By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The holiday spirit is all around, but not for the Euroleague teams. Most of them will hardly get a day off and their only hope is that Santa Claus will bring them what they need in order to make it for the rest of the regular season.
Eurohoops managed to intercept their letters to Santa and presents to you exclusively some of their parts, what they asked for and hope to get underneath the Christmas tree.
CSKA Moscow: “Dear Ded Moroz, we want to be back to back champions. We are the best, we produce the best basketball and this may be the last season of Milos Teodosic with us. So bring us health and we will do the rest”.
Fenerbahce Istanbul: “Dear Noel Baba, we have Obradovic – until 2020 – they don’t, so this pretty much sums it up. Still we have also Bogdan Bogdanovic and we need him too. Can you get him healthy again soon? Thanks in advance”.
Real Madrid: “Dear Papa Noel, we need health like anyone else, but there’s also one more pressing matter. Can you get Luka Doncic sign an extension so we can keep him for a long time in Spain? We know that we are asking for much, but after all you are Papa Noel”.
FC Barcelona Lassa: “Dear Pare Noel, how can we be so unlucky? We never have a full roster, only Rice, Dorsey, Vezenkov and Tomic have played so far in all our EuroLeague games and we can’t catch a break! So health above anything else”.
Olympiacos Piraeus: “Dear Saint Vasilis, you know very well that we also have our own Saint Vasilis Spanoulis to help us in our hour of need. Still we need you also. We want a guard soon, so do your job. After all you are also red and white”.
Panathinaikos Superfoods: “Dear Saint Vasilis, we know you wear red and white and that’s an indication that we should not expect much. And to be frank, we don’t need much anymore. We got a new coach, we got Gentile and some guys insist that we also need an extra point guard, but for now we disagree”.
Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz: “Dear Papa Noel, we have also Olentzero – google it – to bring us presents in Vitoria, so we ask from you something simple. We want to have a healthy Andrea Bargnani. If we get that, then who knows what will happen in the end”.
Anadolu Efes Istanbul: “Dear Noel Baba, we are good, but should have been better. In any case thanks for the early present of Brandon Paul, this guys can ball. And if you can also help us with more defensive tenacity that would be great”.
Darussafaka Dogus: “Dear Noel Baba, we need fans. We have almost everything else, one of the best coaches in Europe, good players, we produce attractive basketball, but we need more fans. It’s not easy, it needs time, but what else can we do?”
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano: “Dear Babbo Natale, since we already gave a present with Alessandro Gentile to Panathinaikos, we hope to also get something back. It’s hard to start from somewhere, so a bit of chemistry in our roster would be good. We are still trying to get what went wrong”.
Galatasaray Istanbul: “Dear Noel Baba, we need ASAP one or two guards, a healthy Austin Daye, stability, money and better reputation in our contract negotiations. We know that we ask for much, but we don’t have anyone else to turn to, so do your best”.
Unics Kazan: “Dear Ded Moroz, where is Coty Clark? We hoped that 6 weeks would have been enough after his injury, but they are not. If we get him back, then we will do the rest, but please deliver!”
Zalgiris Kaunas: “Dear Kalėdų Senelis, we are doing ok, but we need more maturity and quality in our roster. We want to be in the playoffs so any help from your side would be appreciated and also tell those guys in Eurohoops who wrote than on paper we were the worst in the Euroleague to check again”.
Brose Baskets: “Dear Weihnachtsmann, we have been good, did our scouting, kept our core together and we already lost too many close games. So bring us better execution down the stretch and also a bit of luck on the closing seconds. We need it”.
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv: “Dear Santa, thanks for getting us our present early! We already received coach Bagatskis and we hope that everything will change after that. We promise to be good and we wish you also happy Hanukkah”.
Crvena Zvezda MTS Belgrade: “Dear Bozic Bata, we may not have a private plane, or not even charter flights, but we are happy with what we have, namely our fans. Still we need more home games! Can you arrange it? We can beat anyone at home”.