Fadi El-Khatib: Lebanon has no chance against Greece

[Juan Carlos Nadal]

A few greek guys said that they were "embarrassed" by the result today. Shall I presume that you mean that you felt sorry (not in the bad sense) for Lebanon? I don't understand why one should feel embarrassed for winning by a big margin. It is a strange choice of a word. Unless you meant that Greece should have cut some slack and not allow the margin to get as high as it did.

[Red Inspiration]

Unless you meant that Greece should have cut some slack and not allow the margin to get as high as it did.

on the spot

[KWSN-Men]

Didnt he play the C in the starting five?

Yes and he was horrible ofcourse. When he was in the game playing as a PF, he was the good old Tsartsaris. Although he is not a soft guy and he is 2,10, his game is not suited for the C position...

[nnt01]

We should never be and we will never be ashamed of our players..they played bad..so what?! Every team passes through a difficult and a bad phase..how we get past this, is what matters..as you said dani...this is a continuation...we have a very promising youth national team..i think our basketball has a very respectable future.

Concerning Greece, you should not feel sorry for us! This will makes and let us feel bad! you had a great game, and we had a bad one, and you had to deliver a strong message to the rest of the teams especially that you are playing on your court!...Hard luck for us, hopefully in the near future..we will have a team that will beat you by 50 pts too!

[rikhardur]

We should never be and we will never be ashamed of our players..they played bad..so what?! Every team passes through a difficult and a bad phase..how we get past this, is what matters..as you said dani...this is a continuation...we have a ver promising youthe national team..i think our basketball has a very respectable future.

Very true. And let's not forget that Lebanon beat France not so long ago. Every team has a bad night like this (not underestimating Greece of course).

[Ilya]

Well said, friend.
I never meant to say that we feel sorry for you. On the contrary, what these players have done amidst the war and turmoil is simply amazing. I only meant that we could have taken it a bit easier.

And I most definitely am not a guy

[nnt01]

And I most definitely am not a guy

I did not say anything about you being a guy or not!

[Ilya]

Someone talked about Greek "guys" feeling embarrassed. You didn't say any such thing

[Juan Carlos Nadal]

Someone talked about Greek "guys" feeling embarrassed. You didn't say any such thing

To my defense, "guy" and "dude" are gender non-specific anymore. I call my female friends "dudes"/"guys" and so do themselves.

What was the situation at the arena? How many people showed up for the games?

[DanMajerle]

Hoppe Greece won't peak too early. It will be a difficult task to keep their shape till Olympic Elimination games.

[Juan Carlos Nadal]

Hoppe Greece won't peak too early. It will be a difficult task to keep their shape till Olympic Elimination games.

That's what makes the idea of the pre-Olympic tournament such a bad one. Whoever qualifies from that thing would have a very hard summer ahead of them, and I can already predict some really tired and underperforming players in the winter.

[Ilya]

Well, the arena was basically more empty than full. I think sth like 4.000 people (I didn't go, I was just counting heads on the screen ). The atmosphere in OAKA is sort of cold when there aren't enough people, but I couldn't really tell you. There were some Lebanon fans as well, and they were sitting among the Greek fans, which was such a welcome change from the Greek A1 battle-zones!

So, if you call your women friends dude or guy you must be an English native speaker, right? (Yes, some of my friends do call me malaka too!)

[Ilya]

That's what makes the idea of the pre-Olympic tournament such a bad one. Whoever qualifies from that thing would have a very hard summer ahead of them, and I can already predict some really tired and underperforming players in the winter.

I don't know, maybe the players could have some time off before the Olympics, or do you think that's a dreadful idea? (I keep having images of DD13 collapsing in my head-awful!)

[nnt01]

Well, the arena was basically more empty than full. I think sth like 4.000 people (I didn't go, I was just counting heads on the screen ). The atmosphere in OAKA is sort of cold when there aren't enough people, but I couldn't really tell you. There were some Lebanon fans as well, and they were sitting among the Greek fans, which was such a welcome change from the Greek A1 battle-zones!

Today a lebanese newspaper said..that for our game...all the 18000 seats are all booked and the arena will be full!! and there are around 300 lebanese fans coming to the match!!

Not a bit of exaggeration at all!

[Ilya]

Yes, I read on a Greek site that there were 5000 people in the arena, but I think that might be an exaggeration too. I think there will be more people on Wednesday when the Greek team plays against the-unfortunately-without-Varejao-team, but the prices of the tickets are a bit over the top, so some people couldn't go to all the games.