Basquet Balear - A weekend in Mallorca

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - After returning from Florida and some rainy days in Germany, we headed out to Spain to catch some sun, eat some delicious food and to watch some hoops as well. 

Knowing it would be the weekend of the Final Four in Madrid , I decided to make plans prior the trip to make sure that I won't miss too much of basketball action during our stay. 

The Spanish television (TVE 2) decided to broadcast all games of Tau Ceramica and the final on Sunday, so I made sure to be in the hotel at the right time. 

Palma de Mallorca is a beautiful city where you can do a lot of things like shopping (My girl never saw a glimpse of the sunshine during most of the day, but got some muscles by carrying a lot of shopping bags around), sightseeing (Cathedral and the Old Town are astonishing), clubbing (The nightclubs near the port really attract a lot of locals as well as tourists) and dining (We chose "Sa Premsa", a small Mallorquin restaurant ,which had some roasted pork I am still dreaming of).

We made it in time for Tau-CSKA and I must say I was surprised about the good play of Zoran Planinic as most Croats I know are talking bad about him, but it was him who kept Tau in the game. CSKA's depth on the bench was astonishing and Andersen killed Tau's chances to advances in the last minutes of the game.
The quality of the games I was able to watch were high and in most parts entertaining especially with the Spanish comments ("Trrripple, Trrripple, Trrripple!") on television.

Tiago Splitter had some bad free-throw shooting during the game (as always) which really hurt Tau but it was Pablo Prigioni who had some personal problems with some of the fans behind the backboards as he was trying constantly to hit them with air balls.
CSKA's Smodis had always an answer when the Spanish-side started a come-back, who was pushed by their frenetical fans in Madrid.
The Basques even had a slim chance to cut the deficit in the last minute of the game and Igor "Psychocevic" made a tough shot, but in the end but CSKA eventually overcome Tau's rally and made it to the final where they faced Maccabi. 

The following day, I craved to most sports stores to search for basketball-related souvenirs but I left empty-handed, as one big store where I shopped a year before a basketball-jersey of "Palma Aqua Magica" (One of two LEB Oro-teams from the island) decided to sell only big brands (No local stuff, just some Pau-NBA-Jerseys from Memphis) these days.

Although I got no press credentials for the LEB Oro-game between Palma and Zaragoza (I tried to get the credentials via mail, as you need a Spanish I.D. if you try it over their webpage. No response from the guys in charge 'til that day...), I decided to take my girl to the "Palma Arena" as she tortured me the day before with her shopping hiatus. 

The site has been used for the European Championships last year and looks impressive from the outside, but lacks a bit of charm as it reminds me more of a factory.
Previously, the club has re-named itself during the season after their main sponsor decided to pull out suddenly citing financial troubles and they are somehow still called "Palma Aqua Magica" at the arena while their website states their name is now again "C.B. Alcudia"(A city based in the north of the island but lacks a facility to host bigger events).

Due to their uncertain financial future, they released well-known and well-paid Lou Roe out of his contract a little bit earlier in the season, and are fighting to maintain in the second Spanish division. With that in mind, I did not wonder that there was no food or drinks available at the game.

Not to mention any fan-wear for me, so once again no stuff to widen my collection of basketball jerseys.
Around 700 people made it to the arena (Officially there have been 1.500...no way Jose!) and maybe half of the people came from Zaragoza to celebrate their possible promotion to the ACB. The fans of both teams wore no fan-shirts or similar stuff (Guess my jersey of Palma from last year is a rare one there) but through their cheering you knew who was rooting for the locals and who not.
The cheerleaders…were probably still in some of the nightclubs or at home after having a booze , instead some girls played three-on-three hoops in the time-outs and breaks, which was somehow more entertaining as they were pretty good in it and scoring a bunch of baskets in a short period of time.

But back to the game itself: I'm honest, I expected a rout in favor for Zaragoza but Palma proved me wrong and the game was exciting to watch.
Congolese guard Guy Muya (Who represented Belgium internationally before and had 15 points on the stat sheet) was visibly on "fire" as he spit-fired some words on Paolo Quinteros (Who scored 22 on Muya) during the game and impressed me with is will to win.

Palma's Xavi Puyada (21 points) also came into the game at the right moment when guard Pau del Tio looked tired and contributed always when needed; while CAI had one spectacular dunk converted by Howard Brown and balanced scoring by players Lucas Victoriano (7 points), Cuthbert Victor (10), Darren Phillip (13) and Matias Lescano (9).

It seemed that CAI found their rhythm back in the fourth when Palma struggled to score and their lead crumbled, but somehow Zaragoza made one mistake after another and the hosts decided the game on the free-throw line in the ending minutes of the game while their fans started to celebrate besides the court. The crucial win should have saved Palma from relegation, while Zaragoza needs a win at home to seal the promotion this weekend. 

Check out some of the short flicks that I made while attending the game:

It was pretty cool for me to hear, that my girl showed interest in the game (I am going to convert her finally into a basketball-fan) as it was a thriller until the last minute, so I faced no hard time when we returned back home so I could watch the final of the Euroleague.

CSKA, as you all probably heard, won the Euroleague thanks to another well-balanced scoring effort of the players involved. Maccabi had their best in Will Bynum but guys like Alex Garcia or Derrick Sharp played nervously and missed a couple of easy shots even though Tel Aviv rallied back in the second quarter to a 41-42 halftime-score. I don't know what was up to their star Nikola Vujcic as he was a complete non-factor in the game; maybe he is not really healthy after an injury kept him out for some time.
The third quarter then was decisive for Moscow as they didn't allow the Israelis to score and Finals-MVP Trajan Langdon drained in always a three-pointer when it was necessary to keep CSKA in front.
Matjaz Smodis had another good outing, scoring 13 points and Euroleague MVP Ramunas Siskauskas was ice-cold from the free-throw line to seal the game while adding another 13 points for the favorite team to win the Euroleague.
Bynum, who could be heading to the NBA next season after playing quite well during the last months, led Maccabi with 21 points, while Uruguayan Esteban Batista (This guy is really un-athletic but somehow productive) netted in 14 for the underdogs. Even young NBA-hopeful Omri Casspi recorded nine points and maybe gets a shot in the NBA within the next year(s).

It was somehow funny to see the president of CSKA jumping around in his suit like a eight-year old boy that just got his Sega Master System (Like I did back in the days) at Christmas.

Guess not a single German television channel did a report about it, so I was happy to be in a country that really cares about the sport even though the football championship (Real Madrid won it that weekend) was the main headline the next day.

So I really enjoyed the trip, and I hope to let you guys know about my future trips around the globe as well if I collected enough Euritos to travel.

Cheers!