Luckily Shabazz Napier took Olimpia Milano by the hand
[ad_1]
Since the point guard’s arrival, Messina’s team has forgotten many of its problems, above all it has started playing and winning: 8 of the last 9 Euroleague matches. Now we need to continue like this (tonight and Thursday) to reach the playoffs: only two months ago they were a mirage
Last January 23, Ettore Messina wrote a letter that almost tasted like a declaration of surrender. It doesn’t happen often, in today’s basketball, that a coach addresses directly “the fans, rightly disappointed and disoriented by the worst period of the last three years” during the current season. Calling himself “the first responsible for building and managing the team: now our goal is to help players regain confidence in their own ability. It won’t be a short or easy journey.”
Five days later, the point guard Shabazz Napier signed with Olimpia Milano. And it happened that that team, “which fights in defense and clearly suffers in attack” – Messina could only resort to a euphemism – gradually begins to turn. On January 31st he found the first European victory of his 2023, in a tight final against Baskonia at the Assago Forum. It is repeated on February 2, overcoming Red Star Belgrade. Then the subsequent blackout in the Italian Cup gives the impression of yet another flash in the pan, of a year that started badly and was destined to end worse. The difference is that number 13 is now on the court, who ended up spending the winter in Mexico but with proven NBA pedigree. Napier is almost 32 years old, this is his second European experience after a spell at Zenit St. Petersburg. And that’s enough for him.
Today Milan is back from eight victories in the last nine continental races. And from a mattress team that it was it suddenly turned into a loose cannon of the tournament. Back up the slums, playoffs just one point away, four more races available to hit a qualification that is complicated to define: in the summer it was considered the minimum wage, as things turned out it would have been sensational.
No Euroleague formation has done better since Napier arrived. The boy takes heavy shots, scores and above all scores, unlocking the rest of his teammates as if a fundamental cog had been missing up to now in the toy built by Armani and Messina. Voigtmann appears regenerated, Luwawu-Cabarrot is revving up, the real Tonut has finally arrived. And at home Olimpia is also emptying the infirmary, starting with the talent of Shavon Shields.
That’s already two months to frame. Taking these nine games, Milan scored 84 points on average, conceding 75: the worst attack in the whole Euroleague became the fifth from the top (with a projection of 2,520 points over all games played: just 10 less than leaders Olympiakos) ; the best defense remained the best defense. Simply, the team now works. The Forum watches Napier and sings “Mvp, mvp”. In the last two, against Fenerbahce and Bayern, he scored 46 points.
Tonight Olimpia faces reigning champions Anadolu Efes in Istanbul, effectively a playoff tie-breaker. Thursday will be on stage in Tel Aviv against Maccabi. Another two weeks (Barcelona at home, Virtus Bologna away) and the regular season ends. Milan must win them all and hope – even three out of four could be enough, with a lucky interlocking of different rankings. “It doesn’t happen,” Messina said. “But if it happens…” that letter of harsh realism will have brought good luck. To Napier the honor of taking it, crumpling it and throwing it in the trash. Basket that too, for sure.
[ad_2]
Source link
