New day a Belgrademore or less the same reception at the entrance reserved for the media of BCL Final 4. No, you can’t enter here, you don’t have media authorization. Badge shown, again. You can’t enter from here, I ask my superior but you can’t enter. Very quick conversation via two-way radio, about ten seconds and no more. Ok, you can pass. Good work.
In the media room, same places as the previous day, like on the buses of middle and high school trips. With the same Canarian and Castilian accent that pervades the room, with the journalists following from Tenerife, Malaga and Murcia dominating the scene compared to the few Greeks who arrived to follow Spanoulis’ Peristeri.
A Rossini crescendo, from 10 am to midnight, which touches all possible chords. The frost of shootaround of each team’s morning, with the stands empty and the fans positioned at the corners of the field to cool the surrounding temperature set to an objectively excessive speed and intensity. Begging for a question in English when the entire press would like it in Spanish. The most disparate predictions from professionals, looking for the most imaginative combination so as not to indicate Malaga as winners in the final against Tenerife – what practically everyone interviewed by BCL said, except Thad McFadden.
In the early afternoon we try to get ahead of the rest of the company: no name tags or titles in the rows reserved for the media, first-come, first-served (and choose a better view). Against? Enjoying an extra hour of freezing air blasted from the ventilation system, transforming a sunny end of April in Serbia into a winter evening with a mandatory jacket on your shoulders. An hour before the double-header of Peristeri-Tenerife, the physical cold begins to gradually be coupled with emotional warmth, with yellow filling the first tier of the Stark Arena in patches. In Belgrade comes the haggard and silent yellow-black, now at home in the Final 4 of the BCL, from Tenerife and the noisy and electric yellow-blue of the novice Peristeri. Virtually no Serbs in the stands, with the rest of the spectators only interested because Malaga or Murcia fans arrived very early.
Various notes from the first race, the one where we can proudly say that there is “a bit of Italy” (one of the race officials is Manuel Mazzoni): the deejay decides that it is good and right to keep the music on even during the first seconds of possession, of every possession; at the first timeout called by coach Vidorreta, a couple of pigeons glide into the area reserved for the media; Huertas could continue playing like this, teaching me how to manage pick-and-roll rhythms and spaces until I need a crutch – never in his career has he averaged so much against an opponent as against Peristeri; Spanoulis shows all possible types of defenses and offensive schemes, but in the end it will all depend on how much Tenerife wants and is able to play with the right energy and defensive application. Said, (Kyle Guy) done: 34-25-21 from the Guy-Huertas-Shermadini trio and, despite the best Stelios Poulianitis of his career, the best attack in BCL returns to play in the final for the fourth time in history.
10 minutes late on the schedule: the start of the semi-final between Malaga and Murcia is postponed to 9.10pm, with all due respect to Nordic habits and the circadian rhythms of longer-term fans. Whoever does not suffer the late hour, without a doubt, is the musical band following Malaga, winner regardless of Friday’s BCL in Belgrade. Other winners of the evening, i 6 Peristeri fans remained to watch the second semi-final despite the crushing defeat that has just occurred. The deejay perseveres in sketching out all the bases available from the playlist, not understanding that the trumpets and drums of Malaga have conquered the ears and hearts of all (not very many, hoping that Sunday will be different) present at the Stark Arena. The second semi-final has bodies, intensity and changes of direction incomparable to the first: bigger, deeper teams, more “expensive” in the set-up, more everything, which actually make a match pleasant in which, in the first 20 minutes, all the shots are 2/19 from 3. The deejay’s first right choice during the last timeout of the first half: Bella Ciao starts, and there’s no nationality or language that matters.
A Kyle Guy-style peak is missing, but the amount of protagonists capable of raising the level depending on the moments of the match is impressive. With Tyler Kalinoski and Nihad Djedovic – not exactly the first names that would come to mind in a roster with Kam Taylor, Osetkowski and Kendrick Perry – showing the way from the arc and turning the inertia of the match 180° in favor of Malaga. Todorovic’s double dimension is not enough: for the second time in the season, Tenerife and Malaga will compete for a cup. The Andalusians won in the Copa del Rey: if we haven’t yet understood what links Tenerife and the BCL, perhaps it will be Sunday’s final in Belgrade that will put it in our heads forever.
