By Aris Barkas
Bo McCalebb prefers to talk with his actions in the basketball court. Especially when the game is on the line and the win translates to Final Four qualification. The star point guard of Siena is getting ready for the showdown against Olympiacos, but hours before the tip of Game 3 he chatted with Eurohoops.net about his experience in the old continent, his Euroleague ambitions and the mentality of the underdog that still characterize him.
He accepts that he never expected that his career will explode when he signed to Partizan: “No, I didn’t expect that. All I wanted to do is to play basketball, and I didn’t expecting all this to happen so quickly”.
Maybe that’s why he doesn’t think that it’s destiny for him to be always the rival of Olympiacos in big games: “I don’t know, man. For starters in Partizan I just got the opportunity to play for a great coach, great fans, great atmosphere and after that I came to an other great team, with the same things, and I try to do whatever I can to help our team”
The American is starting to feel a little bit European – “I guess yes, because I have also a “Macedonian” passport” – but for now he doesn’t know what his European future hold for him: “We have to play two tough games in here and we will see what happens when we finish these games”.
He denies that this play offs series is a duel between him and Spanoulis with the Euroleague MVP trophy as a perk for the winner: “No, it’s a team game, five against five. It’s not an individuals sport. I don’t care about that stuff (ed. note: the MVP award) , all I care is about winning”. And he cracks a smile when he is asked if this mentality is what makes him so efficient in the court: “Maybe, I don’t know…maybe”.
But what characterize him is that he still feels like an underdog. When he is asked about the advice that he would give to a young American player who thinks of playing in Europe, he just says: “I don’t know what to tell them. I mean, I had it hard in my whole life. I have been the underdog since I was in high school. I been fighting all my life and that made me a fighter and made me tougher and that how I got to this point. I know that now I am kind of a star, but before I got to this point, I was the underdog my whole life. I worked so hard and now I am starting to get what I deserve”.
And he wants more: “Yes, of course I want something more. I have been to two Final Fours and I would like to win Euroleague before I am done in Europe, but we have to pass Olympiacos first, we have to make it to the Final Four and that’s why I said it’s going to be two tough games”.
The NBA is still in the back of his mind, even though he likes the intensity of the European season, but for now all he sees is red and white: “A lot of the things that people say are truth, like the NBA season is for the fans because nobody plays hard until the fourth quarter, but in the play offs they play real basketball. They have some of the best athletes and the best players in the world and they just play really hard in the play offs. Here in Europe, every game counts and coaches are going to coach, they are gonna do their tactics for every game. That’s what makes it different. You have to think a lot, the players are much smarter, they play defense, they make fouls on the open court and that’s the difference. I want to play there (ed.note: in the NBA), but like I said now I am focused in this play offs series and it’s not the time to talk about that”.