Lots Memories in Athens

May 17, 10:12 a.m. Traveling to the EuroLeague Final Four in Athens brought new feelings and old memories Here I was at the end of my first year in my new role as the Raptors assistant general manager. Naturally, my thoughts were of the season that had just passed. I even watched Game 6 of the Raptors-Nets series on Greek TV at 3 a.m. I couldn’t sleep afterwards. I remembered my first visit to Athens, 15 years ago, when I was walking nervously outside my hotel downtown in the middle of the night waiting to play our Final Four semifinal against PAOK Thessaloniki the following day. It was my first year as a general manager at Benetton Treviso and the feeling entering the arena was incredible. It was called the “Peace and Friendship Arena” but it didn’t feel that way with 16,000 Greek fans at full volume. I remember the noise, the smoke, the drumming and the shot with three seconds left that gave us a one-point win and made everything go quiet. I still remember going into the final and having the hero of the previous game, Maurizio Ragazzi, hurting his back in the warm-up. Our US-imported player, Terry Teagle, was suffering from plantar fascitis and had to take a shot to play. Still we were up by 10 at halftime over French champions Limoges. In the locker-room Terry told us he couldn’t play anymore, couldn’t feel one of his legs and he cried like a baby: we almost had no guards available. After a few questionable calls and the ball taken out of Toni Kukoc’s hands on the key play of the game, we ended up losing. I clearly remember all of us leaving that arena with tears in our eyes and realizing how close we had come to reaching our dream. It was one of the biggest disappointments in my basketball years. This year’s final was a close one, again in front of a very noisy crowd. Panathinaikos Athens beat CSKA Moscow 93-91 and it was a great battle between the two top teams in Europe today. I kind of felt very proud looking at the two benches as I had both coaches, Obradovic and Messina, working at Benetton in the past. I watched CSKA fighting the pressure of the game as well as that of the crowd and remembered the feeling of our own narrow loss, still so fresh 15 years later. Athens is not a place you forget. It’s a place where you watch a basketball game and then go to eat at the bottom of the Acropolis. The Parthenon is lit up and as you walk through the Plaka, the old part of town, you are surrounded by fans on the narrow streets. It is beautiful. There is unbelievable traffic, the beauty of the Olympic village and reminders of my new life. It felt like there were Raptors fans everywhere, eager to talk about our team. In Athens, the past stands side by side with the future.