a wandering woman writes

Sunday, September 03, 2006

¡CAMPEONES!

photo from 20minutos

Can't blog now, I'm doing a jig for the Spanish national basketball team, who just won the World Basketball Championship in Japan.

They beat Greece 70-47 with their star player, Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies, sitting on the bench, injured. (And yes, I did get a little teary when I saw the photo of the team running out to the floor before the game wearing "Gau's playing too" T-shirts. These guys just strike me as a team, in the best sense of the word.) According to the Spanish sports newspaper Marca, they had another distraction looming over them, as well: the coach's father died last night. He'd been seriously ill throughout the tournament.

Why does it feel so good to have Spain win the World Championship of an American-born sport?

(The American team lost to Greece in the semifinals, 101-95, in a huge upset, paisanos.)

So what are Spaniards doing to celebrate, you ask? I don't hear much of anything out in the streets of Salamanca, or amongst my neighbors, but I did stumble onto an online poll running over at 20 Minutos.

The question: What are you going to do or what have you done to celebrate Spain's gold in the World Basketball Championship?

As of about 6 this afternoon, "bath in whatever fountain" was winning:

Shout jump & cry 30% 118 votos
A bath in whatever fountain 34% 133 votos
Party the whole day 6% 25 votos
I haven't been able to celebrate 10% 38 votos
Change my "look" 2% 7 votos
Nothing, it doesn't turn me on 18% 70 votos


I don't have a fountain close by, but I did write a blog post.
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡CAMPEONES!!!!!!!!!!!

Labels:

posted by Erin at 6:34 PM

9 Comments:

  • ¡Campeooooooooones!
    For first time in history Spaniards get an easy victory in a final!
    It´s strange, I´m get used to win with a little advantage or to lose unjustly most of the times!
    But it´s sweet..

    By Blogger Nomadita, at 8:51 PM  

  • CAMPEOOOOOOOOOOONES!
    I forgot to ask you, Nomadita, what are you doing to celebrate? Jumping in fountains?

    By Blogger Erin, at 9:02 PM  

  • Hmmm!
    I really don´t know!

    what about to invite you a beer? With the Snow of course!

    By Blogger Nomadita, at 9:42 PM  

  • LOL, see how ugly my native language is, Nomadita? If I'm not wrong you just translated a beautiful Spanish name (Nieves) and it lost all its romance....
    Either that or we're having a beer at an ice rink? :)

    By Blogger Erin, at 9:59 PM  

  • I was surprised the USA team lost as they have very renown players there.

    But I must say I'm not very interested.

    By Blogger Alex Castellá, at 10:25 PM  

  • My housemate and her best friend (who also plays semi-professionally) are baloncesto fanatics and were thrilled with the win. They celebrated by having a very happy siesta after lunch.

    The friend was here watching the US Greece match and was trying to explain why the US just isn't that good anymore at this sort of competition. He identified lack of technical skill as part of it. He also said that American basketball tends to be more about individual players' performances and techniques rather than a team's collective performance and technique. Don't follow it enough to really know how this pans out, but it doesn't sound like a totally crazy theory, either.

    By Blogger wheylona, at 10:41 PM  

  • Yeh, wheylona, I don't know enough, either, but your housemate's friend's theory doesn't sound crazy to me, either. I think that's why I felt so good when Spain won - their "superstar", who plays in the NBA with all those individual gods, was on the bench -- and they still won. I was interested, Alex, because I felt like I was watching a team effort, and that was refreshing somehow! I just liked the players!

    Nomadita made a funny comment to me, Wheylona. Her first reaction to the game was happiness that they'd won mixed with a little disappointment that the score hadn't been closer and the struggle harder. :) She tells me the Spanish don't like to win by big margins.

    By Blogger Erin, at 10:54 AM  

  • Nomadita's comment makes sense--if you're really into the game itself, the competition, then you want the game to be a good, challenging game, not some easy win. Easy wins don't necessarily demonstrate YOUR skill, and they certainly don't challenge you to be a better athlete/sportsman. An entirely healthy way to approach it, I'd say!

    By Blogger wheylona, at 2:49 PM  

  • Hooray for the Spanish team!

    By Blogger paris parfait, at 3:56 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home