By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Sometimes fate plays strange games. And Daniel Hackett is still connected with one of the most beloved figures in the history of Olympiacos and of European basketball in general. Read his confession in the official site of Olympiacos BC about his relation with the late great Alphonso Ford.
Alfonso Ford’s tremendously premature death makes it hard for anyone to even today believe that the ever smiling “Al” is not among us any more. Daniel Hackett opened his heart at www.olympiacosbc.gr, revealed that he still cries sometimes when he sees videos or photos of Ford and remembers terrific stories from Alfonso Ford’s presence in Pesaro.
It was the summer of 2003 when Daniel Hackett’s parents, Rudolf and Lina, decided to send the then 16-year old Daniel to the Sates to study. During the same summer, Alfonso Ford decided to join Scavolini Pesaro and the 16-year old Hackett, who had grown up in Pesaro, was hearing about the transfer in California where he was living. “When I read on the internet that Scavolini Pesaro had signed Alfonso Ford, I went ballistic. My city’s team was getting one of the most prolific scorers in the history of European basketball, a player I loved watching play. I was so excited that I was thinking about going back to Pesaro to see him in person” the left handed Olympiacos guard says but then his face suddenly clouds.
“Nobody was expecting what happened next. It’s something that has marked my life. Let me tell you a story. Nobody on the team knew about the health problem Alfonso Ford was having. This was his choice. He had only told the team doctor, so that he could help him with medication. Neither the coaches knew about it, nor his team mates, or the administration for that fact. No one. Can you fathom that? Only the team doctor knew, so that he could help him with treatment. There were days when he could not get out from bed and he would then go to the gym and score 30 points”.
Daniel Hackett’s voice cracks when he starts talking about one of the last games of Alfonso Ford. “It was the 2003-2004 play-offs. He had missed some games of the regular season and one play-offs game. He was sitting in the bench and he would barely keep his eyes open. But no one knew what was going on. Until one morning I woke up and read that Alfonso Ford had died. I cried as if I had lost one my own. I was crying so hard I would not breathe. Alfonso Ford will always be in my heart”.
Euroleague decided to honor Alfonso Ford by naming the trophy for the top scorer of the competition ‘Al’ and Daniel Hackett talks about something weird, more like a twist of fate. “Next season, Charles Smith signed with Scavolini Pesaro, was the top scorer of the competition and got the Alfonso Ford trophy…”, Hackett says, who, a few years later played in a friendly game in the memory of Alfonso, wearing the Scavolini shirt. “A little before the beginning of the game, a tribute video to Ford played on the gym’s matrix. When the video began, I held on the shoulder of one of my team mates who was right by me at the time so that I wouldn’t collapse. Then I started crying. I will always remember that friendly game”.
Without anything else left to say about what Ford meant to Hackett, the Italian guard asked to say something last. “Having played for Scavolini Pesaro, and now for Olympiacos, I have come to realize that my life’s color is red. Red is what also betrayed Alfonso. Blood. His own blood. The least I could do for that man is to play with Olympiacos in a friendly game against Scavolini Pesaro in Italy. I’m sure that in that game, the ball from the jump ball will reach the sky. So that Alfonso can touch it as well”.