How a Danish fairy tale is coming to life: the incredible story behind the mother of all upsets

VILNIUS (Lithuania) - In many regards, this is an editorial layup. Describing a genuine Cinderella story of Denmark beating Lithuania in Vilnius as a fairy tale, and connecting it to Denmark, the land of the fairy tales.

But that's the beauty of basketball, sometimes a dunk is just better than a layup - even if they count the same. 

To add some spice to the story - enter, stage left, Mathias Bak Christensen.

"I mean it's pretty common in Denmark that the basketball players are not full-time professionals," head coach Erez Bittman explained. "Most of the guys we have here are professionals, but we have some that work or study, and then they play basketball and maybe get a little bit of money for that, so they don't have to also have to have a part-time job next to studying. But some of them work full-time and they play at the same time."

Mathias not only played part-time, but also quit basketball for a period of time because it just wasn't giving him the joy he had as a kid. Keep in mind, Christensen is only 25 now.

"I HAD TO TAKE ONE STEP BACK TO TAKE TWO STEPS FORWARD."

"I made my debut when I was 16, but never really felt like I got that huge break that I wanted. Two years ago, I actually quit basketball for two or three months and I wasn't planning on starting to play again," Christensen explained. "But then some of my friends wanted me to come join them in the second division just for fun, two times a week. I played one game there and I was like, 'Oh, this is not for me.'

"Another friend called me to play three times a week, just to have fun, to get some of that joy back. I went there, played 10 games and then got called up for the national team one-and-a-half-years ago, so it was crazy!"

Sounds like a perfect time for one wisdom-filled sentence.

"I had to take one step back to take two steps forward," Mathias added.

But it wasn't just a couple of steps forward. It was like 500 miles forward, and 500 more, as Christensen stabbed the dagger against Lithuania featuring the likes of Mantas Kalnietis and Mindaugas Kuzminskas by picking up 13 points while going 3-of-4 from beyond the arc in an 80-76 win, the most memorable win in the history of Danish basketball.

"Nobody expected us to win this game yesterday! But we believed in ourselves and we've been in tough situations before. We spoke before the game that if we're close after the first half, after the third quarter, then they'll start to get a little bit nervous and we can take advantage of it. But obviously, it's a surprise for us, but it's probably a bigger surprise for everybody else. Yeah, it's all just awesome," he smiled.

When upsets like these happen in basketball, it's usually because the bigger named team start the game underestimating the opponent. Then, they find themselves trailing by 10. Then, the whole game becomes like trying to get out of quicksand. This one, however, had a different timeline.

"We were down by like, 10-2? We probably believed that if we're going to win that game, then we had to come off to a great start, to kind of catch them off guard, but that didn't happen - we just kind of got into our rhythm and actually found out throughout the game that we can play with these guys and they're not that much better than us. We played a close game against the Czech Republic in February and now we proved once again that we're here, and we're here to stay."

The part of it being the biggest win in Danish history is not up for debate, if you ask Christensen.

"There's no doubt that this is the biggest one! Obviously, I haven't been part of any other major victories, but I'm pretty certain that this ranks at the top. The guys beat Germany a couple years ago, which was a really, really huge game for us back home, but this is by far the biggest one of them."

Mathias' short term retirement wasn't followed with an "I'm back" telegram to the media. Instead, if was followed with a passionate path just to get to that lucky couple of minutes of standing in line before the game and listening to the Danish anthem with DANMARK written on his chest.

"Personally, it's been a hell of a ride. One-and-a-half years ago, when I joined the team, I was in the 16-man roster and I was right on the edge of the team for the first three games against Belarus and Albania. And then I got to play in the last game and it was a huge, huge step in my career and something I was really proud of. But I wanted to prove that I really belonged, and I just kept on fighting and then in the last window, I got selected to the 12-man roster against Czech Republic, I got on the court for like seven seconds or something like that," he said.

We checked - it was 12 seconds.

"I wasn't really happy about that. I wanted to contribute. Unfortunately, we lost the game and then I wasn't selected for the next game against Belgium, which was a huge blow for me. But yeah, I knew back then that I could compete here, so to get on the court (against Lithuania) and really prove to everybody that that I belonged here… it's something I'll never forget. It's unbelievable."

Lithuania, the perennial medal contender in all major events, defeated by a 25-year-old coming out of retirement and the rest of the team Denmark. "Unbelievable" doesn't even begin to describe it.

"WE PLAYED A CLOSE GAME AGAINST THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN FEBRUARY AND NOW WE PROVED ONCE AGAIN THAT WE'RE HERE, AND WE'RE HERE TO STAY."- Christensen

"I'm so glad that I decided to pull the plug two years ago. That was the best decision I could make. I lost a lot of confidence when I was playing back home. Changed the clubs and then figured that I'm actually able to maybe go do something with my basketball. Went to Sweden and had a pretty decent season; not the best but yes, it was good for me to go somewhere else and actually be someone else, instead of always playing for the same club."

Mathias Bak Christensen spent the first eight years of his professional career with Team FOG Naestved, then went to Vaerlose BK and to KFUM Nassjo before switching back to Vaerlose. Perfect place for his mindset.

"We're all studying on the side, working on the side. (Basketball) is not a full-time job for me this season. Even though (Vaerlose) is not as professional as other places, right now it's perfect for me, because I'm able to kind of have that mental advantage," he said.

"I just feel like I can take on anything right now, whereas when I played back in my home city, I was just stressed out all the time, had to go back and forth, spending like three or four hours every day on transport and when I didn't get to play, that was kind of tough. So right now I'm playing, I'm playing a lot, we're doing well and obviously, it's a lot different playing back home than it is here, so it's kind of crazy when you think about it."

It's still too soon to talk about Christensen focusing back on basketball full time after just one good game, albeit against Lithuania in Vilnius. It's even harder to talk about his future moves in his club career. But it's not hard at all to imagine Denmark pulling off an upset or two again, and booking a ticket to the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Final Round.

That sentence sounds like make-believe world, even for a country that gave us Hans Christian Andersen.

"That would be incredible," Mathias Bak Christensen sighed.

"It really would. I think most of us, when we saw the draw, we thought that we had to beat out Belgium for the last spot, since Czech Republic have already qualified and Lithuania are a powerhouse in European basketball. Belgium have proved everyone wrong and they look like clearly the best team in our group. So now Lithuania is the team to beat. That's kind of crazy to think about. Obviously we proved that we can play with them. Maybe they'll bring some other players next time, maybe they'll be a little bit more ready, but then again, they got off to a great start - it wasn't us who caught them off guard. So why shouldn't we be able to beat them again?"

Well, because basketball is sport number one in Lithuania, compared to being sport number 10 in Denmark, according to our sources from the Danish delegation?

"It's not the biggest sport, but it's grown a lot in popularity. They started showing the NBA on Danish television 12 years ago. Ever since then it's been growing and I have more and more friends who are starting to follow it. We still have some ways to go. Saw the news yesterday and unfortunately we still couldn't make it through to the sports news. They wrote a lot of articles about us, but yeah, we couldn't even get a small sentence on TV. There was just a little column at the bottom, while the reporter was talking. Nothing besides that."

"We'll just have to prove to everybody that basketball is actually a great sport, and if we end up going to the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, I think that everybody will take notice, even back home in Denmark. And then again, even though it didn't come up on the big Danish news channel, we've had a lot of reactions after this, so it's not like we feel like we're missing out on anything it's just to put it in perspective."

A win like this will certainly give Denmark a boost in the Power Rankings, too. Heading into the November window they were ranked 32nd among the 32 teams.

"We saw the Power Rankings as well, and it said that you should expect Lithuania to go 3-1 after this window. And we're dead last in the power ranking, so we just wanted to prove everybody wrong. And we did it in the best way possible. We spoke about it before the game. Some media in Denmark asked us about it - if we're here to really compete with those guys or if we're just here for the ride, and we took it all a little bit personal. But yeah, I don't even know if we needed the extra fuel. I think we were all pretty hyped up for a game like that," Christensen finished.

FIBA