Thursday, 10.08.2006	posted by Sven Simon 13:07 pm
Category: FIBA World Championship

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MEMO FOR THE DJ: ROXETTE IS NOT COOL!

Guten Tag Everybody,

I was in Berlin last weekend to watch the "Super-Cup", featuring France, Germany, Italy and Turkey.

Facts first: Germany beat Turkey 70:56, Italy beat France 79:65, on day two Turkey beat France 89:76 and Italy beat Germany 70:65 in the finals game.

Some thoughts about the tournament:

1. Music:
advice for the federation: get a DJ who found his way out of the Eighties! My dad called, and he wants his playlist back. Roxette were not cool for basketball-fans then, and they aren't today! The only bad song "mister foxtrott" missed was "life is life" from Opus. Don't touch the rock-oldies (except KISS and AC/DC, of course)!

2. empty seats:
Dirk Nowitzki was coming almost straight from the NBA finals... played an MVP-season... it was the first time ever (!!!) the Dirkster played in Berlin with the national team... Germany won the silver medal in the EuroBasket... the national team from Turkey was playing in Berlin, too (there are a lot of Turkish people in Berlin). So, why the hell were there at least 2000 empty seats on both days in the Schmeling-Arena (8500 seats)? I saw no advertisements in the city or at least around the arena, no big announcement in the newspapers. The official media partner was the smallest newspaper in Berlin! One thing for sure: someone did a bad, bad job!

Let's go to the teams!

Italy:
Think about who's missing from last year's team: Dante Calabria, Gianmarco Pozzecco, Giacomo Galanda, Massimo Bulleri, Alex Rigetti, Roberto Chiacig (maybe I should mention a certain first pick of the 2006 NBA draft with a female first name, too?). These are six of the seven best scorers from last years EC. If they did something like this with the German team, even Barefoot Bethlehem would beat us by 30.

Missing players or not, the Italien team does, what it does best: running plays for their shooters with a lot of screens. And I mean... A LOT OF SCREENS. Gianluca Basile and Marco Belinelli got the green light from every position. 20 year old Belinelli has the same quick release that Basile has, but is far more athletic - ask Germanys Robert Garrett, who was on the wrong side of the poster on an Alley-Oop. The italien swingman will be one of the surprises in Japan.

The most embarrassing guy on the team seems to be Angelo Gigli. In both games he was talking with the refs - from jumpball on. His face expression is always like he's getting killed on the court. Think of a 4-year-old in Kindergarten who wants cookies but doesn't get them. If he put half the effort he gives for communicating with the refs into hustling on the court, he could go from average to fan-tas-tic!

Germany:
11 (4/14) points in the first game and 12 (4/12) in the second - okay, you are right: Dirk is still looking for his touch. But nobody's worried, even though he shot an airball while going for his "bread-and-butter-move" (you know... the fadeaway-J from the elbow). He said, some extra work will get him ready in time. I hope so... that was the worst Dirk I saw since his first All Star election.

On to the rest of the team. Starter Ademola Okulaja is back after a long injury. He is fighting like in the old days, but his moves looks a little bit slower. Anyway, the team needs some plays, where he gets the space to drive. Sometimes he was looking to penetrate, but the zone was crowded. Two other starters will be Captain Patrick Femerling as center and Demond Greene as shooting guard. Steffen Hamann, Pascal Roller and Mithat Demirel are still fighting for the job as the team's point guard. Robert Garrett was the best scorer off the bench in both games (10 and 12 points) and looked very self-confident... and played some serious D, too (surprise, surprise). Unfortunately I can't tell you a lot about Julian Sensley. He played only in the first game, because of a small stomach irritation and is still looking for a connection to the team. But he is big, versatile and a good guy - that's what the others players told me.

Okay, that's it for now, I'll cover Turkey and France tomorrow. Excuse me? Ask that question once again, please... I couldn't understand you...

Ahh, you wanna now about my predictions for the world cup. It is a little bit early, but... my gut feeling as of today is: Italy is gonna win. Not because I like them, but because Gigli will whine his team straight into the finals!

spiele hart, spiele smart, lies FIVE (www.fivemag.de), rät der sven.