The 33 years since the last win in Tel Aviv, the first triumpg in Madrid in the EuroLeague, the first win in Moscow after 11 years or in Istanbul against Efes after 15 straight defeats. These are some of the streaks shattered in what amounted to be an unexpected EuroLeague season. But the most unexpected broken streak was the one killed in Game 5 of the playoffs. It took 29 years for Olimpia to return to a Final Four. The last one was dated 1992, Mike D’Antoni was a second-year coach, very far from his glorious NBA career, the center was the great Darryl Dawkins, who suddenly left us almost six years ago, on the court we had Piero Montecchi, Antonello Riva, Riccardo Pittis, Davide Pessina, Johnny Rogers. A lifetime has passed. An anomaly has been canceled. In Cologne, at the end of May, Olimpia will be there, on the court.
Kyle Hines, the man who has won four European championships, had said so since day one. “I’m here to bring EuroLeague glory back to Milan, to win titles and raise trophies,” was his mission statement. He was not the only one to speak out. Malcolm Delaney frightened everyone when he immediately said that “at this point in my career, on an individual level I have done pretty much everything I wanted, but I miss the European title.” And the more prudent Gigi Datome had found similarities between the Milan project and that of Fenerbahce when he arrived in Istanbul in 2015. “We are here to build something, which is what they asked of us in those days”. Building a culture is what Sergio Rodriguez has always emphasized along the sense of responsibility necessary to best represent Milan, the Armani group, and the history of Olimpia. “At this point in my career, there is no place I would like to be more than this,” he said. And after all, even Ettore Messina and Christos Stavropoulos are not new to these levels. The Coach is about to be part of his eleventh Final Four experience, the general manager will taste his seventh.
The goal was to reach the playoffs, a big step compared to Olimpia recent history, seven years removed from its last playoff game, played in Tel Aviv, but this team has won a lot of prestigious battles and was able to avoid the temptation to settle for something less. “The club’s goal – Coach Ettore Messina said immediately after Game 5 win – is to return to the playoffs next year, to give consistency to the improvements”. Vlado Micov in recent years had never hidden that he considered a failure not to reach the playoffs. Maybe it was not, but he wanted it to be, he didn’t want to settle for less. Micov last season, in Valencia, made the buzzer-beating three that had fueled the hope of being able to get the playoffs already in 2020 in what proved to be the season last game. The playoffs in 2020 were not played by anyone. That’s why, technically, Sergio Rodriguez and Kyle Hines will step on the Final Four stage as defending champions, since they were part of the CSKA Moscow 2019 title team. CSKA is a club that has played 16 Final Fours in 17 years. Identifying when this qualification was born is subjective. Everyone has their own answer. The five days spent in the Madrid bunker, buried by snow, the perfect storm, including the evening trip to Valencia in search of an airport from which to finally return to Italy; the eight-day trip in search of a playoff berth, clinched finally in Belgrade; or maybe it happened after one of the many road wins, an incredible 10. But above everything else, we have a group of guys. Just look at the individual statistics: there are no Milan players at the top. Nobody has won the Player of the Month award. Only Kevin Punter was MVP of the week, in Round 28, and he was Co-MVP along with Vasa Micic. Shavon Shields was named Game 5’s MVP, right when a heroism was most needed. All individual goals were historic goals, the result of longevity, seriousness, commitment.
Kaleb Tarczewski had his eyes shining when he became the first player in Olimpia history to appear in over 100 games in the top European competition. Shortly after, Vlado Micov crossed the same line. And in the meantime, Kyle Hines, Sergio Rodriguez, Gigi Datome celebrated other accomplishments, and the young guy, ready to absorb the leadership of the veterans, learned how to follow the same path. Shavon Shields in Munich, Round 1 of the regular season, scored the winning three; Zach LeDay in Milan, Game 1 of the playoffs, made the winning shot that sealed Olimpia first playoff win since 2014. Malcolm Delaney made the winning shot in Tel Aviv and assisted LeDay in Game 1 of the quarterfinals. During the playoffs, his numbers have soared compared to the regular season. There is the “Regular Season Delaney” and the “Playoff Delaney”. Kevin Punter scored 32 points, his career-record, in Moscow against CSKA. This year no one has scored more in Milan, until Shields made 34 huge points in Game 5. The play designed by Coach Ettore Messina to score with 1.2 seconds to play against Bayern in Game 1 has garnered worldwide acclaim from coaches or on social media. But when he deflected praise on his players during the press conference, he meant exactly what he said: one detail is enough to make a play successful or make the same idea irrelevant. The same play was executed against CSKA at home. Kyle Hines had received the ball and was fouled. He made one free throw to force the extra time in which Olimpia was unable to complete the job and so nobody talked again about it. At the same time, Delaney’s great pass for LeDay and his acrobatic shot were keys, but it should also be noted the screen with which Kyle Hines stopped two players and allowed the others to outnumber the defense. Small gestures, great results.
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During the series with Bayern all favorable statistics circulated and for this reason were very worrying. The team with the home court advantage – a obviously relative advantage, this season – had won 35 best-of-five series out of 44, before this year’s playoffs; the winning team of Game 1 was 37-7 and then – increasingly disturbing – no team that went 2-0 had lost a best-of-five series in the EuroLeague. So, Olimpia and Efes found themselves playing Game 5 knowing they were on the right side of the story, but at the same time knowing that all the streaks are meant to be broken (Barcelona had the home-court advantage too, but they didn’t lead the series 2-0).
In Cologne, Olimpia will arrive with a 3-3 record against the other qualifiers, but 0-2 against its first opponent, Barcelona, two games lost both by 16 points and yet very different. In Barcelona, Olimpia had been ahead up until three minutes left, in Milan, Olimpia trailed throughout the game. Olimpia is number 4 on the seeding; the teams in Cologne have all had more wins during the season than Olimpia. This too explains the correct picture of how good it is to be there.
