VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision)  -  Omar Cook had had such a long career in basketball while playing for some outstanding teams that it seemed his time had passed. He was never going to play in a European continental club final.

He'd had a terrific run at Valencia Basket in the 2010–11 Euroleague. The Svetislav Pesic-coached team, with Cook the starting point guard, reached the the Quarter-Finals but Real Madrid won their best-of-five game showdown, 3–2.

This summer, though, fate smiled on Cook, who'd suited up for a dozen clubs in a 15-year career in Europe and won a couple of Montenegrin league titles, two Montenegrin Cups and a Belgian Cup.

In late July, he signed for Hereda San Pablo Burgos, at the age of 38. Cook joined a team that was going to play at the Basketball Champions League Final Eight in Athens.

As it turns out, he didn't just go along for the ride. 

Cook, in such great shape that he looks more like 28, played a starring role in Sunday's Final, an 85-74 win over AEK.

He ignited a come-from-behind win for Burgos with a blistering show of three-point shooting which, apparently, was a weakness when he was trying to make it in the NBA after leaving St John's University.

Cook has always been a great assists man, a statistical category he twice led the Euroleague in - the 2009–10 campaign as a Unicaja Malaga player and the 2011–12 season as a member of Olimpia Milano.

For Burgos, though, he showed off his ability to score from long range. With the Spanish outfit trailing 24-14 at the start of the second quarter and AEK looking like they might go on a rampage, he caught fire, hitting four three-pointers over the next three minutes and eight seconds, the last of which knotted the game at 31-31.

He hit another one in the second half and finished five of eight from long range.

"To be 38, about to be 39, and to play in a final of a European competition, I'm excited," he said before the game. "This is the happiest that I've been playing basketball in a long time."

Immediately after the greatest moment in Burgos basketball history, and one of the most important in his career, Cook, with confetti still in his hair, added: "I've been talking about winning this trophy all week, kind of talking it into existence. It's my first Final, and I wanted to win it bad. I got lucky to be on this team."

So ends another chapter of the Basketball Champions League. Even without fans due to COVID-19, the Final 8 was a spectacle. 

The 2019-20 league season needed a conclusion, and it couldn't have had a better one for Cook and Burgos.

Jeff Taylor
FIBA

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