MATT G DOES EUROBASKET

 

Rewind to September '08. I was watching a dodgy online feed of a live TV broadcast in a language I didn't understand and then going berserk. Why? Because I had just seen the Great Britain basketball team beat the Czech Republic to secure a spot at Eurobasket 2009, to be held in Poland. Amazingly no British TV channel was willing to screen British basketball's greatest achievement since 1981.

Now I'd considered going to catch one of GB's home qualifiers that year and decided against it on the assumption that the matches would be on TV. Having learned from that mistake and knowing that having a Great Britain side led by Chicago Bulls star Luol Deng in Eurobasket deserved more than a dodgy online feed, I started thinking things over. Was it worth hauling myself out to Poland? Fast forward a few months, the draw was made. GB were heading to Warsaw to face Slovenia, Spain and Serbia. Three teams to qualify for the next stage. It looked tough but given the way we blasted through qualifying - it looked do-able.

The crunch moment came when I was hanging around the What's Bev British basketball board and word was that there was a mailing list being set up by British Performance Basketball for those interested in GB Eurobasket tickets. I put myself on the mailing list. Then came the offer. Every game in GB's Group C, six games in total over a period of three days for 60 Euros. I wasn't going to turn that deal down. So, cheque sent off...and that proved to be the easiest and cheapest part.

It's then that I start doubting my sanity. Though the What's Bev crew would be there the fact remains that I'd never been to Poland and didn't speak a word of the language. I had never even booked a foreign trip solo before and this was definitely going to cost money. First order of business: book flights or should I say travel because I wasn't ruling out getting the train out there rather than flying. However, I'd been given a ballpark figure of £180 for a return flight to Warsaw. Trains seemed to be in the region of £220 and that was just going from London...in the end I got a return flight for £150 out of Heathrow. Next up, accommodation. I check What's Bev and find that one of the crew is staying in the Helvetia Luxy not far from the arena itself, looked nice but cheap. Sorted.

In the meantime though, things weren't going so well on the basketball front. In the middle of the NBA season, Luol was injured. Luol is the reason we'd got this far in the first place. Once it became obvious that he wouldn't be fit for Eurobasket our prospects dropped through the floor. There was talk of Luol's Bulls teammate, London-born, US-raised Ben Gordon committing to Team GB but that was always a case of "I'll believe it when I see it". A month before Eurobasket with GB in dire form in friendlies, Ben transfers to the Pistons and then says he won't be playing for GB after all. For GB it was a case of "here goes nothing".

The months passed, tickets arrived, I booked train tickets between Exeter and London, scraped together some Polish. Checked my sanity once again. Too late, I was committed.

My journey started in fairly straightforward fashion on the Saturday, two days before GB's first game. Just a quick walk across the road to Exeter Central station, wait a few minutes and the train to London Waterloo arrives. This has become a familiar train to me, not only is Exeter Central dead convenient but from Waterloo, well it was a regular waypoint in my Uni days and from there the whole of South London is my oyster. The annoying thing about it is that it's very slow and on multiple occasions the powers that be decided to stop at a station for 10 minutes (what the point of these stops is I'll never know). Eventually I get off at Clapham Junction and from there I found a train to Twickenham and, once on familiar territory, getting a 281 bus to Teddington then walking down my old street was pretty simple.

Sheila, an old neighbour of mine from when I used to live in Teddington and my Mum's best friend from that era, was willing to put me up for the night. From here it was a case of chill out then head to a pub to watch England vs Slovenia in football where I grabbed some food as I was unsure of Sheila’s schedule, then headed back to crash out in front of TV. Was very weird to be back in Teddington for the first time in two years.

Still, Sunday came and it was off to Heathrow Airport. Sheila dropped me off in a carpark; fine I could make my way to Terminal 1 easily enough. Check in and security went smoothly, checked when the Gate opened, headed to Cafe Nero for a coffee and bite to eat, read, found that Gate had opened 15 mins ahead of schedule. Move. Eventually make way to Gate and tried to chill out for 20 mins of so till flight boards. First major hurdle cleared.

Find seat, chew gum and it was farewell UK for the next few days. It was my first time flying with LOT, the Polish airline. Well, they got me there despite the cheese roll they gave me not being particularly appetizing. Biggest 'oops' moment? Waking up the guy next to me as I made my way to the toilet (then again - how do people sleep on planes during the daytime?).

So, touchdown Warsaw, disembarked, followed the signs to baggage claim, grabbed bag. I was nervous as hell and the cabbie didn't even know where the hostel was! Eventually he dropped me off in the general area, and after asking directions for the main Hostel office (at which point my Polish proved to be useless) I found it, checked in and got directions to the Luxy apartments I'd be staying in. To confuse matters they share a building with a regular block of flats and the mechanical part of the main lock proved to be harder to master than it should. And a helpful Polish lady just made me more nervous due to the language barrier! Somehow I got in.

First impression of the place? I'd stayed in a lot worse. Common room with table, chairs and free tea, coffee and Internet. Straightforward inner locks. Private bedroom with TV (all-Polish channels) and shower and wash room. One very nervous Brit then just let everything sink in. I was a long way from home but I was there. Now what? Chris, the What's Bev guy who was going to be in this hostel wasn't due till the following morning (not a fan of early morning flights personally). One thing was for certain though, I was going to need to get some food at some point and at 6:30pm CET the main hostel office directed me to some nearby restaurants. I found myself a place called Babooshka (seems to be a local chain) with its menu translated into English. This time round I actually managed to survive with my Polish ordering some pretty heavy potato pancakes stuffed with meat and an OK local beer called Tyskie for not much more than 20 zlotys (£4 give or take). Not so bad.

After that, well I headed back to the hostel and finally mastered the lock. I considered hitting the town but I'd heard enough about the reputation of some bars in Warsaw that I wasn't really sure I wanted to take my chances. Far safer to just chillout in my room and online. Definitely felt like the calm before the storm.

Early to bed meant early to rise. Breakfast was a selection of cereal, bread, rolls, ham and cheese with some Polish soap opera as background noise. After that it's back to chillout mode, exchanging texts with Chris to double check his ETA. Eventually there's a knock on the main door - Chris had as much trouble with the lock as I did!

Anyway, this also turned out to be Chris's first Eurobasket. However he was certainly familiar with Poland and had Claire, his wife, and sister Lisa in tow. Lisa had major problems getting her electronic key to work and then the three got changed into what looked like the nearest thing anyone had to GB shirts, white polos with a Union Jack and "GB vs Slovenia" on them. Plus various forms of Union Jack hats. All I'd been able to get hold of was a relatively small flag.

Anyway, we all bundled into a taxi with the target being Champions sports bar, run by the local Marriot. US style, loaded with screens that mainly seemed to be showing volleyball. This was not plan A for the What's Bev rendezvous - Plan A was a supposed Irish bar...that later research showed to be as Irish as a Polish barman in Dublin and not particularly welcoming of non-Poles. Talk about a dodged bullet. It also meant that one of our party wound up having his Mum in tow - and she's not even a basketball fan! At gone 2pm one large pepperoni pizza didn't last very long. It was also my first introduction to Zyvic, a much better brew than Tyskie which I drank quietly while the conversation turned to BBL which I'm relatively ignorant about - I've only ever kept half an eye on the British league and the nearest team to me is down in Plymouth, - the Raiders!

Anyway, as far as the upcoming match against Slovenia was concerned, well we were up against a team that missed out on the Beijing Olympics by the skin of their teeth; in other words, well established at this level even if they had no individuals at Luol's standard. There were also rumours that they had 2500 fans in town. At best guess we had 100 tops, partly due to a small window of opportunity to get tickets though some blamed BPB for not marketing the tickets widely enough. Some were still optimistic against Slovenia though given that they had their own injury problems with their main man in the NBA, Lakers’ Sasa Vujaic, out of action. They had also been one of the few teams we'd beaten in a friendly recently.

At about 4:30ish with the Russia vs Latvia game in another group starting up on the TV screens we made our way to the Torwar Arena by foot, which turned out to be a very long walk past a few embassies. Along the way we came across some Slovenian fans - then more Slovenian fans, then outside the Stadium we get into some very mismatched banter with our rivals who've come loaded with air horns! "You've only got one noise" only gets you so far. Security proceeded to take my flag off its pole then it was off to find my seat. GB first up - the one good thing was that all Brits were in together - heck I was next to a guy from Plymouth for crying out loud! Teams were out practicing.

Countdown was on from 20 mins, we roared out the national anthem and then this is it, this is what we came here for.

What we didn't particularly want to see was Slovenia having the better of the first quarter, it took over a minute for GB to get their first points of the tournament and we never looked competitive in the first quarter. In the 2nd quarter we start getting our game on more, tieing the game with just over 6 mins left in the half then Joel Freeland put in a jumper with 3:10 left and added a free throw to make it 35-33. Slovenia still came back to lead at half time but we'd got their attention. GB stayed in the game in the third but never retook the lead and then just completely fell apart in the fourth! Pops did what he could but it was Slovenia's Erasem Lorbek that led all the scorers with 19 points as Slovenia won 72-59.

That result was a bummer but my biggest priority by now was finding some water. The stewards were clueless. I found a coffee stall and a t-shirt stall before heading back to my seat and running into Chris who pointed me to a drinks area...where they'd run out of still water! I decided to take a gamble on some brand of drink I'd never heard of (turned out to be lemonade or something - better than nothing) and then head back to my seat where there seemed to be a lot more hype in the air. Pau Gasol's Spain were about to take on Serbia. With nothing at stake for GB, it was time to sit back and watch the tournament favourites put on a show.

Except they didn't. Pau wasn't even in the starting five and Spain quickly paid for their complacency, and the Serbian defence in particular just never allowed them to get off the ground. Serbia didn't let up in the second quarter either and I'm left to watch stunned as one of the giants of world basketball looks to be getting slaughtered. More of the same in the third, I already know I'm seeing a major shock in the making with Spain only able to manage 37 points. Spain did manage some damage limitation in the 4th but in the end I had to congratulate the Serbian guy standing next to me. Nenad Kristic had led their scorers with 17 points. Serbia 66 Spain 57.

I left the arena (by this point it was about 11pm) and found the rest of the crew before we walked back into the centre of town, passing the Novotel where Team GB were staying before finding ourselves a bar. I wasn't the only one ordering a non-alcoholic drink along with my Zyvic due to being seriously thirsty. Time for some post match analysis and the big suggestion was that Pops, who'd only joined the squad late on due to contract negotiations Stateside, wasn't quite fitting in with the rest of them - maybe he just wasn't used to being the main player on a team. My concern was our lack of stamina, it wasn'tthe first time I'd seem GB fall apart in the fourth. Other problems were lack of Brits (50 tops - lower even than expected against Slovenia's 2500!) and the fact that Spain would now be a wounded animal after that jaw dropper vs Serbia. Cab back to base and hit the sack at 1:30am.

Tuesday it was up at 8:30, grabbing breakfast and chilling out, checking results from other groups online, Turkey beating Lithuania being a bit of an eyebrow raiser. From there it was time to hit the town via a pharmacy before grabbing some food, namely an Italian. Over the course of the meal it looked like World War III was going to break out between Chris and Lisa over how much Lisa was eating! Their penne bolognaise was all right but too big for me to finish and then I had to head back to the hostel to grab my rucksack before catching up with the rest of the crew at the Novotel and then start talking about the Spain game.

Thing is, this was Team GB's hotel and sure enough, we get the guys themselves swinging round to have a chat. Yes, you read that correctly, Pops, Andrew Sullivan and coach Chris Finch all decided to spend a couple of minutes with us.

Would Fabio Capello or Martin Johnson be willing to be quizzed by a group of fans? On the one hand I know from Stargate conventions that such people are indeed made of flesh and blood, but still, I'm very grateful for Finchy and the guys to be willing to give us a few minutes of their time - even if the coach didn't have a clue why GB fell apart like they did against Slovenia. And onwards we move, spending time to chat with some Slovenian guy that wanted to ramble about Eddie the Eagle!

We walked through town and found ourselves at a bar that the previous day had been loaded with Slovenians. The barwoman didn't speak any English and my Polish didn't get me very far. Their draft beer was a brew called Okacim but I decided to stick with Zyvic even though it only came in a can. Cue Slovenians. Now, the state of play was this. If Slovenia beat Serbia in that night's first game and we somehow beat Spain then we would actually be through to the second round. Cue alliance, we'd back Slovenia vs Serbia if they'd back us against Spain. Done deal, cue vodka (admittedly treated with caution, beer mixed with spirits is very hit and miss with me).

Before we left, Warsaw's finest turned up and it took us a couple of minutes to work out that they were watching us. I waved my Union Jack at them mainly as a gesture of "what you looking at?" despite my nerves, but it does bring me to the one bum note of the trip. If this had been a football match then I'd have expected some kind of issue - continental police can still have a habit of assuming English football fans will cause more trouble than their counterparts even a generation after Heysel. However there is no history of hooliganism in British basketball and the fact that later on two GB fans weren't let into the stadium purely because they were wearing GB gear – well, that was ridiculous.

Anyway, onwards to the arena though we were cutting it fine and a group of us took a wrong turning anyway so that by the time we approached the arena we could hear the national anthems! I personally got into the arena fairly smoothly; Chris was not so lucky, more on that later.

Well by the time I got to my seat Slovenia vs Serbia had already started and I was shouting "Slo-ven-i-a" along with everyone else. Sure enough, our allies were doing the business early on and their lead hit double figures inside four minutes. After their great performance the previous night the Serbs were getting quite a reality check and there was definitely only one team in it at half time. The third quarter just meant more pain for the Serbs; they were going to need a miracle to pull this off. However they couldn't even cut the deficit back to single figures late on and with Bostjan Nachbar leading the way with 17 points as Slovenia won 80-69.

After that, well I had been able to grab some water during the fifteen minute break at half time of Slovenia vs Serbia but they'd now run out and I wasn't thirsty enough to drink iffy tasting lemonade. I did decide to grab a KFC (who for some reason weren't serving fries) and then wait for the 20 minute countdown to start for our match vs Spain. In theory, if we beat Spain, we'd go through to the next round. Beat a team who can give the Yanks a tough match. Even before Luol got injured people were writing this match off. Without Luol I was willing to settle for losing by less than 20 points. Still, the fact that we were even playing against such opposition was an achievement in itself.

Well, a 12-0 Spain run right from the tip off suggested that all hope was lost and we only got one bucket in the first five mins. Rumour was, Finch was caught swearing live on TV during one of the timeouts. Can't blame him. In the second quarter we at least kept some kind of pace and cut the deficit down to nine. Not so bad. Down by ten at the end of the third. Wasn't going to complain. We opened the 4th quarter with a jumper, Spain didn't respond and next thing we knew it's raining GB buckets. Before we knew it we're within a point of Spain, then comes a Lenzley three pointer and I turn round to see a scoreboard say that we're leading the tournament favourites! 4:58 on the clock a three pointer went in and we're up 73-69! Spain really needed their A game to turn it round and even right at the end we hit a last minute three pointer that doesn't get given. Still...

Safe to say that performance was beyond all of our wildest dreams and we were going mental right there in the arena for about 15 minutes. We really did not care that we had lost; all we cared about was that there were rumours of a 24 hour bar in the area, which we promptly found and were offered a "metre of beer". This was not a lost in translation moment. This was a metre length of wood loaded with Zyvic. There wasn't much serious post match analysis to be done just boozing, singing and a general sense that we had now got everyone's attention in the basketball world. At least one guy got sloshed enough to pour his heart out about a family tragedy but sooner or later we really did have to move.

Chris however got interesting. The Helvetia Luxy crew were wondering around Warsaw, singing inane parodies of "No Limit" and asking some stationary store to "give us a wave". We head for the Novotel whose bar has shut but that doesn't stop Chris from James Bonding it in the lobby and then..."oh, there are real people here". Yes, he was off his head, apparently he only got past arena security by the skin of his teeth they were so paranoid about drunk Brits. Looking back, I'm just glad I didn't throw up due to the vodka. Eventually we found a kebab shop and grabbed some chips. Then it was a case of finding a cabbie who didn't have a clue where the Helvetia was and just dumped us off in the general area. I eventually hit the sack at 3:30am.

9:30am, well I had to get up, I only had one hour to hit the shower and then grab breakfast...and then I fond Chris online already! It seemed as though he'd recovered very quickly indeed. In the meantime, I was in need of paracetomol and coffee...and then needed hostel staff's help in shutting down a hyperactive kettle. My voice was certainly a bit iffy but I was more concerned when I saw Chris's post from earlier than morning claiming that he was still drunk. Noon and we're waiting for Chris to get back from getting some fresh air...and he later comes back in looking in 'very' rough shape, I stay out of the way before we eventually get a cab to the Novotel, leaving Chris behind.

Another big issue was the fact that Lisa's mobile had gone missing so from the Novotel it was back to the bar from the previous night to try and track it down (eventually we worked out that she must have left it in the cab).The group of us decide to head back to the Champions bar for lunch at which point I ordered a large rack of ribs and chips. The big headline was that the GB team had indeed heard us and Finch was very happy with the level of noise we'd made. All I can say to that is, it was an honour just to watch the performance on court. Was I mad to haul myself out there? I would have been mad to miss it, that's for certain.

Anyway, we quit the Champions bar for the last time and it was down to a local newsagent to grab a chocolate bar before Claire, Lisa and I decided to get a cab with the aim of getting to the bar we were at the previous day...and the guy proceeded to take us way out of town to what looked like Warsaw's equivalent of the M25! Eventually he turned back in near the Torwar and we directed him from there. At the bar we found a barely alive Chris. I gave him a couple of Rennies but he was certainly suffering from the worst hangover ever which had only hit that morning. Our game plan was to go into the arena as incognito as possible given the paranoid security - annoying.

The state of play now was this. Spain were first up against Slovenia. Whatever happened in that match we would still be in the mixer but if Spain won it became a straightforward "beat Serbia and go through" whereas if Slovenia won we'd have to win by eight. Overall, we thought that Spain would be more up for it as Slovenia had already booked a second round spot in Lodz. Spain still had plenty to prove. Still, we got there well early this time and I was promptly deafened by the Slovenian air horns, they were clearly still up for this game and so was I with one team that had proven its quality going up against the traditional powerhouse.

Spain opened the scoring but Slovenia were quickly in the groove and held on to lead the game 20-18 by the end of the first quarter. Then Spain managed to step up a gear, quickly took the lead early on in the 2nd and at half time it looked as though Slovenia were going to get a reality check. The Spanish continued to put the hammer on their opponents in the third quarter and were leading 62-49 at the end of the third quarter. And yet somehow Slovenia managed to come back. By the middle of the fourth quarter they were really back in it. In the dying seconds though it looked as though Spain were going to hold on, then Lorbek hit a jumper. Buzzer went. Nobody moved. The shot was given and we're going into overtime tied at 78!

Slovenia really ran out of fuel in overtime though and Spain came through to win 90-84 with Juan Carlos Navarro finishing with 21 points. So far so good for GB, now it was a case of grabbing a Eurobasket t-shirt, then a KFC (but again, they ran out of water early) and chilling out, ish. Part of me was recognising that in 24 hours I was going to be back in the UK which after the past few days felt unreal but in the meantime, we had a winner-takes-all game to watch. The Serbs clearly had their uses but like us, they'd had to qualify for this tournament though they were at Eurobasket 2007. In theory, before the tournament this looked like our best chance of a win and if we could give Spain a headache, anything was possible.

Well, credit to our guys we started the right way this time, going 7-2 up with 8:22 left in the first quarter but even by the end of the first we were starting to come apart. Credit to a few Slovenians who joined us as the match went on and helped us out with our chants. In the 2nd quarter we came close to turning the game round but again the Serbs pulled away. In the second half though, we really couldn't come up with the goods, not helped by some dodgy foul calls in the Serbs’ favour. To be honest, despite Reiking being the game's highest scorer, getting beaten 77-59 was a bit anti-climatic after what happened against Spain. Still, we got applauded by the players for our vocal efforts.

From there it was out of the arena so that we could cheer the players onto the team bus.

 

After that, a cab to the Novotel area and tracking down a bar. The atmosphere was quiet, the only reason for celebration was the birthday of one of our party but the biggest unanswered question was "where do we go from here?” Some were off to Lodz as they had tickets for second round matches. Others were getting the big idea of heading out to India next year for the possible Commonwealth basketball championships (that sounds seriously expensive). Others were talking up our chances of getting one of four wildcards for the 2010 World championships in Turkey and hence automatic qualification for Eurobasket 2011 in Lithuania (I'll believe that when I see it).

There was a feeling that we needed a better commitment from BPB when it came to marketing Team GB and getting more fans on board (other than Virginia Tuckey's appearance on What's Bev there had apparently been nothing). There was also the feeling that we didn't need the BBA! What's the BBA? Good question. It turned out to be the British Basketball Association, a planned big-budget basketball league backed by John Amaechi, formerly our man in the NBA. The BBL fans in the What's Bev crew dismissed it as a "fantasy league". Do I think it could work? Well, in theory there are plenty of towns in the UK (including Exeter) that don't have BBL teams. In practice, well the more I looked into it once I got back home, the less impressed I was. These guys are operating out of a head office in New York and were meant to be putting players on British basketball courts in 2007! Hmmmm! The laugh is, some people see this operation as a fait accompli that will make a joke of the BBL and be the saviour of British basketball! The fact is, these guys for whatever reason (possibly lack of interest given that basketball has been a niche market in the UK ever since I got into it in the 90s) can't get their idea off the ground which suggests that Mr Amaechi, with all due respect to him, is letting his known issues with the BBL get in the way of realism.

From there it was back to the Novotel for one last congratulatory chat with the players and then, well the others had other plans, but I really had to be getting back to base. The cabbie I found spoke no English and the guy that translated for him originally thought I was looking for a brothel (nice offer but I had to be up early)! Still I made it back and hit the sack at 2:30am.

Up at 7:30, no sign of Chris and crew and breakfast was spent with a Yank couple who were in Poland tracing family trees. After that it was time to get packed, chill out online for a bit, and then I decided to get out of there at about 10am (had to check out at 11am at the latest)! What do you do with a couple of hours to burn in Warsaw? Check out the Jewish Ghetto monument:

The monument was certainly impressive but there's little else there and it's in one of Warsaw's rougher looking areas. Still, it was good to do something in Warsaw that wasn't booze, food or basketball related. From there it was a case of finding another cab (this guy thought I was Italian!) and getting to the airport 10 mins before check in. Then we have a laugh going through security. Pile sensitive stuff (including belt and leather jacket) into tray, Tray goes through scanner, take stuff out of tray, money belt with zloty and cards is missing. Ask security guys for help and eventually get taken to an office run by what looks to be a Cold War military veteran! Money belt must have hit the deck as I took my belt off. Nothing missing.

I was immediately given a gate number and made my way straight there with well over an hour to go before boarding. In other words enough time to head back to the main departure area, grab a sandwich, have a look for some requested cherry vodka in a duty free shop and still head back to the gate with time to spare.

I flew back courtesy of Swiss Air. First leg, Warsaw to Zurich, afternoon flight. Now this is how to travel! Whole row of seats to myself, good coffee, ice cream, chocolate and an excuse to show off my German. We were a bit delayed landing at Zurich though which meant a fairly brisk walk through their transit lounge (though I have to admit, the place looked a lot better than it did back in '98 when I flew in and out on a secondary school German exchange trip). Had enough Euros and time to grab a water, crisps and a too-tempting pretzel (along with chocolates for Sheila). Flight to Heathrow was meh, seemed to be loaded with British businessmen and was a lot more cramped. Also didn't get much food (though at least their cheese roll was better than LOT's).

I arrived back in the UK at 7:05pm GMT, collected bag, made my way to bus terminals. The familiar bus back to Teddington was the 285...but it went right past me (some things never change)! The newer bus seemed to be the X26. The driver claimed it stopped at Teddington High Street. Well Heathrow to Teddington Broad Street is pretty impressive. Not so impressive was a sharp right when I thought we'd be going left for High Street and I soon work out we're heading for Kingston. Luckily Kingston is also familiar territory and I'd have been more than happy to get a bus from there back to Teddington. Sheila had other ideas though (and she thought I shouldn't have bought her Swiss chocolates!). Still, back to her place, grab a bite to eat, chill out, hit sack.

On Friday it was up, hit shower, grabbed breakfast, headed for Teddington train station, get train to Waterloo and then back to Exeter Central. Then grabbed a Co-op Cornish pasty and really just crashed out.