MADRID (The Friday Eurovision) - What is it that Brick says in the movie Anchorman?

“I love carpet,” he says. “I love lamp.”

And Ron Burgandy says, “Brick, are you just looking at things and saying that you love them?”

And Brick says, “I love lamp.”

If you’ve not seen that movie, watch it because I promise you, you will laugh. The key word in that exchange between Ron `The Anchorman’ and Brick `The Weatherman’, is love.

Now here is what I love.

I love Portugal. I love that basketball team. I watched them play every game at the EuroBasket and I love them. I love the way they talked before they played Spain.

“We’re living a dream,” they said.

I loved the way when, I was checking in at the desk at my hotel in Seville, I looked over might right shoulder and saw a guy with grey hair.

“Is that the Portugal coach, what’s his name?” I thought.

So I walk over and say, “Excuse me, but are you the Portugal coach Valentyn Melnychuk? Can you do a quick interview?”

Fearing Melnychuk, a Ukrainian, might tell me to get lost, I instead hear him a laugh and say, “Yes, I am still the coach for now but maybe not after this tournament.”

He then spoke to me for about 10 minutes before I had to cut him off and go back to the desk to get my room key.

I love the way after a 108-90 demolition by Spain, Melnychuk and forward Sergio Ramos spoke of having a better chance against Croatia. Indeed they did.

They pushed Croatia hard up to half-time, but fell away in the second half and lost 90-68.

Was the EuroBasket over for Portugal? It certainly looked that way, but not to the Portuguese.

“We just need to go out beat Latvia by more than 17 points,” Joao Santos said. “We can do it.”

That would have put them through on a tie-break with Latvia and Croatia. Portugal did beat Latvia, but the result was 77-67. Immediately after the game, the man with the biggest smile and the biggest heart on the Iberian Peninsula, Elvis Evora, said, “We won a game. That’s what we wanted to do. We’re happy.”

And then Croatia, against all expectations, edged world champions Spain with a Marko Tomas 3-pointer just 3.1 seconds from the end.

That result allowed Portugal to advance to the next phase on a head-to-head tie-breaker with Latvia.

After losing to Russia in the qualifying round, again Portugal looked dead and buried. They next had to face Israel, who had just upset Croatia.

THE PORTUGUESE BEAT ISRAEL!

“Greece will now be our final,” guard Filipe da Silva said as he ran off the court.

The Portuguese led the European champions at the end of the first quarter, but ran out of steam.

Greece pulled away at the end for an 85-67 win to clinch a quarter-final place and end Portugal’s EuroBasket.

The Portuguese stood together, in a line, and clapped for the audience. The crowd at the Telefonica Arena in Madrid applauded, for a couple of minutes. It was a nice moment.

When I spoke to Joao Santos in the mix zone, he did not cry but was emotional.

“We always believed until the end, until the game is over,” Joao Santos said.

“From this experience, we learned that a game is a game. And the next game is a completely different game. You have to keep working, keep believing in yourselves to achieve your goals.”

When I spoke to Elvis Evora, he didn’t not cry. Of course he didn’t! He smiled.

When I passed Sergio Ramos, who had spoken to me in Seville, he looked straight ahead. I think he had been crying. 

I’m not gonna lie to you. I love the Spanish, I love the Greeks and I love the Italians. I love the Portuguese, too. Let me tell you something else. 

I had the shock of my life when I stood outside the Germany locker room after they beat Italy in their final qualifying round game. Dean Smith, the coaching legend from North Carolina, turned around the corner and he was smiling. I come from Charlotte, I spent the best four years of my life in Chapel Hill and will always believe that all of us Tar Heels are one big family. And Dean Smith sits at the head of the table.

“Have I died and gone to heaven?” I wondered.

No, Coach Smith was in town to be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Smith wanted to see Ademola Okulaja, one of his former Tar Heel players. Man, that big knot that you get in the throat when you get emotional? I had it. I shook his hand and said hello and as usual, he took time to speak to me.

I will also remember seeing about 60 fans standing outside the players’ hotel spotting Jorge Garbajosa walking up the street and they flocked around him. It was like Jesus walking among the people after delivering the sermon on the mount.

The bearded Garbajosa does have a certain spiritual quality about him.

I did not see him handing out fish, or loaves of bread, though.

No, here is what I will remember most about this EuroBasket in Spain.

I will remember Portugal.