"GOLD" Mission accomplished

It’s Over!

But not the blog eh???, But the European Championships!

What a shame, just when we were enjoying it like children inside the court!!

Now it is time to make balance of a championship that was harder than what everyone expected, with many roadblocks, but getting the goal, that all were ambitious as they come, we put upon us. It is the first time that Spain gets the gold medal in Eurobasket. That's the magnitude of how important it is.

At first, many people lost confidence in us and saw us out of the fight for the medals, but we never lost faith. We had to play the games out of life or death, it was how we responded better. It all started with Poland, following France, then Greece and then finally Serbia, what a pity that it had to end...

At the end of the game of Serbia, we merge all hugging and even some with tears and all. We knew we had all suffered a lot to get to this point. All with a smile from ear to ear and very excited. The time came of the podium, all very well prepared, first with the right leg, holding hands and then we scream! When Juanki (J.C Navarro), had to lift the cup, it cost him a lot cause it weighed a lot, truthfully we were all incredibly happy.

After sleeping 3 hours in the plane, we arrived in Madrid at 9 am. We went to the hotel to rest two hours and afterwards were greeted by President of the Spanish Government, Mr Zapatero. Felipe had been saying all day long that he was going to tell him if he could lower the taxes. When it came time to tell him, he was too embarrassed and did not say it, but in the end all of us insisted that he say it, and eventually he said it, "How great you are Felipon" but I think without success...

Then we went to eat something. Then we had a nap for an hour to then go to see S.M. The King, Queen and the princes. We talked for a while and then we went to Cibeles to celebrate with all the fans who had gathered there. The ride to Cibeles almost cost us more than a scare, is that we were traveling in a convertible bus, and we were standing, and passing through the tunnels we had to duck because if we don’t... it leaves the head, is that some of us are a "little tall" no? and of course, some were clueless and we all would scream: BE CAREFUL!!!!!, cause if you don’t, one is left without a head.

We arrived at the Cibeles, multitude of people and me, the truth, a little scared shitless (pardon the expression), is that I had never seen so many people before, and on top of that had to talk. The others were use to it, of course, because they had came from winning the World Championships and had done something similar... At the end of it all, us the Catalans went on a bus to the airport to catch the plane, but not before saying goodbye to all my colleagues, GREAT COMPANIONS, although many we'll meet again in basketball courts, where fate.

It was an incredible experience that I will never forget.

I hope you all enjoyed the European and the little anecdotes that I was able to tell for during the championship. Although the anecdotes will not end, and as I promised, I will write once a week to go explaining things.

A hug

Ricky