Over the crowd of journalists, a multilingual stream spreading at the edge of the site in the last minutes of CSKA training, Daniel Santiago's wise gaze shone from under the expensive glasses. Perhaps there would have been no trouble with the retina of the Puerto Rican center eye, the theme of Unicaja's weaknesses would not have surfaced in numerous announcements of semifinals. The already obvious advantage of the Muscovites front line immediately became overwhelming, so enormous that it made it possible to predict the result of the first semi-final with almost one hundred percent certainty. For example, bookmakers are ready to pay you 7 rubles for a ruble bet if a club from Malaga breaks into the finals. How many daredevils are there to risk?
After all, after Santiago, another “big” one fell out of order - Marco Tushek, and in a recent training session, a couple of teeth were knocked out by the only “surviving" center, short, but working Iñaki De Miguel. We can safely expect that Smodis, Andersen, Savrasenko and Van den Spiegel will not experience any special problems.
Probably no one takes CSKA tricks seriously, but you can still make your opponents a little nervous. While Sergio Scariolo racked his brains over how to fill the Mariana Trench under the shields, the army team threw him another task in the back line, releasing David Vanterpool to the court. The defender recovering from an injury, unlike the “civilian” Santiago, slowly ran in a training form, practicing throws under the watchful eye of Evgeny Pashutin. It didn’t work out very well. “We need to get a couple of times for credibility,” said CSKA Vice President Andrei Vatutin. - Here! Got it! Good. Let them be afraid. ” It’s unlikely that the Spaniards would tremble, but even if one nerve faltered, Vanterpool, obviously not ready to play, became an additional trump card.
“Unicaja” has one trump card - the same one that Vanterpool actually came to. Marcus Brown, the holder of the second line in the list of snipers for the history of the Euroleague, seems to be gradually returning the form lost due to injury and is preparing to trouble the team that refused his services in the summer of 2005. Marcus joked, greeted old acquaintances and told reporters banality about how he would play against the ex-employer. To read what is going on in his thoughts in reality, obviously, will succeed only on Friday night.
When the journalists disciplinedly reached the exit, obeying the strict Euroleague rules, Ettore Messina, who agreed with the Apennine reporters, returned to the site. It turned out that the CSKA coach appeared on purpose to pose for photojournalists - he really failed to speak with compatriot Sergio Scariolo. Seeing the handshake of the Italians, dozens of cameras instantly formed around them, having begun to capture an episode of a meeting of old friends. Ettore and Sergio did not protest - on the contrary, they froze in the position that satisfied politicians usually demonstrate after signing important documents ...
Messina said the phrase of the day earlier at a pre-tournament press conference. “I'm wearing the same tie that I wore at last year’s Final Four,” the coach boasted. - It makes sense. We, Italians and Greeks, are very superstitious. And this is also a way to remind yourself that what happened a year ago is no more. This is my last day as the Euroleague champion. Maybe soon I will feel better, but now I’m starting from scratch. ”
... Santiago finally broke out of the company of chatty Spanish reporters, waiting for the appearance of teammates, and went to the site. Do not train - rather, he looked like an assistant Sergio Scariolo. Along the way, Daniel turned for some reason, and, like an old acquaintance, approached Anton Ponkrashov, who was completing the interview, with whom he had never even met on the floor. Perhaps to check the strength of the hands of Russian hope?
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH, Athens