingly.)

Real Madrid vs Olympiakos 73-61 Euroleague 1995…

(Euroleague.net) — In the summer of 1994, Zeljko Obradovic left Joventut due to financial reasons despite having won the European title in Tel Aviv. Real Madrid took the chance to sign the young coach everybody was talking about, owner already of two titles with two different teams: Partizan in 1992 and Joventut. The move proved providential for Madrid, since the Spaniards ended second in their group (9-5), only after Panathinaikos (10-4), and in front of CSKA Moscow and Scavolini, both with 9-5. In the other group, Limoges was first (10-4), Olympiakos second (9-5) Cibona and Buckler Virtus third and fourth (both 8-6). In the quarterfinals, only Real managed to sweep, beating Cibona 2-0, while Panathinaikos (vs. Buckler), Limoges (vs. Scavolini) and Olympiakos (vs. CSKA) each needed three games to advance.

In the Final Four, played again in Zaragoza, Spain, Olympiakos won the Greek semifinal for the second year in a row, while Real Madrid did not have any problems downing Limoges. In the final there were no doubts: Real Madrid was ahead by 10 points at halftime (38-28) and maintained its clear lead until the end, 73-61. Arvydas Sabonis, in his third and last year with Real before going to the NBA, finally won the European title that had escaped him at two previous finals: in 1986 with Zalgiris and in 1992 with Real Madrid. Now, the team which still has the most European titles, had its first title in 15 years.

Is there any reason for @cskabasketball and @fcbbasket to play now? The final for the third place has no meaning at all…

— Eurohoops.net (@Eurohoopsnet) May 12, 2013

So what do you think? Should the Euroleague’s third-place game even be played? If so, why? If not, why not?

If BiE had a ballot, the no. 3 spot would go to Zan Tabak. The main knock against Tabak is of course the fact the rookie Euroleague head coach took the reins of then-Caja Laboral some seven games into the season – but at that point, the Baskonians stood at just 1-6. Having to wing it in EL regular-season week eight against Zalgiris Kaunas, Tabak could do little about his new team’s taking yet another loss; at this point, who remained on the Baskonia bandwagon?

Tabak to Lampe: Listen, Maciej — you’re the man, you know?

And then, Tabak reworked a talented team that somehow never clicked with Dusko Ivanovic. Out went Taylor Rochestie and, perhaps seeing a bit of himself-as-Jugoplastika center in Maciej Lampe, in came an outside-in game – as did the wins. Laboral ran off a seven-game win streak and, though followed up with six consecutive losses, the team did not quit on Tabak as they had on Ivanovic.

CSKA Moscow may have given Baskonia a bit of a spanking in the EL quarterfinal round, but the fact that Tabak was steadying influence enough to help the team squeak through to the playoffs is indeed impressive – and in addition, Laboral will go into the Liga Endesa tournament in the no. 2 spot. Not bad at all for a first (almost) season as coach.

After this, it’s not so easy. BiE doesn’t really wish to start a Red-Green conflict here, but it seems unavoidable: The big league’s top two coaches for 2012-13 are surely Georgios Bartzokas of Olympiacos and Argiris Pedoulakis of Panathinaikos, who took their respective Greek squads to unforeseen heights this season – each by taking a different path.

Surprised to see Olympiacos here? Bartzokas isn’t…

Certainly many European basketball aficionados reckoned that the Reds would remain in contention, but replacing the legendary Dusan Ivkovic with a guy who boasted just a 6-10 lifetime record in Euroleague play shied a majority away from figuring Olympiacos could pull off an ultra-rare repeat title. More significantly, Bartzokas went against the grain of current common wisdom by nearly standing pat in both gameplan and roster, sticking with eight members of the 2011-12 championship-winning side: Pero Antic, Martynas Gecevicius, Kyle Hines, Vangelis Mantzaris, Kostas Papanikolaou, Giorgos “Agent 00.7” Printezis, Kostas Sloukas, and of course Vassilis Spanoulis.

Bartzokas and Olympiacos’ 2012-13 campaign proved one thing: That consistency can win titles.

On the other hand, Pedoulakis and Panathinaikos presented nearly the exact opposite case (excepting that, like Bartzokas, Pedoulakis was also promoted from the Greek League to occupy the place of a coaching giant). The teeming masses guessed that PAO would focus on rebuilding this season, bringing back only Dimitris Diamantidis and Kostas Tsartsaris from the previous year’s squad – but it seems no one informed Pedoulakis. With a combination of Euroleague veterans (including Sofoklis Schortsanitis, James Gist, Stephane Lasme, Roko Ukic, Jonas Maciulis), Greek Leaguers (e.g. Vasilis Xanthopoulos) and various journeymen (Michael Bramos, Marcus Banks), Pedoulakis created a compelling mix that got PAO to within one win from the Final Four round.

And for BiE’s money, no one draws up a play like this guy…

Pedoloukas: Bonus points for *that* look

While no one in Panathinaikos fandom is quite ready to say “Zeljko Who?”, Green backers have got to love the job their new coach did in 2012-13 – and are likely giddy about the team’s future…

So should BiE await the outcome of tonight’s Olympiacos-Real Madrid championship game to see if Bartzokas and the Reds can pull off an astounding post-coach switch repeat? Or has Pedoulakis impressed enough? Let us know with a comment – or simply vote here.

In a back-and-forth game, Rain Veideman was ultimately sent to the free-throw line as Rock held a one-point advantage with about three seconds remaining. Unfortunately for his side, Veideman hit just one of the two FTs to give the challengers a 71-69 lead but leaving Tallinn with no timeouts.
And then this happened.

Soku was high-scorer in the match with 19 points, with none more important than these. Tallinn, Estonia’s representative in both the Baltic and VTB United Leagues, is now up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series and could be on the way to an unprecedented-in-Estonia third consecutive championship series sweep. Poor, poor TU/Rock…