The Daily Pita (Fresh from Athens) - Day Five and Six

A last "Kalimera" from the sunny city of Athens to all the basketball fans!

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - The three decisive games had to be played on the weekend and due to that, we had some time off in Athens to visit the beach, have Greek lunch and climb up to the Akropolis.
Fellow blogger Gustavo and our FIBA-man of the year Mathieu joined me in the morning to head for Alimou to enjoy the beautiful beach right there.
The Plaka was hosting us for a delicious lunch and the Akropolis was quite impressive as well, no wonder the Greeks are so proud about their national monuments.

But enough of our "vacation-activities", let's talk hoops:

Germany had a weak semi-final , it was tough to watch Nowitzki and Kaman doing it all while the rest of the team was probably thinking of a day on the beach rather then playing competitive ball. Demond Greene would not even made a basket if the basket hade the size of the subway entrance at Monastiraki, but he had the chance to give Germany the lead in the last seconds of the game and missed it. I could not understand why he was on the floor at crunch-time; Dirk Bauermann must have seen something in him that the rest of the people probably did not understand.
The game itself was not really attractive to watch, but Marko Tomas of Croatia had some really nice moments and due to his effort on the court, Croatia deserved to win.
The party for Hrvatska was on right after the game as the players celebrated on their way to their locker and probably later in a club in Athens as well.

Greece, who had the support of all their fans at OAKA, could not repeat their strong play from the previous day and gave Puerto Rico the chance to move to Beijing. Even without Carlos Arroyo, who sustained an injury early on, the Puerto Ricans where better then thought in the beginning but had trouble to keep the pace in the last two quarters and were outscored in the post by a hot "Big Sofo" who was sending his direct opponents to the bench (due to foul trouble) and the fans on their feet. With a superb Diamantidis, Greece never looked back and qualified easily for Beijing where I would also see them as real contenders for a medal , as they proved to be versatile on both ends as many players are able to step to provide fire power and to stay put on defense.
National-team coach Yiannakis was already scouting possible opponents Germany and Puerto Rico on the next day as the Olympic Games are just around the corner…

Germany's Steffen Hamann was the Bruce Banner of this Olympic Qualifying Tournament. He turned into Hulk at the right time and displayed an all-round game we are usually not able to see when he plays for his club-team in Germany. Hamann penetrated and elevated to the hoop at will and even hit his threes and free-throws to boost Germany to Beijing against a Puerto Rico-squad, which missed Arroyo desperately on the floor. Germany showed more motivation to win this final while Puerto Rico's JJ Barea was fighting to keep PR in the game, but could not get it done all by himself.
With Kaman and Nowitzki contributing as usual to the team's success story, Germany had a pretty good but not excellent tournament and meets fellow European teams Croatia and Greece in Beijing.

Now some side-notes regarding the last two days:

- The security as tightened up during the tournament. Each day, the organizers added unnecessary security around the court and in the catacombs of OAKA. Sometimes, these guys really gave me a hard time to move, as everyone of them wanted to be useful (Which means to control you on every step) although there was little to protect, as the fans stayed calm and friendly and the tournament was just perfect in terms of "fair-play" (Well, maybe Spanoulis should go to an anger-management course) and organization.

- The Puerto Rican media reminded me of Reggaeton-(Puerto Rican Rap/Dancehall) Stars as they definitely had the look of them. I was waiting for an on-court performance of the Yaga y Mackie look-a-likes but unfortunately nothing went down…

- I bought me, in an act of desperation (My hunger after the games on Saturday was nearly killing me), a sausage from the many stand surrounding the OAKA. All I can say is that my man Stelios at "President" in Irakleio makes the best Gyros Pita I ate. Sausages on the other hand, are nothing you should eat in Greece but in Germany.

- As fellow blogger Gustavo mentioned, I made my personal stats up for the last days: 0,47 PPG (Pita Per Game), 1,0 CPG (Coffee Per Game), 0,15 SPG (Salads Per Game) and 0,36 MPG (Mythos Per Game). No ground-breaking stats I guess, but remember I was on a diet….and gained probably three kilos during my week in Athens.

- During out time in Athens, we were not controlled on our way to OAKA or to the beach by Metro-security. I think we were the only ones, who paid the metro-tickets.

- The official Olympiakos-store near Monastiraki-station did not carry any basketball-related items…while all "unofficial" retailers were selling Schortsanitsis jerseys.

- Cabo Verde's team stayed the longest of all eliminated teams and even was attending the last game on Sunday.

- I had the chance to sit next to Barney (A quick hello to you buddy!) at the press seats in OAKA. Please check out his great website that is covering Greek sports daily.

That's it, no more Daily Pita from Athens, as the tournament is over. I want to thank the staff of Fiba.com (Especially Mathieu Dumaret for putting so much work into this blogging program) for having me in Athens, and say hello to all the people I've met in Athens like Gustavo (Don't get lost in Greece!), Goran (aka Predrag Danilovic), Gasper and friend (You guys looked tired on the last day), Tony L., Barney, Calliope, Stelios (That's him on the picture), Dragan (Stop working so hard), Janez (Keep up with running, maybe you make it to the Olympics) and the mysterious German fan…

I'm out like talking about toilets in Greece…