Fenerbahçe lost to Valencia. Sarunas Jasikevicius said Valencia deserved to win, then came out with the line of the night, to Eurohoops: for the first time in his life he saw a team grab nine offensive rebounds in a single quarter, and he has never seen anything like it, as a coach, a player or a fan. “That is absolutely unacceptable.”
Nine. In one quarter. You know what I hear? I hear nine moments. Nine times an announcer could have picked up the mic.
Mesdames et messieurs, dames en heren… [jingle] … second chance for our guests tonight. And again. And again. At the fourth, I get the dinosaur out. At the sixth, I ask the caretaker to switch off half the lights, and he switches off the other half. At the ninth, the whole hall is screaming with me: make some noise for the offensive rebound!
He was on the bench opposite, and for him it was the opposite of a moment. He talked about a poor first half, a team that came back through its offence and not its defence, then final possessions that were played badly. He said the changes to rebound better had done nothing. I respect that. A coach who says “I’ve never seen anything like it” has already made an announcement, almost an entrance in the dark.
At our place, I never announce the offensive rebound. The sound system has no button for it. I’ve got a jingle for the three-pointer, one for the and-one, one for the time-out. For the ninth rebound of a quarter, nothing.
Just saying. But I’m going to cut one, just in case.
It’s true, we checked: Eurohoops.
