To introduce the 2017/18 Final Four, La Giornata Tipo worked with the Euroleague Basketball writing four ironic “average day”, one for each team. I had the great pleasure of helping with four illustrations.
Real Madrid Baloncesto
LUKA DONCIC
8 AM. Luka wakes up and jumps out from the cradle.
8.45 AM. Breakfast like every other morning: milk and cereals watching Tom & Jerry.
9.30 AM. It's Training Time! Grandpa Reyes has come to pick him up to go training.
10.30 AM. Team is doing shootaround, while Luka is dribbling ninepins and shooting to minibasket hoops.
10.55 AM. 5v5 training starts, but Luka is left on the bench. A guy from the staff brings him a lollipop just to pass the time.
11.15 AM. Coach Laso finally lets him play with the others, in 5 minutes: 16pts, 5/5 from 2pt, 2/2 from 3pt, 5 assists, 6 rebounds and 1 pump fake on Causeur, sending him directly to the bar where he needs to order a herbal tea to recover.
11.45 AM. Luka crashes on a Tavares screen: Rudy helps him to get back some of his ribs from the floor.
12.30 PM. Training is finished.
1.30 PM. Lunch at McDonalds with Radoncic: 2 happy meals.
3.00 PM. Fans stop Luka on the streets: “MVP!! MVP!!”. Luka’s answer: “Still a lot to do and to learn from players like Llull and Campazzo”. Mentality.
4.00 PM. It’s Training Time! Grandpa Reyes is late: Luka decides to grab his scooter.
4.15 PM. Traffic light: a bad guy driving a truck honks to Luka and swears because Luka didn’t let him overtake. Doncic calls Ayon for back-up.
4.16 PM. Ayon arrives.
4.17 PM. After meeting Ayon, the bad guy drove off at 240 Km/h and is already in Gibraltar.
5.30 PM. Afternoon Training starts.
6.00 PM. Free throw sessions between Luka and Jaycee Carroll. The first one who misses, will lose.
9.30 PM. The Gym keeper switches off the lights, and closes down the place. The match finishes 735 to 735.
10.35 PM. Luka starts to sleep like a baby.
1.20 AM. Luka is dreaming. He is playing on a basketball court: crossover, step-back, no-looks, buzzer-beaters... Everything with quality, talent and a big smile on his face, because basketball for him is pure enjoyment. He dreams to lead his team to the Final Four and battles for the season MVP trophy. And our dream is to see him play.
8.45 AM. Breakfast like every other morning: milk and cereals watching Tom & Jerry.
9.30 AM. It's Training Time! Grandpa Reyes has come to pick him up to go training.
10.30 AM. Team is doing shootaround, while Luka is dribbling ninepins and shooting to minibasket hoops.
10.55 AM. 5v5 training starts, but Luka is left on the bench. A guy from the staff brings him a lollipop just to pass the time.
11.15 AM. Coach Laso finally lets him play with the others, in 5 minutes: 16pts, 5/5 from 2pt, 2/2 from 3pt, 5 assists, 6 rebounds and 1 pump fake on Causeur, sending him directly to the bar where he needs to order a herbal tea to recover.
11.45 AM. Luka crashes on a Tavares screen: Rudy helps him to get back some of his ribs from the floor.
12.30 PM. Training is finished.
1.30 PM. Lunch at McDonalds with Radoncic: 2 happy meals.
3.00 PM. Fans stop Luka on the streets: “MVP!! MVP!!”. Luka’s answer: “Still a lot to do and to learn from players like Llull and Campazzo”. Mentality.
4.00 PM. It’s Training Time! Grandpa Reyes is late: Luka decides to grab his scooter.
4.15 PM. Traffic light: a bad guy driving a truck honks to Luka and swears because Luka didn’t let him overtake. Doncic calls Ayon for back-up.
4.16 PM. Ayon arrives.
4.17 PM. After meeting Ayon, the bad guy drove off at 240 Km/h and is already in Gibraltar.
5.30 PM. Afternoon Training starts.
6.00 PM. Free throw sessions between Luka and Jaycee Carroll. The first one who misses, will lose.
9.30 PM. The Gym keeper switches off the lights, and closes down the place. The match finishes 735 to 735.
10.35 PM. Luka starts to sleep like a baby.
1.20 AM. Luka is dreaming. He is playing on a basketball court: crossover, step-back, no-looks, buzzer-beaters... Everything with quality, talent and a big smile on his face, because basketball for him is pure enjoyment. He dreams to lead his team to the Final Four and battles for the season MVP trophy. And our dream is to see him play.
Fenerbahçe
GIGI DATOME
7:45 am. Gigi wakes up.
8.30 am. Begins to comb his beard.
10.40 am. Finishes combing his beard. His right bicep is John Cena size.
11:00 am. Big breakfast in a beautiful Istanbul bar: Tomatoes, cucumbers, a cheese plate, grilled sucuk, olives, and jams. Gigi's metabolism is still not used to eat all that salty in the morning, having in Italy just a small quick Italian espresso.
His face changes colour 7 times, covering the whole colour spectrum. Even indigo, a colour nobody knows what it is.
11.15 am. Hiccups begin.
12:25 pm. Gigi still has the hiccups. To get through it he decides to scare himself: he stares for a second at an Obradovic picture, one of the many where he is super mad after somebody hasn’t execute one of his plays correctly. Hiccups gone.
1:30 pm. On the street some people mistake him for Jesus. They ask him to win the second EuroLeague with Fenerbahce. Gigi replies that he and the prophets Vesely, Sloukas and Melli will do their best. He moves away walking with his feet over the waters of the Bosphorus.
2.30 pm. Gigi decides to get a haircut. He thinks about last year’s EuroLeague victory, Pero Antic and his gigantic scissors.
2.31 pm. He thinks his hair is good as it is.
3:45 pm. Gigi is late for practice because of Istanbul’s intense traffic. He has never been late for a practice in his life. Not even in front of a razor blade he would be so nervous.
4.30 pm. That’s a long queue, the cars are not moving at all. Suddenly the cars open a passage to let a Big SUV go through. On board, Mahmutoglu, who is waving to everybody out the window as he passes. People cheer and praise “Melih! Melih!”. Gigi quickly follows his teammate’s SUV and manages to get to practice on time.
5:00 pm. Practice begins.
5:30 pm. A wandering ball unfortunately hits Gigi’s face.
5:31 pm. A team of speleologists is at work to find the ball in Datome's beard.
7:35 pm. At the end of the practice, 3 point challenge between him, Nunnally and Mahmutoglu.
8:20 pm. The match ends. The Rim asks to be downgraded to the school gym next door.
9:30 pm. After dinner Gigi doesn’t know how to fight boredom. All of a sudden he has an idea: he picks up the guitar and starts to sing Turkish folk songs really loudly on the terrace.
9:40 pm. The neighbours beg him to move to Ankara.
10:00 pm. Gigi greets on Skype his parents in Sardinia, telling them good night. A good professional athlete goes to bed early. There is another Final Four to play, there’s still Obradovic to be satisfied and a lot of people to be dragged to excitement.
The love of fans for Datome has always been great wherever it was, from Rome to Detroit, from Boston to Istanbul. Because Gigi has something magical both off and on the field.
8.30 am. Begins to comb his beard.
10.40 am. Finishes combing his beard. His right bicep is John Cena size.
11:00 am. Big breakfast in a beautiful Istanbul bar: Tomatoes, cucumbers, a cheese plate, grilled sucuk, olives, and jams. Gigi's metabolism is still not used to eat all that salty in the morning, having in Italy just a small quick Italian espresso.
His face changes colour 7 times, covering the whole colour spectrum. Even indigo, a colour nobody knows what it is.
11.15 am. Hiccups begin.
12:25 pm. Gigi still has the hiccups. To get through it he decides to scare himself: he stares for a second at an Obradovic picture, one of the many where he is super mad after somebody hasn’t execute one of his plays correctly. Hiccups gone.
1:30 pm. On the street some people mistake him for Jesus. They ask him to win the second EuroLeague with Fenerbahce. Gigi replies that he and the prophets Vesely, Sloukas and Melli will do their best. He moves away walking with his feet over the waters of the Bosphorus.
2.30 pm. Gigi decides to get a haircut. He thinks about last year’s EuroLeague victory, Pero Antic and his gigantic scissors.
2.31 pm. He thinks his hair is good as it is.
3:45 pm. Gigi is late for practice because of Istanbul’s intense traffic. He has never been late for a practice in his life. Not even in front of a razor blade he would be so nervous.
4.30 pm. That’s a long queue, the cars are not moving at all. Suddenly the cars open a passage to let a Big SUV go through. On board, Mahmutoglu, who is waving to everybody out the window as he passes. People cheer and praise “Melih! Melih!”. Gigi quickly follows his teammate’s SUV and manages to get to practice on time.
5:00 pm. Practice begins.
5:30 pm. A wandering ball unfortunately hits Gigi’s face.
5:31 pm. A team of speleologists is at work to find the ball in Datome's beard.
7:35 pm. At the end of the practice, 3 point challenge between him, Nunnally and Mahmutoglu.
8:20 pm. The match ends. The Rim asks to be downgraded to the school gym next door.
9:30 pm. After dinner Gigi doesn’t know how to fight boredom. All of a sudden he has an idea: he picks up the guitar and starts to sing Turkish folk songs really loudly on the terrace.
9:40 pm. The neighbours beg him to move to Ankara.
10:00 pm. Gigi greets on Skype his parents in Sardinia, telling them good night. A good professional athlete goes to bed early. There is another Final Four to play, there’s still Obradovic to be satisfied and a lot of people to be dragged to excitement.
The love of fans for Datome has always been great wherever it was, from Rome to Detroit, from Boston to Istanbul. Because Gigi has something magical both off and on the field.
Žalgiris Kaunas
Sarunas Jasikevicius
7.00am. No alarm clock went off. He has been continuously awake for 9 days, 12 hours, 44 mins relentlessly working on prepping for the semifinals against Fenerbahce. His eyelids have demanded political asylum in Denmark.
8.05am. Internet connection in the office fails for a 3 minute window, forcing him to stop working. UN blue helmets’ intervention is required in order to keep him quiet.
9.45am. He drops by the Cafè downstairs to have a quick coffee. A passerby notices him and lets a friend know. That friend lets a friend of his know, who then gives a heads-up to another friend.
9.50am. Sixteen thousands Zalgiris supporters are loudly praising Sarunas just outside the “Arvidas Café”.
11.45am. He manages to leave the café, carried over the supporters’ heads like a rockstar, and he goes back to the office.
1.00pm. Press conference leading up to the Final Four. The event is broadcasted on television. 99.8% share.
2.45pm. Text message from Pangos, warning him that he is facing a muscle issue and he is not sure he’d be able to make it for Friday.
2.50pm. Sarunas texts back, explaining Pangos that, should he not be able to play for whatever reason, the muscle injury would be the milder pain he would let him feel.
2.51pm. Pangos lets him know that he is in perfect shape.
4.00pm. Interview with a EuroLeague reporter, who, before starting to fire questions, would like to read his palmares.
5.20pm. The reporter is finally done reading Sarunas' palmares.
7.00pm. He takes a moment to think about the Kavaliauskas-Datome defensive pairing, to then realize that the “Shaving is beautiful” Association wouldn’t be happy with that.
8.30pm. He is done scouting Vesely, Sloukas, Datome and Kalinic. He now starts working on Melli by reviewing a game he played back in 1997 when, 6-years-old at the time, he scored 4 points, 2 in his own basket, in a minibasket game in Reggio Emilia.
10.15pm. Not being sure about which offensive option to choose to face zone defense, he decides to let a coin make that choice, throwing it up in the air for a heads or tails response. Maceo Baston comes from nowhere and slams it on the ground with two hands. He though it was an alley oop.
11.30pm. He cannot sleep. He decides to text Obradovic:
- J. “What are you up to?”
- O. “I’m watching the works on a 1200 sqm shed”
- J. “Why?”
- O. “I need it to store all of the trophies I have won”
- J. “hahahahahahahha you sure they are gonna fit in there? The shed might
be too small. Are you happy we are gonna see each other next Friday?”
- O. “Of course I am”
- J. “How do you feel about it?”
- O. “Tough. Your team is a wonderful one.”
- J. “Thanks a ton. That said, you guys are much stronger. We’ll do
everything we can to try to give the champions a hard time”.
- O. “You play amazingly well and I truly admire you a lot as a coach”
- J. “Do you remember us lifting the EuroLeague Trophy 10 years ago,
yourself as a coach and myself as a player?”
- O. “How could I not. I am shivering.”
- J. “I’m crying.”
- O. “I love you.”
- J. “I love you, too”
8.05am. Internet connection in the office fails for a 3 minute window, forcing him to stop working. UN blue helmets’ intervention is required in order to keep him quiet.
9.45am. He drops by the Cafè downstairs to have a quick coffee. A passerby notices him and lets a friend know. That friend lets a friend of his know, who then gives a heads-up to another friend.
9.50am. Sixteen thousands Zalgiris supporters are loudly praising Sarunas just outside the “Arvidas Café”.
11.45am. He manages to leave the café, carried over the supporters’ heads like a rockstar, and he goes back to the office.
1.00pm. Press conference leading up to the Final Four. The event is broadcasted on television. 99.8% share.
2.45pm. Text message from Pangos, warning him that he is facing a muscle issue and he is not sure he’d be able to make it for Friday.
2.50pm. Sarunas texts back, explaining Pangos that, should he not be able to play for whatever reason, the muscle injury would be the milder pain he would let him feel.
2.51pm. Pangos lets him know that he is in perfect shape.
4.00pm. Interview with a EuroLeague reporter, who, before starting to fire questions, would like to read his palmares.
5.20pm. The reporter is finally done reading Sarunas' palmares.
7.00pm. He takes a moment to think about the Kavaliauskas-Datome defensive pairing, to then realize that the “Shaving is beautiful” Association wouldn’t be happy with that.
8.30pm. He is done scouting Vesely, Sloukas, Datome and Kalinic. He now starts working on Melli by reviewing a game he played back in 1997 when, 6-years-old at the time, he scored 4 points, 2 in his own basket, in a minibasket game in Reggio Emilia.
10.15pm. Not being sure about which offensive option to choose to face zone defense, he decides to let a coin make that choice, throwing it up in the air for a heads or tails response. Maceo Baston comes from nowhere and slams it on the ground with two hands. He though it was an alley oop.
11.30pm. He cannot sleep. He decides to text Obradovic:
- J. “What are you up to?”
- O. “I’m watching the works on a 1200 sqm shed”
- J. “Why?”
- O. “I need it to store all of the trophies I have won”
- J. “hahahahahahahha you sure they are gonna fit in there? The shed might
be too small. Are you happy we are gonna see each other next Friday?”
- O. “Of course I am”
- J. “How do you feel about it?”
- O. “Tough. Your team is a wonderful one.”
- J. “Thanks a ton. That said, you guys are much stronger. We’ll do
everything we can to try to give the champions a hard time”.
- O. “You play amazingly well and I truly admire you a lot as a coach”
- J. “Do you remember us lifting the EuroLeague Trophy 10 years ago,
yourself as a coach and myself as a player?”
- O. “How could I not. I am shivering.”
- J. “I’m crying.”
- O. “I love you.”
- J. “I love you, too”
CSKA
Kyle Hines
7:25 am. Hines is awoken by a loud noise. He looks out and sees thousands of fans just outside his house. Everybody is praying for his recovery for the Final Four.
9:00 am. Usual big breakfast to gather energy for the body: 12 fried eggs, 7 hard-boiled eggs, 14 muffins, 3 pancakes and 1Kg T-bone steak.
10:30 am. Weight room, exercises to stay in shape: He makes a series of 20 lifts of De Colo on the bench.
12:10 pm. A EuroLeague delegate knocks on the door: he wants to give Hines the prize for “-Best Defender” he won a few days ago.
12:45 pm. Hines is still in front of the person in charge to give him the prize, he doesn’t let him enter the house.
1.30 pm. EuroLeague’s delegate pretends to leave when they suddenly turn around and shoots the prize from long distance. Hines two-handed blocks.
3:00 pm. Rodriguez is in the studio of a well-known Moscow psychologist: he's been in therapy since Hines got hurt, he no longer knows who to play pick and roll with.
4.30 pm. Training. Everybody is astonished. Hines is training with the team. He received the doctor’s green light.
5:15 pm. Fridzon doesn’t see a Hines screen, and stamps against it.
5:16 pm. De Colo and Higgins are trying to recompose the puzzle of Fridzon's body.
6:20 pm. 5v5. Kyle is back. Clyburn misses 3-point shot, Hines grabs the offensive rebound, De Colo misses 3-point shot, Hines grabs the off rebound, Kurbanov misses 3-point shot, Hines grabs the off rebound, Clyburn misses another 3-point shot, Hines grabs the off rebound. Frustrated, Hines gets out from the 3-point area and makes a 3-point shot, then addresses his teammates: was that so hard?
6:30 pm. Coach Itoudis explains to Hines that he will have to face Anthony Randolph in the semi-finals, a very dangerous player from any position.
9:15 pm. Latest news from Madrid: Anthony Randolph reports to the authorities that a man broke into his apartment and followed him wherever he tried to go. It was Kyle Hines.
11.00 pm. Kyle Hines is in his quadruple king-size bed. He reflects on his seventh consecutive Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four thinking how it all started from an Italian village of 20,000 people, Veroli, when just few in Europe believed in him. Today, however, he is known as being one of the most important players of the entire continent. Kyle falls asleep, recovered from the injury, and the CSKA fans can go back to dream the EuroLeague Championship.
9:00 am. Usual big breakfast to gather energy for the body: 12 fried eggs, 7 hard-boiled eggs, 14 muffins, 3 pancakes and 1Kg T-bone steak.
10:30 am. Weight room, exercises to stay in shape: He makes a series of 20 lifts of De Colo on the bench.
12:10 pm. A EuroLeague delegate knocks on the door: he wants to give Hines the prize for “-Best Defender” he won a few days ago.
12:45 pm. Hines is still in front of the person in charge to give him the prize, he doesn’t let him enter the house.
1.30 pm. EuroLeague’s delegate pretends to leave when they suddenly turn around and shoots the prize from long distance. Hines two-handed blocks.
3:00 pm. Rodriguez is in the studio of a well-known Moscow psychologist: he's been in therapy since Hines got hurt, he no longer knows who to play pick and roll with.
4.30 pm. Training. Everybody is astonished. Hines is training with the team. He received the doctor’s green light.
5:15 pm. Fridzon doesn’t see a Hines screen, and stamps against it.
5:16 pm. De Colo and Higgins are trying to recompose the puzzle of Fridzon's body.
6:20 pm. 5v5. Kyle is back. Clyburn misses 3-point shot, Hines grabs the offensive rebound, De Colo misses 3-point shot, Hines grabs the off rebound, Kurbanov misses 3-point shot, Hines grabs the off rebound, Clyburn misses another 3-point shot, Hines grabs the off rebound. Frustrated, Hines gets out from the 3-point area and makes a 3-point shot, then addresses his teammates: was that so hard?
6:30 pm. Coach Itoudis explains to Hines that he will have to face Anthony Randolph in the semi-finals, a very dangerous player from any position.
9:15 pm. Latest news from Madrid: Anthony Randolph reports to the authorities that a man broke into his apartment and followed him wherever he tried to go. It was Kyle Hines.
11.00 pm. Kyle Hines is in his quadruple king-size bed. He reflects on his seventh consecutive Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four thinking how it all started from an Italian village of 20,000 people, Veroli, when just few in Europe believed in him. Today, however, he is known as being one of the most important players of the entire continent. Kyle falls asleep, recovered from the injury, and the CSKA fans can go back to dream the EuroLeague Championship.
