WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP JAPAN 2006
GREEK EXHIBITION AND THE“ NON-TRIPLE” OF NOCIONI
Here we were, 1 September, the final was a step away and the four teams who had finished the first round 5-0 battled it out for the places in the grand final two days later in the Saitama Super Arena. The first match produced a surprise. The headlines were clear,“ USA out of the fight for gold”, or put another way,“ Greece beat USA in the semi-final”. Two ways of saying the same thing, USA Basketball and failed again in their quest to win the title which a few tournaments ago had seemed unreachable for any other other team other than the stars and stripes. This time there was a squad, even a TEAM given the preparation they had put in and the good feeling that emanated from the press conferences given by players like LeBron or Wade. However, the USA, fell before what was probably the best display of teamwork seen in the tournament, that of Greece in the semi-final. The statistics will forever show that Vasilis Spanoulis was the top Greek scorer that afternoon. But the 101-95 triumph was due to other weighty reasons. For example, Schortsanitis-he certainly was a weighty reason – who drove the US centres mad, and above all, Theodoros Papaloukas, the architect of the victory, the mastermind behind the plan to break the defensive press organised by Mike Krzyzewski.
The match was a crash course given by Papaloukas. He read the US system like nobody. The icing on the cake was put by Mihalis Kakiouzis with four decisive free throws in the last 35 seconds of the match. The USA were not very effective from the the free-throw line( 20 / 34) and the gold disappeared from their grasp in the blink of an eye. Greece only lost 12 balls and this, more than any other, summed up the Greek performance. Against defenders like the Americans, with faster legs and longer arms the Greeks were able to play with the calm that others in the tournament lacked.“ They did a fabulous job”, admitted Krzyzewski in the press conference, and he was right. It was a job that started in the brain of Panagyotis Giannakis and ended in the hands of his players. Greece now had a medal and only had to wait to find out their rival for the gold.
In the other semi-final Argentina was the reigning Olympic champion from the Athens games which placed them at the pinnacle of the basketball world. Now they had to face Spain who had beaten them in their preparation for the tournament. The Argentine press had their ideas clear in the hours before the match. On analysing the Spanish team the Buenos Aires newspaper“ Olé” stated“ Gasol and a lot more”. This was a portent of what was to happen both in the semi-final and the final. That is to say that Spain was far more than just Pau Gasol. The forecast for this semi-final was uncertain, everything pointed to a very close match settled by a minimal difference, and that is how it turned out. The plot left all the suspense until the final play. Jose Manuel Calderon scored one of his two free throws to leave the score at a very interesting 75-74 but Argentina had the last attack. All eyes were on Manu Ginobili, the camaras, everyone in the Saitama Super Arena and the millions of television throughout the world. The Spurs guard had the talent and the vast European and NBA experience to make the final play. As expected the ball went to him, he bounced it waited for the seconds to pass, broke towards the basket and, when it seemed that he was going to shoot, passed the ball to Andres Nocioni who was waiting in the corner to shoot the triple that would kill off the match. Time did not stand still but it seemed like it. The Spanish players did not get back in time and could only watch at Nocioni jumped unchallenged in the corner. It was like one of the high school films where the good guy scores the match winning basket in the last second. But Nocioni ' s triple did not go in. Argentina lost and Spain qualified for the final. The cinema is something altogether different.
255 FUNDACIÓN PEDRO FERRÁNDIZ