Whirlwind week in European hoops

LONDON (The Friday Eurovision) - There is plenty to ponder after a whirlwind week in European hoops. I’ve been typing so much that my fingers are bleeding.

Where do we begin?

Let’s go to Spain where the play-offs have been amazing.

Unicaja Malaga, having already knocked out regular-season winners Real Madrid, were in good shape to beat Tau Ceramica and force a deciding Game Three of their semi-final back in Vitoria.

Leading by four, Pablo Prigioni gets open and hits a three-pointer to cut the deficit to one. He then fouls Davor Kus, the best free throw shooter this side of Zagreb (he’d hit 93% of his shots this season before that), who proceeds to miss both attempts from the line.

The next thing we see is Pete Mickael racing down the floor and scoring with an acrobatic lay-up over Senegalese center Boniface N’dong with two seconds remaining.

Tau won by a point and advanced to the final.

Barcelona swept DKV Joventut in the other semi-final where Ersan Ilyasova started to play like the all-star we’ve been expecting for the past couple of years.

Then it got really interesting in Spain when DKV coach Aito Garcia Reneses dropped a bombshell and we half-feared national team boss Pepu Hernandez to drop another.

Aito made the surprise announcement that he was stepping down at Badalona “because the time was right”.

Despite being at the helm of an exciting, well-supported team that includes arguably the biggest name in Europe right now, Ricky Rubio, Aito was leaving?

Then Pepu, who always looks as if he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, called a press conference at 6pm.

I and a lot of other people thought, “Uh oh. Pepu’s going to quit and Aito’s going to replace him.”

Pepu, it’s well known, has had strained relations with the FEB and the climate got even worse when he made the surprise announcement that he would step down after the Olympics.

I was guilty of bad math. 1+1 does not equal 3.

Pepu on Wednesday announced he was going nowhere and that he would remain in charge through the Olympics, but admitted to having felt “persecuted” by the Spanish Basketball Federation.

Pepu’s problems have festered since the last EuroBasket, I think.

I suspect he may not have liked all of the media and/or marketing commitments that some of his players had when he wanted them to focus on playing basketball at the EuroBasket.

Pepu set the record straight at his presser.

“I am not at war with anyone,” he said.

“I want to end my cycle with the national team which will happen after Beijing.

“I do feel at times persecuted by the federation, though. I have been linked with several clubs and then this week, when I didn’t attend a meeting that the federation knew I couldn’t attend, well, it’s been a hard week.

“I hope next week will be a calm one so that we can prepare for the task we face.”

Don’t be surprised if the 61-year-old Aito is the Spain coach once Pepu leaves, though.

Thursday was crazy.

At the Slovenia press conference, national team boss Ales Pipan announced Lottomatica Roma center Erazem Lorbek would not play this summer at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens.

It may be his best chance to play at the Olympics, yet he’s not going to go for it?

“Erazem is tired,” Pipan said. “His season still hasn't finished and he has some back problems.

“Erazem will be without a contract at Roma and he may even leave the club.

“He said he will maybe go to the USA during the summer and play for Indiana in the NBA summer league and perhaps get a contract there.”

This is just the beginning of the hot summer...