Which particular year did you enjoy our NT more? Let me attempt a wild guess. 2006? For sure not 2010, or 2008, or 2007. As for 2009, the Ultra Stars Diamantidis and Papaloukas were not playing, a fact which must have relegated that year's Greek NT to exausting(sic) status as well.
What I am trying to say is that the 2006 NT is the past Glorious for sure but the past anyway. The last few NTs were wait-and-see solutions hoping that the illustrious absentees would return just in time to lead us to new heights of basketball achievement. Somewhere along the way we forgot that players age or lose their form and or motivation, something that makes a continuing NT renewal program necessary.
Now that NT renewal was thrust upon us suddenly because of a combination of key-player injuries and desertions we were lucky enough to come up, virtually overnight, with a reasonable new NT as well as a new coach who seems to inspire more confidence than the last two ones. It is reasonable to expect that this NT cannot follow right away the footsteps of the 2006 NT. We must invest some time and be able to take some disappointments along the way. It is counter-productive to slander and denigrate this NT with every given chance. NT and coach are trying hard. They need our support and encouragement, not the kind of posts from many Greek members of this forum. God only knows that there are enough non-Greek haters of the Greek NT to pick up the slack if there is any drop in the number of denigrating posts by Greek members of this forum. Be it as it may, this is our NT now and for the future. Any improvements should come more from the NT becoming of age and gelling together as a team rather than from returning superstars. The Serbs took an even bolder step than this by banning their NBA superstars from their new NT altogether. They did know that they would have to put up with less than stellar successes in the interim. We, on the other hand, find the renewal process exausting(sic) and are quick to pile scorn and ridicule on our new NT given half a chance. For God's sake, this should be the job of the FYROMians and their friends, not ours. I wander what Lithuanian and Turkish fans, who embrace their NTs through thick and thin, think of us.
PS One last point: When dreaming of the return of our Jedi, let us mercifully leave Papaloukas out. He is a very tired old horse who should be put out to pasture. If memory serves me right, he already confirmed this by signing a new contract somewhere (Israel?) after accepting a huge drop in his salary. Btw, remember how effective Vujicic was in his last stand with Croatia?
