Ingredients: 2 champion teams, 2 championship cups, 2 old friends, 1 devoted crowd and the forever Miša Tumbas.
Before the game the water polo team got the celebration they totally deserve after they won the championship. The boys came, they brought the championship cup and carried it around Pionir Hall while the crowd celebrated them.
Then the French Legion arrived.
Yes, it’s them. Léo Westermann and Joffrey Lauvergne
Children were waiting for them
(photos: Facebook/KK Partizan)
They got huge applause
(photos: Twitter)
If only Boris Dallo had been there, too... then the Three Musketeers could have had a reunion.
After them KK Partizan’s U21 team arrived. They won the junior championship a few days ago, knocking out Crvena Zvezda in the final to 51:48.
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan
For the family photo album: the team, the championship cup... and MIŠA TUMBAS
(photo: Twitter)
Meanwhile the teams lined up for the national anthem.
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
(photo: Twitter)
The first half of the game was awful. A million missed-out chances, clenched teeth, sweat and struggle, while FMP took the lead in the beginning. They switched from 4:2 to 4:6, then jumped to 8:14. They could even allow themselves to miss out a free throw. The first quarter finished with 12:16.
The water polo team was watching the game near the court
(photo: Twitter)
The struggle continued in the second quarter. Even though we equalized with two 3-pointers (20:20) we still missed out more than we could score from. At the half of the quarter we took the lead (24:20), it was still not our best form.
This was the point when the fans started their usual sarcastic and vulgar chants about Vesna Čović and her doings.
Did I see well that Joffrey Lauvergne was grinning there?
It was 26:20, the fans started to throw their chants on FMP/Crvena Zvezda-fan politicians. The referee paused the game saying "Partizan-fans are having an unsportsmanlike behaviour".
This always make me laugh hard. Yea, sure. Those terrible Partizan-fans are always unsportsmanlike. But when (ahem) other teams’ fans (ahem) yelled life-threatening chants to Saša Pavlović and Duško Vujošević, that wasn’t unsportsmanlike.
Fair play, my a.....
This made fans chant even louder. Finally Aleksander Džikić had to be asked to calm down the raging fans. (In the meantime ArenaSport 1’s commentators laughed hard and loud in live broadcast.)
Trener @PartizanBC Aleksandar Džikić je uzeo mikrofon i zamolio publiku da prestane sa uvredljivim pesmama F. Čoviću pic.twitter.com/xjzcmW95ha— Marko Ljubomirović (@LjubomirovicRTS) May 28, 2016
Sometimes it can surely be hard to be Filip Čović. It’s not just that he is a mediocre player, but at the same time his father is the local almighty basketball godfather, who took mum into the business, too. And fans love to rub it into his face every time, with the most possible obscene qualifiers.
This intermezzo broke FMP’s pace. We jumped to 31:22, soon making the two-digit difference as well (35:24). The half-time ended with 37:27, after Wilson made a huge buzzer-beater.
Adin Vrabac some time during the game
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
FMP collapsed for the second half. They made the impression of an average countryside team (even though they are from Belgrade) with whom the Belgrade champions play the way they just want. It started with 41:27, then it was 46:30. Referees tried their best to help them, whistling off all our actions as fouls, but the guest couldn’t use it for their own advantage. Partizan were about to reach the 20-point-difference (51:32), which we made with Veličković’s free throw (56:36). We got ready for the final part with 63:41.
Nikola Peković and Wilson communicate
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
In the last quarter we did whatever we wanted, FMP just assisted us. Okay, they could make it to avoid the 20-point-difference.
They were defeated "only" with 19 points.
Next round will be on Monday from 21:00.
(photo: Facebook/KK Partizan)
The little boy on the picture at the beginning of this blogpost holding the banner "Žo, pamtimo te, čekamo te" could meet Joffrey Lauvergne now
Post-game moments: Joffrey Lauvergne and Miša Tumbas
(photos: Twitter)
KK Partizan: Cvetković, Aranitović, Jones (9), Murić (14), Marinković (2), Veličković (9), Vitkovac (9), Đumić, Milutinović (4), Williams (13), Vrabac (10), Wilson (12)
FMP: Čović (2), Davidovac (19), Ostojić, Apić (6), Đoković (5), Lazarević (4), Bursac (6), Dobrić (13), Šešlija, Radanov, Radovanović (2), Tejić (6)
