It will certainly be interesting to see how the home Germans will deal with the Greek team, where everything, including the referees’ favor, revolves around Janis Adetokunbo in Tuesday’s quarter-finals. But Czech players can only see that on TV with a bitter feeling that they could do more in this year’s championship. Without knowing the context, just two wins from six games is obviously disappointing, but there are many different but…
Even if you don’t play sports, you still think that you just messed up your luck with the national team. The Czechia surprised three years ago with a sixth-place finish at the World Championship and promotion to the Olympics, and it has also had fluctuating luck on its side.
The highlight is the European Championship, the main part of which is played by the representatives in the O2 arena of Prague, which has been dreamed of by generations of basketball players for many years. But here bad luck began to cling to the Czech’s heels. The first problem was caused by the covid-induced one-year postponement of the tournament, because after all, the main pillars of the national team have aged and lost a bit of speed and accuracy.
However, the preparation for this year’s championship began with hope, the national team was complete, but in mid-August, an unlucky move by Tomáš Satoranský during the preparation for the tournament in Hamburg was enough to change all. The playmaker is missing more than anyone wants to admit.
When Jaromír Bohačík fell ill with covid shortly before the championship and a rib muscle injury limited Vít Krejčí for most of the pre-tournament season, the national team began to crumble mentally. In addition, he is tied to the house by stage fright and the pressure of expectations.
Tomáš Kyzlink in the match against GreecePicture: Michael SohnČTK/AP
In the end, it was Satoranský who showed that he can go to the limit of self-destruction when he has to play for the Czechia. Only when, as he said, he no longer had to play on one leg, was he valid for the team. In him, the great inner strength of the whole team, the much-admired fighting spirit and strong will, awakened.
But it is too late for the basketball players to avoid undefeated Greece in the round of 16 and give themselves a friendlier match against Ukraine or Croatia. After all, the Poles and the Finns advanced with these units. But how unpredictable European basketball is, the first round of the playoffs and the elimination of the Serbs showed.
The superpower wanted to return to the throne of Europe after twenty years and ended the tournament as early as Czechia, but it could not be a great consolation and it could not remove the feeling of the fans that a great opportunity was wasted. Every match of the national team, even because of the wonderful atmosphere, remained a great experience, only the joy of victory could be more.