FIBA WC Diary: Day 10 from Istanbul

Previously in this blog, I've mentioned the great atmospheres created by the Lithuanian, Spain and Greek fans at this FIBA World Championship.

Well, as great as those groups were, they were only a warm-up for seeing my first game involving hosts Turkey.

They came decked out in red and white, draped the national flag over their shoulders and the railings, painted the star and crescent on their faces and sang. Man, did they sing.

Though Turkey is a country divided by a referendum vote on Sunday, the day of the gold medal game in Istanbul, regarding changes to the country's constitution on judiciary and military power, the crowd of 15,500 in the Sinan Erdem Dome stood and sang as one.

The singing of Twelve Giant Men - the team's theme song created before the 2001 EuroBasket tournament in Turkey - started soon after Slovenia blew out the Australia Boomers in the night's earlier eighth-final and continued long after Ersan Ilyasova, Hedo Turkoglu and Semih Erden left the floor after taking apart France 95-77.

The Turk belted out the national anthem and then sang in unison. All it would take was one fan to start up a chant and away they went, producing the decibel levels you could only dream of crowds producing in New Zealand.

It demonstrated how much Europeans love their basketball, even though football is still the number one sport in Turkey. The local volunteers tell us basketball is gaining ground, even if it will never overtake the beautiful game.

So with Twelve Giant Men ringing in my ears, here's a few more fast-break points from Istanbul:

- I braved the Team USA mixed zone media scrum before the Tall Blacks-Russia game yesterday hoping to get some comment about New Zealand, just in case they won their eighth-final and I needed some quotes for a preview story. The Young Americans had just crushed Angola 123-66 to advance to the quarterfinals, so were in probably the best mood possibly.

- Managed to get a couple questions to assistant coach Nate McMillan, guard Stephen Curry, centre Tyson Chandler and forward Kevin Love, mainly about the New Zealand team. McMillan, as is probably his job, was the only one who knew much about the Tall Blacks. Chandler did say he had seen part of one of New Zealand's preliminary round games but could not talk much about what they liked to do. Either that, or they didn't want to.

- The FIBA One World Dancers from Ukraine did a routine to Patea Maori Club's Poi E during the Tall Blacks' eighth-final against Russia. It was a little surreal, but not really Maori-like in any way.

- Team USA exploded in their first knockout game against Angola, showing speed, athleticism and jumping ability no other team here has replicated. There's still questions over whether Coach K's young team can be rattled by more physical defences - like they'll see against Russia in the quarterfinals - but if they run the floor and shoot the three like they did vs Angola, it's going to take near-perfection to deny them gold.

- A couple more last notes on Team USA: You see them on TV during NBA season all the time but it was still a little surprising to see how tall Lamar Odom and Kevin Durant are. Or maybe it was just because they were beside Chauncey Billups? Also Stephen Curry got a close-up look at the Red Foxes - the Ukrainian dance group banned from performing during Turkey's games - after the USA timeout huddle broke early with the dancers still performing near the bench.

- If you've seen any game from Istanbul and wondering where I've been sitting, the press tribune is behind the basket at one end. It stretches past the sidelines on both sides and up to the top of the lower level seating. It accomodates between 400 and 500 reporters, photographers and other media - more people than show up to your average New Zealand NBL game - and more HD TV screens than JB Hifi.

- My hotel manager ended up not betting on the Tall Blacks-Russia eighth-final. He liked Russia but couldn't bet against New Zealand.

- The Australian Boomers did not do much right on-court in their heavy loss to Slovenia in the eighth-finals. However, I did like the way the players lined up for the national anthem, arm-in-arm and in a tight group. An Australian colleague, working for FIBA, thinks the Boomers should get rid of coach Brett Brown for his poor record the last two years, but with the 2011 Oceania Championship deciding the one spot for the 2012 London Olympics, I'm hoping that doesn't happen.

- The Dome was only a quarter-full for USA-Angola game and less stuck around to watch New Zealand-Russia. Going head-to-head with a U2 concert at the nearby Olympic football stadium, which drew 50,000-plus, didn't help. It seems the people of Istanbul love a whiny Irishman more than they love freakishly tall 'ballers.

- Felt bad for Angolans. It was obvious mid-way through the first period that they couldn't hang at all with the Americans. The what-do-we-do-now look on the Angola coach during a first-quarter scoring run summed it up.

- Breaking news announcement: A new player name has shot to the top of the favourite name list - Vladimir Jeronimo. Sounds like a Russian with Native American ancestry. He actually played for Angola.

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Jason   #1   11:23 pm Sep 15 2010

Hi Scott,

Didn't realise it was your birthday, otherwise would made sure of a birthday round. Thanks for all your write-up's and joining the fun and frenzy following our boys.

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