By George Adamopoulos / info@eurohoops.net
Every “right here, right now” for him was demanding. The first image of his father, confined to a wheelchair, looked like a… clock. An alarm clock, actually.
A reminder that what matters is the present. After all, Marcin Balcherowski, a current player on Panathinaikos‘ wheelchair basketball team, was constantly telling his youngster that “what matters is now.” Olek Balcherowski‘s moves, however, also peeked into the future.
The 22-year-old Polish Panathinaikos center was asked at the age of 13 to leave his homeland and his parents for the youtth team of Gran Canaria. He was a teenager who came of age prematurely. Nine years later, his new challenge is titled “Panathinaikos” and captioned: “Athens, Euroleague, Ergin Ataman”.
He pointed out to Eurohoops that “I don’t expect to be easy, it’s a hard challenge for me but I you don’t have challenges for yourself, you stay in the same spot”. Balcherowski also makes it clear that expectations are not a burden, refers to his father’s lessons, explains why he is always optimistic and, looking ahead, is confident that the “Greens” will succeed.
“Never give up!” and the “different life opportunities”
– Your dad told you once, after forced to sit in a wheelchair, to look at him in the eyes and not in the legs. What do you say to yourself, looking in your mirror?
“Never give up! I think this is the most important thing for me and this is what I learn from my father. Never give up and don’t look at the obstacles in front of you”.
– Any other lesson your father taught you?
“The most important one is that if you have one goal and you don’t achieve it, sometimes you need to go other ways. Life doesn’t everything on the plate. He wanted to be a professional basketball player and he was, in a different way. At the end, beside the accident, he achieved his goal. Sometimes life gives you different opportunities and you take anything from that and make most of it”.
– Is he, as a player-coach in wheelchair basketball, the guy that criticizes you the most?
“Yeah, for sure”!
– Is he strict?
“Not strict, but he watches all the games, in Gran Canaria, here in Panathinaikos and for the Polish national team. He is the one that I am calling first after a game. Sometimes I am angry, sometimes he is angry. This is our special relationship and at the end we always come to a conclusion for what I need to better at, what I did well”.
– How does it feel to be members of the same club?
“It’s really nice. I didn’t expect this to happen when I was coming here but he is still a good player and if he wouldn’t they wouldn’t give him the chance to play. I am happy for him and he is happy for me that we are at the same club”.