By Lefteris Moutis
First it was Ceaser who appreciated the use of the system “divide and conquer” (or… in his words “divide et impera”). In the following years many –commonly- emperors followed his recipe to –their own- success and it was a matter of time for other… businesses to adopt what it was evolved as a basic rule for everyone who had as a primary goal to… be a sovereign and limit out the competition.
Basketball couldn’t be an exception to the rule of life and they all paid the price in 2000, when everybody understood what Pink Floyd were singing from 1979: «Together we stand, divided we fall».
The best impact of realizing how much more you gain due to team… game rather than… having one superstar having all the decisions, is what we will see next year, when Euroleague will change the competition system and the days of the games. Αll games will be held every Thursday and Friday, so Euroleague won’t fall on Champions League’s dates. That means Adriatic League, VTB League and all national leagues will have to make their own adjustments.
Josip Bilic, director of the Adriatic League, is clarifying at eurohoops.net, there is nothing to worry about: “Actually, no one can predict what will happen. But hopefully it will not have affect on us. ABA league can be prouder for the number we have reach from ratings to capacity of the courts. We hope the changes won’t affect our calendar”.
What Adriatic leagues plans for next year? “Changes in the Euroleague competition calendar, requires adjustment on our part. Most of the games will still be played on Saturday and Sunday, while the games of Euroleague teams will be moved a day later. That means they will be played on Sunday or Monday”.
And as it comes to Maccabi (they play at Euroleague, at Adriatic League and at Israeli league), which last year had to change the time to Euroleague’s final against Panathinaikos, for religious reasons, they have already made clear to Euroleague all their games must will be held on Thursday –they are not allowed to play from Friday night till Sunday. Something was clear enough from years –keep in mind the game against Barcelona last Wednesday was just the third one during the last decade, they didn’t play on Thursday.