Hello yet again, everybody. As you see from my blog posts, I do write a lot about that 1993-94 journey of Belarus U-22 team because that team was the ultimate underdog one can imagine. It's like a small NCAA school with six walk-ons going to play against All-American schools and winning not once or twice, but legitimately conquering the CHAMPIONSHIP. As I've mentioned before, FIBA Championship was for Under-22 players, but on Belarus squad only 2 players were that age, most was only 19 and me, about to turn 18 in three months. You know, that victory changed all of us once and forever, we realized that if you dream big and work hard everything is truly possible. Like they say, even the wind will blow your way if you are on the right path...
So, we are in the summer of 1994 and about to go to Maribor (Slovenia) from Minsk by...you guess it...by bus as usual:) The only difference from Bursa 1993 trip was that we boarded even a smaller 24-passenger capacity bus that ironically was made in ... Slovenia. We had 2 drivers and about 18-person delegation players included. Only the lucky few were able to occupy two seats and our luggage was throughout the place since the bus trunk was too small. Needless to say all of the players were totally unhappy when we saw that mid-size vehicle minutes away from departure time - nothing was usually planned by Belarus sport authorities so the bus was scheduled the last second and was the only one available. Don't ask me why it was hard to get a better bus and plan a year ahead:)
The only positive was a nice white-and-red writing on the side of the bus that read - BELARUS. You, dear reader, will later understand why I devoted quite a few words to that four-wheel motor vehicle. By the way, once we got to Maribor, many players from opposing teams were complementing us in admiration "you guys are lucky to fly here and even transfer an empty bus from Belarus to help the team, your Federation must be very rich". Oh, yeah, little did they know!
In 48 hours we made it to a picturesque city of Maribor after taking a dip in Hungarian resort lake Balaton on the way. I know it's crazy, but I even remember a Hotel Orel in the old town Maribor that Belarus team checked into. My team was so tight together and enjoyed every second of the experience - we occupied the top floor and our room doors would be open all day long. We used to drive the neighboring Finland team nuts and they complained to the hotel manager about the noise and the fact that Belarussians constantly walked half naked in the hallways:)
Jokes apart, it was time to get down to business as we had a group A full of historically great teams like Greece, France and Israel; hence, each and every game presented a true challenge. In the opening day, we were set to face the locals as Slovenian team had scheduled supposedly the weakest team first. To their surprise, it turns out that our team oldest player and its genuine leader - Alexander Rodionov - to whom this blog is dedicated, had sent all Slovenian population in knock out by scoring a winning buzzer beater 3-pointer from the top of the key. We were hugging each other and celebrating like crazy!!!! I think that's when the Finnish guys started to complain because we took that first win celebration to the hotel:)
Though we gave it a try and played our hearts out, we also managed to beat Finland (I guess it was obvious:) and loose to Greece and Israel. Then we found ourselves in a unique situation -
after 4 days of competition all 6 teams in Group A had 2 wins and 2 losses under their belts. The final day would separate winners from participants and we were to face France. Belarus would be able to advance into the semifinals under one condition: if in the game, preceding ours, Greece would beat Israel, then our possible victory over France would be crucial. While walking inside the hotel on a game day, we saw some Greek players and they said "You win, we win and go to the semifinals! Understand?" My poor English allowed me to comprehend the word "understand" but the idea was clear: that was our only chance...
As the story goes, magically, in the last seconds of the Greece-Israel game, the Hellenic worriers clinched the almost improbable victory. The Israeli coach almost brought down a scorers table:) As for us, we were so happy for the Greeks for providing us with a chance that we rolled over France by 22 points like a bulldozer... all of a sudden, we were 2 victories away from becoming a European Champion! Maribor was a lucky city for us after all. However, there was Spanish team - the winner of Group B - awaiting for us in the semifinal in Slovenian capital Ljubljana. So we jumped on the bus...that time provided by local organizing committee and rolled towards Ljubljana full of pride and joy while asking ourselves "Are we able to go all the way and win it all?"
Part III is to follow.
Are you still enjoying it? Tell me your opinion.
So, we are in the summer of 1994 and about to go to Maribor (Slovenia) from Minsk by...you guess it...by bus as usual:) The only difference from Bursa 1993 trip was that we boarded even a smaller 24-passenger capacity bus that ironically was made in ... Slovenia. We had 2 drivers and about 18-person delegation players included. Only the lucky few were able to occupy two seats and our luggage was throughout the place since the bus trunk was too small. Needless to say all of the players were totally unhappy when we saw that mid-size vehicle minutes away from departure time - nothing was usually planned by Belarus sport authorities so the bus was scheduled the last second and was the only one available. Don't ask me why it was hard to get a better bus and plan a year ahead:)
The only positive was a nice white-and-red writing on the side of the bus that read - BELARUS. You, dear reader, will later understand why I devoted quite a few words to that four-wheel motor vehicle. By the way, once we got to Maribor, many players from opposing teams were complementing us in admiration "you guys are lucky to fly here and even transfer an empty bus from Belarus to help the team, your Federation must be very rich". Oh, yeah, little did they know!
In 48 hours we made it to a picturesque city of Maribor after taking a dip in Hungarian resort lake Balaton on the way. I know it's crazy, but I even remember a Hotel Orel in the old town Maribor that Belarus team checked into. My team was so tight together and enjoyed every second of the experience - we occupied the top floor and our room doors would be open all day long. We used to drive the neighboring Finland team nuts and they complained to the hotel manager about the noise and the fact that Belarussians constantly walked half naked in the hallways:)
Jokes apart, it was time to get down to business as we had a group A full of historically great teams like Greece, France and Israel; hence, each and every game presented a true challenge. In the opening day, we were set to face the locals as Slovenian team had scheduled supposedly the weakest team first. To their surprise, it turns out that our team oldest player and its genuine leader - Alexander Rodionov - to whom this blog is dedicated, had sent all Slovenian population in knock out by scoring a winning buzzer beater 3-pointer from the top of the key. We were hugging each other and celebrating like crazy!!!! I think that's when the Finnish guys started to complain because we took that first win celebration to the hotel:)
Though we gave it a try and played our hearts out, we also managed to beat Finland (I guess it was obvious:) and loose to Greece and Israel. Then we found ourselves in a unique situation -
after 4 days of competition all 6 teams in Group A had 2 wins and 2 losses under their belts. The final day would separate winners from participants and we were to face France. Belarus would be able to advance into the semifinals under one condition: if in the game, preceding ours, Greece would beat Israel, then our possible victory over France would be crucial. While walking inside the hotel on a game day, we saw some Greek players and they said "You win, we win and go to the semifinals! Understand?" My poor English allowed me to comprehend the word "understand" but the idea was clear: that was our only chance...
As the story goes, magically, in the last seconds of the Greece-Israel game, the Hellenic worriers clinched the almost improbable victory. The Israeli coach almost brought down a scorers table:) As for us, we were so happy for the Greeks for providing us with a chance that we rolled over France by 22 points like a bulldozer... all of a sudden, we were 2 victories away from becoming a European Champion! Maribor was a lucky city for us after all. However, there was Spanish team - the winner of Group B - awaiting for us in the semifinal in Slovenian capital Ljubljana. So we jumped on the bus...that time provided by local organizing committee and rolled towards Ljubljana full of pride and joy while asking ourselves "Are we able to go all the way and win it all?"
Part III is to follow.
Are you still enjoying it? Tell me your opinion.
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