The Olimpia EuroLeague season kicked off in October, in Munich, when no one would have ever imagined that the two teams facing that night at the Audi Dome, behind strictly closed doors, would be protagonists of one of the most exciting playoff series of all time. On the morning of the game, Olimpia went to the arena for its usual game-day shootaround. The door was closed, someone had to open it. It was Zach LeDay who knocked vigorously and introduced himself. A weird image. The door was opened. It is a picture that explains the Milan season.
CHAPTER 1: THE THREE
In a battle with no holds barred, very hard, Olimpia immediately won its debut in Munich. It was the first of 10 road wins, clear proof of a season without no home court advantage. The decisive field goal was scored during the overtime by Shavon Shields. Shields’ heroism was the prelude to a superb season from an individual standpoint, but it didn’t say much about a debut in which he was pretty much under his considerable standard. His jumper was assisted by Malcolm Delaney’s drive. Then the defense held on to the decisive possession. Three-pointers and defense. Two of Olimpia’s best weapons throughout the season.
CHAPTER 2: THE COMEBACK
Olimpia has won its first two games of the season. The second against Asvel Villeurbanne left a trail of fear within the group. In the hours following the game, the French team reported several cases of Covid-19 and for twenty days it no longer played in the EuroLeague. Fortunately, Olimpia came out unscathed from the clash with Asvel, then faced the first double round of the season. No EuroLeague team can go anywhere if they are unable to manage the double rounds in the best possible way. Olimpia ended up playing 10 double round which amounted to 20 games, 13 of which has been won. In its first double round game of the season, Milan lost in Athens to Olympiacos and two days later found itself up against a team it had lost 14 games against, Real Madrid, at home. It’s hard to remember today, but Olimpia faced that game with no Kevin Punter and no Vlado Micov. The first was injured on his Serie A debut in Reggio Emilia, the second during the Super Cup final. Punter played his first game on November 18 against Red Star, Micov two weeks earlier in Valencia. But in that Real Madrid game, it happened that Malcolm Delaney, after less than five minutes into the game, seriously injured his ankle and fell on an opponent’s foot. Down by three players, legitimately three starters, Olimpia slipped down by 14 points on three different moments, the last one with 24 seconds remaining in the first half. Sergio Rodriguez’s field goal at the buzzer closed the first half and started a sensational comeback. Olimpia won the second half with an amazing 47-28 score. Rodriguez, six years spent at Real Madrid, a Madrid guy essentially, scored 25 points in that game, some of his field goals were pure poetry.
CHAPTER 3: THE POINT GUARD
With no Delaney and the need to protect Sergio Rodriguez’s energies, Coach Ettore Messina did not hesitate to hand the ball, in particular situations, to Kyle Hines. A center that brings the ball up is unusual, but Hines is an unusual center, not just for its height, but also for his ability to handle the ball, his intelligence, and the ability to be a facilitator. When defenses anticipate the ball handlers, trying to force the ball into other hands, Hines didn’t hesitate to embrace the role himself. There were times when, on the last possession of a quarter, Hines brought the ball up himself and then kicked it to the open man. It happened in Munich on the debut, and it happened in Moscow against Khimki for example. The receiver? Gigi Datome.
CHAPTER 4: THE JUMPER
The second road win of the season came in Tel Aviv. There was something special in the air that day because this statistic continued to circulate among the local media, these 33 years since Olimpia’s last win on that arena. Although Maccabi did not reach the playoffs at the end of the season, that game was considered at the time to be a key head-to-head between two teams of similar status. The game proved to a battle that was resolved after an overtime. There were so many unforgettable moments, all of them worth remembering: Kevin Punter’s four-point play that tied the game at the end of regulation; the bomb from the corner made by Malcolm Delaney during the overtime, the one added by Sergio Rodriguez with 31 seconds to go, giving the lead back to Olimpia, and finally with three seconds remaining Delaney’s prodigious mid-range jumper to seal the win. “I had a size advantage over Scottie Wilbekin and just wanted to take him to one of my favorite spots. That’s what I did, I took a shot I’m confident I can make,” he explained. Only he had Wilbekin’s hand on his face and he had to complete a body twist to take that shot. A fantastic jumper.
CHAPTER 5: THE SWEEP
In mid-December, Olimpia embarked on a five-day trip to Istanbul at the end of a merciless portion of the schedule with three consecutive road games, the first in Barcelona lost after a big Barcelona’s comeback in the fourth quarter. There are moments that can make or break a season. Olimpia played two games showing big heart in Istanbul. Against Fenerbahce it was supposed to be the Gigi Datome Night. Had there been people in the stands, it would have been a memorable night. Olimpia dominated that game by taking a commanding 20-point lead at the end of the third quarter with a Datome huge three. Eventually, the gap was narrowed to eight points. This game also contained a lesson: in the EuroLeague nothing is granted to anyone. Fenerbahce in December was not the team it became later in the season and was able to get its revenge in Milan. That evening in Istanbul, the margin could have been bigger. Two days later, on the other side of the city, Olimpia beat Efes who had just lost by 35 points in Moscow. “It is the worst situation because we meet a very talented and deeply angry team,” Ettore Messina underlined the day before. The game was weird. Olimpia dominated it in the first half, struggled enormously in the third quarter scoring just six points, then won it by coming back from six points down. With some spectacular plays: Kyle Hines’ two blocks on Moerman and Micic as a rim protector, the second of which generated Sergio Rodriguez’s breakaway lay-up, giving back the lead for good. Shortly before, Kevin Punter had closed the deficit with a nine-meter three and then he scored the jumper to extend the lead to four points. Olimpia left Turkey in December with a new awareness of its potential.
CHAPTER 6: THE PERFECT STORM
“You see, now they will sweep the streets.” When Olimpia played their first match of the second round in Madrid, they should have stayed two nights. The weather did not bode well and when the team got on the bus to head to the WiZink Center it was already snowing heavily. A minimum of concern began to meander because in fact there were no snowplows or salt spreaders. Madrid was just witnessing the perfect storm. “You will see that now they sweep”. But no, they didn’t sweep the streets and so the group found itself locked in the team hotel for two more days, with a home game against Valencia scheduled for the following Tuesday. On Sunday evening, with no alternatives, the group struggled to the Atocha train station and traveled for nearly three hours to Valencia. Here the team practiced on Monday on the court of the following opponents and with another flight it returned to Milan. The five days of camping in Spain cemented the group, as many have said. True or false, Olimpia beat Real in Madrid, and it happened before the Perfect Storm materialized.
CHAPTER 7: THE STREAK
The win in Madrid opened a streak of six consecutive wins, interrupted by Asvel just before winning the Italian Cup, in a game played without Sergio Rodriguez. In EuroLeague, streaks like this leave their mark, because it can always happen to stumble on a negative one. As Chacho Rodriguez said from day one, “what matters is how you react to difficult moments, because they always happen in a season like this”. Olimpia responded by winning four of the next five games. Kaunas’ success was what effectively eliminated Zalgiris from the playoff race. The one in Moscow let the team approached the homestretch in an unexpected position.
CHAPTER 8: THE SHOW
Olimpia won in Moscow for the first time since 2010 by playing a sensational 30-10 dominating first quarter. Then the margin was protected from any comeback attempt. Kevin Punter’s two three-pointers at the end of the second quarter were deadly. Punter in that game scored 32 points, a true shooting and athletic show. 32 points over 30 minutes, 9-for-9 from the line, represented an amazing game for a player who up until his senior season in college was not considered by anyone a top-level prospect.
CHAPTER 9: THE CLINCH
At the beginning of the year, it was thought that the playoffs barrier was placed at 18 wins, then over time the goal was moved up to 19 and finally to 20. Olimpia sought its 20th win out in Vitoria against a team in top shape, then stayed on the road – eight days, total – to play in Venice and move with the pressure of the close but not yet conquered goal to Belgrade and then Athens. Olimpia erased all doubts by immediately winning clearly in Belgrade against Red Star in a game played with great determination and courage. “They started to doubt you, you responded with a very tough game, congratulations,” Coach Messina told the group in the Asa Nikolic Hall locker room.
CHAPTER 10: THE PLAY AND THE BLOCK
The inbound play with 1.2 seconds to play that gave Olimpia the win over Bayern in Game 1 had already been successfully executed against CSKA. In that particular situation, Kyle Hines was fouled and his 1-for-2 from the line forced the overtime. Against Bayern, “The Play” worked perfectly. With so little time to play you know you will have no second chances, you will never be able to rebound the ball, you will not be able to dribble, you will only be able to receive the ball and shoot it, which is still better than just being able to score on an alley-oop pass. But the alley-oop move was all Olimpia needed. Let’s watch the play: Malcolm Delaney makes a huge, long pass for Zach LeDay and LeDay is great at controlling the ball and redirecting it to the backboard. This is what everybody saw. Behind the play, we have: Sergio Rodriguez’s “decoy” movement, which uses Kyle Hines’ screen to give the feeling to the defense that the play is in fact for his pul-lup jumper. Instead, Rodriguez does not receive the pass, and moves to the weak side where Zach LeDay is positioned. Hines stops two opponents with a single screen and allows Rodriguez and LeDay to play two against one. Bayern defender Jalen Reynolds chooses to stay with Rodriguez and thus exposes himself to LeDay’s backdoor cut. How many things had to go well? Olimpia had a timeout saved for this kind of emergency play; Delaney made a perfect pass over three defenders, with the coolness to use all the time available; LeDay had to cut right, receive, and finish correctly; Rodriguez and Punter crossed paths to keep the defense busy and create two different options; Hines has set an amazing screen to facilitate the work of his teammates. That made two was validated in terms of importance by the series triumph, that was made possible in Game 5 by Kyle Hines’ closing seconds of the game. Two points ahead, on Wade Baldwin’s penetration, he erected a wall on which the opponent shattered. Then Hines won the jump ball and tipped it to Shavon Shields to finish the job.
