Platinum Series - Drafts

WAKANDA

The Quebecois Intercollegiate Sports' Women's Basketball All-Quebecois Banquet was a slightly more heated affair this time around, especially compared to other sports that were having theirs this time of the year. Men's basketball one, held just 3 hours earlier in Halifax, was pretty unsurprising: Pierre-Ian McArthur won the back-to-back Ivan Moser trophy and the ceremony went ahead as they always were in Halifax. It was a tradition to have the QIS Championship in Halifax at least 2 out of 6 years, so they knew how to do the stuff.

On the contrary, the All-Quebecois Banquet went quite differently for the women's basketball. Historically not given as much attention as men's, hosting of the women's basketball championships went on a rolling basis.






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Olim Benzari's induction into the World Cup Hall of Fame was a slighty downbeat affair, compared to other people's inductions (from other nations, Dravid Scott's had been similar). It was no Timo Skye-esque bonanza, there was no extravagant going over of his performances and abilities, no flashy lights. No, that was not the way the Apoxians did it.

Instead, there was a dinner for 59 at the prestigious Urbanista Hotel, where else, where a whole host of those who had played with or helped Olim through his playing career and now burgeoning managing career were there. Harry MacAness, his youth team coach at Urbanista; Fred Garcia, the coach who had taken Urbanista to their first and only ANL title, with Benzari as captain of that side; Donovan McNeil of McKleigh, his current assistant manager and of course Fendergeson Numbá, the manager of the national team who Benzari achieved so much with.

A whole raft of former players, or indeed those players who he now coached were there as well. One of the only occasions where all 4 permanent national team captains were gathered, with Benzari joined by Matthias Sindelar, Jarvis Staniels and of course Dravid Scott, long-time team mate at both international and domestic level. Chris Maarsden, Will Fich, Fran Gracie, Jack Forster, Jack Moses, Tolgus Tregajorran, both Jon and Armando Quillisi, Noel Amundsen, John Lockwood, Ben Hatem, Will Hewitt, Chris Neguwa, Jorge Guardia, Oliver Donliver, Eugeny Ivanov of Mytannion, Alex Keir of The Licentian Isles, Rancisc Tenian of Farfadillis. They were all there.

Then there were the others. Miriam Whittaker, former head of the AFB and a whole raft of other important figures within the organisation of the game were there. His wife and children of course, as well as his two sisters and parents. Sir Charles Smith-Smythe-Smith was there as well, although no one was quite sure why or how. He was welcomed all the same; his idiocy always tended to liven up an evening. There was also Henry Monteforth, former captain of the Apox National Rugby Team, who Olim was great friends with.

It was a simple ceremony. A long, lavish meal, punctuated by speeches throughout. Dravid Scott's hilarious opening speech, recounting tales of nights out and talking about Benzari as a friend and team mate. Fendergeson Numbá's speech about Benzari as a player. A rather impromptu speech by Sir Charles which no-one really understood that was well received anyway. And finally, a heartfelt speech by Kastor Benzari, his father, which reduced half the room to tears. All in all it was a magnificent occasion to celebrate one of Apox's greatest ever players, the only player for Apox to break 100 caps, and rightly so.





















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In my case, it didn’t hurt that I was blessed with height — my dad was tall so I grew tall, too. I towered over most of my peers, so I was scoring a lot from the moment I started playing. I was dominating. By the time I was 11 or 12, I got my first recruiting call to join a travel team. It all happened so fast — one minute I’m joining a more competitive basketball team and being considered for our national youth program in basketball, and the next I’m considered a lock for a pro career. It wasn’t a matter of, “Will I ever play basketball for money?” That was going to definitely happen. It was more like, “How high can I go? Will I play in Europe? Will I play in the NBA?”

I signed my first local basketball contract when I was 15.

Later that year, I travelled with the Argentinian youth national team to play in a tournament held in Ecuador. Throughout the whole tournament, three European scouts sat in the crowd, taking notes. At the end of one game, one of the scouts came up to me and told me he represented Saski Baskonia, a first-division club in Spain.


Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

“We’d like to offer you a contract.”

I signed it and I moved to Spain.

I was 17.

It’s crazy to look back at it like this now, but as I’m writing this, I’ve been a professional basketball player for 22 years. The game has taken me all over the world. I had a lot of proud moments in the NBA, but when I’m talking about my career, Team Argentina’s triumph in 2004 stands out above it all.

Everyone in the international community uses their matchup against USA Basketball to get a sense of how good they are. That was true for me, too — I used our semi-annual game against the U.S. to get a sense of where I stacked up. In 1999, we played against the U.S. in an Olympic Qualifier in Puerto Rico, and I remember feeling overwhelmed. It was like, Should I even be playing basketball?

I know it sounds like I’m kidding, but it was that bad. We weren’t ready to compete with them in 1999. For time, I guarded Vin Baker in the game, and he had two inches and forty pounds on me. The first time he slammed into me, he moved me completely out of my space. I went flying. I’m one of the biggest guys on our team, and Vin backed me down like it was nothing.

Hmm, I thought. This guy is way stronger than me.

Another play, he went down the floor and set up for a three. I thought to myself, No way he makes this. He was flying around me and if he had range too I’d be cooked. Then I’ll really have something to think about.

He buried it.

That’s it! I thought. There’s no way I could ever compete with these guys!

But our group was made of iron, and we knew we’d make it more competitive the next time, and the time after that. By this time, most of us had been playing together for so long that everything on court was second nature. Everyone knew his role, and it didn’t hurt that we had the most talented collection of Argentinian basketball players in history.

Everything changed by the early 2000s. We qualified for Athens. A rematch with the United States loomed. While historically the U.S. had regularly beaten us, I could tell we were gaining ground — in 2002, we’d even beat the U.S. in the FIBA World Championships in Indianapolis, our first time beating a United States team that had included NBA players.

That’s when we knew we could compete with anything the rest of the world had.

It didn’t matter to us that the 2004 U.S. team would be even more packed with such All-Stars like as Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and Amar’e Stoudemire.

Here’s the thing — the U.S. had never lost an Olympic basketball game with pro players. We knew what we were up against.

But we had the group I’d been playing with for a decade: Manu, Andres Nocioni, Carlos Delfino, Fabricio Oberto, Pepe Sánchez, Walter Hermann and everyone else.

And by 2004, we were older, stronger. Not only did we think we had a chance of beating the U.S., I swear to you — and this feels so funny to say, a decade later — but we knew we would beat them.

Our confidence was just on another level.

The thing I’ll always remember about that game is how it felt to walk out on the floor. I remember how strong the energy was in the locker room.

It felt different. The U.S. expected to win. We were going to win, though. No one on our team doubted what the result would be.

That entire game, which was the semifinal of the Olympic tournament, wasn’t like any of our previous games against the United States, in which we knew we had a chance but ultimately believed we would lose. As spectators, we’d seen so many other teams almost beat the U.S., but then falter or get nervous at the end. Even when we beat the U.S. in Indianapolis, we never actually believed we would win.

When it came time for Nocioni or Manu to make big shots, they hit them. (Manu ended up with 29.) We passed the ball incredibly well. Where other international teams had faltered closing it out against the U.S., we only got stronger down the stretch. We led the whole game, and when the U.S. made a late charge we played with the same passion and ferocity we had played with at the beginning of the game.

Something that was hard to remember at the time, I have to admit, is that we still had to win another game to win the gold. We had beaten this supposedly unbeatable team, and it felt crazy and we weren’t really conscious, in the moment, that we had more left to do.

But you probably know how that ended.


Michael Conroy/AP Images

Argentinian passion is not to be messed with. Ask Messi. Ask Manu.

Speaking of — Hey Manu, see you in 2020 in Tokyo? You’ll probably be too old by then, but something tells me you’ll surprise everyone. It wouldn’t be the first time.