WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP INDIANAPOLIS 2002
better than the USA”, Navarro consoled himself, after scoring 26 points alongside his friend Gasol
(19) against Gasol's NBA colleagues.
FINAL PHASE: ARGENTINE LAMENT
Among the events described in the previous paragraphs, the defeats by Germany (with Gasol well
defended by Flemerling, and Nowotzki by Garbajosa, qualification was decided on the free shots:
while Imbroda's men missed five of the last six, Detterman's team scored all theirs. “We missed
out on the podium for five damned free shots”, the man from Melilla was later to lament); the
th
defeat of Puerto Rico –who, let's not forget, had won their group- at the hands of New Zealand (4
and without their biggest star, Marks, who had received a blow in the eye during the first phase),
and the unanswerable victory of Argentina over their South American neighbours Brazil –with a
great Oscar, but in defence- left us with two interesting semi-finals in which the favourites won
through, although with for more tension than the future finalists would have hoped. First of all,
Pesic (senior) had to really yell at his players to get them to react (39-48 down at half-time to New
Zealand who at one stage held an advantage of 14 points), and Magnano was left cursing the
moment when he lost his best forward, Ginobili, to an ankle injury after only 15 minutes. Despite
this, his team mates, managed to overcome this terrible setback to eliminate the Germans, who
then had another battle before they won their first ever medal in the history of the World
Championships. Without a shadow of doubt this medal will always be associated with the blond
man from Wurzburg, 16 points in the first quarter and 28 by half-time, who masterfully destroyed
any Oceanic hopes of a place on the podium. Both squads certainly deserved it but Dirk only
played for one of them.
Finally, after the explosion of German jubilation, came the main course, the final. A certain
Maradona had sent a letter to his basketball compatriots, “I've never been so excited and I'm
going to buy a huge television to watch the final. Send me an autographed jersey so all of us here
can be with you”, wrote the “hand of god”, who had maybe already opened a bottle of champagne
th
when, in the 38 minute of the match (74-66), Sconochini prepared to take his final free-throw of
the night. However, a certain Serbian refused to cooperate with the Argentine dream. No, he didn't
play at centre, nor did he play in the NBA, nor did the cameras follow him around the court as they
did with Divac and Stojalovic… Bo-di-ro-ga. He scored nine consecutive points (27 in all) while his
opponents kept missing from the 4.60 metre line (60.9% on the day as opposed to 76.3% in the
championship as a whole), and making the mistake of constantly seeking out Ginobili (injured and
overanxious: 0/3) and even lost an important mid-court possession (this time Scola). However, it
could have been so differebt if a shot from Sconochini on the buzzer had gone in ( until that
moment he had only scored 1 out of 12) against the defence –with a possible foul included- of
Jaric. With this basket, with a personal foul in favour, or even with one of the two free throws
missed by Divac five seconds from the end (would he remember the world final of 1986 against
the USSR) overtime, with a definite blue colour would have been avoided. Yugoslavia had
numerous advantages; they were the team that had come back from behind, they had the
majority of the public behind them, their