“Prometey Slobozhanske” is having one of the best seasons by any debutant in the history of the 7DAYS EuroCup. And “Prometey” has done it against all odds, playing their home games out of Ukraine, handling injuries and remaining competitive throughout the season. One of its pillars has been center Ondrej Balvin, who is having his sixth EuroCup season. Balvin started his career in “Cajasol Sevilla” and made his debut in the quarterfinal of the EuroCup 2011. After six years in “Sevilla”, Balvin played for “Bavaria” (Germany), “Estudiantes”, “Gran Canaria”, “Bilbao Basket” (Spain) and “Gunma Crane Thunders” (Japan) before joining “Prometey”. His dog Charlie and his PlayStation are with him everywhere and Riga is not an exception.
Have a look at the Balvin’s blog for the 7DAYS EuroCup:
“Hello there! First things first, we are in the quarterfinals! I think, this victory gave us the energy boost that we really needed, because we had a lot of injuries, especially in the last two weeks. We lost, I think, five people. That was incredible. I have never ever seen something like this. We played the Latvian-Estonian domestic league final. We played with basically six, six and a half people because we had six healthy players and Ivan Tkachenko had a shoulder injury, but he still had to play through it. So we know how much this team can fight and I think we showed it also in the EuroCup Eightfinals game against “Hamburg” because obviously, on paper, we were the favourites. But right now, in the situation we have been, I think the chances were 50/50 and “Hamburg” fought, they played really well. I think, it was a perfect play-off game, with a lot of intensity, many score changes and some nice drama at the end.
Our fans were great too. We are beginning to see more and more Latvian fans at our games. At the beginning of the season, nobody was really coming to our games besides a few Ukrainian fans and our family members. But throughout the season, the club started to bring some people and organise halftime concerts and stuff like that, something that could interest people and bring more fans to the game. And they started coming more and more. We feel that we have more fans at our games, which is amazing. We also get a lot of support from Ukrainian fans on the road.
I read that during their war (editor’s note: in the 1991/1992 season), “Partizan” had to play outside its country and played in Fuenlabrada. I have to give a huge shout-out to our club’s president because he is making sure that we get all we need, all the support. He prepared the buses that allowed people to come to our games, not just in Riga. For instance, we had a lot of support in our game in Venice, and then they come to Riga to watch EuroCup and domestic games. Our president is trying to bring people to our games and I think that is just amazing. It shows how much he appreciates the team, and we appreciate him, too.
I guess that if you follow the EuroCup, you have noticed my teammate D.J. Stephens and his many spectacular dunks. I don’t think I have played with a more athletic player in my career. I played with some really good athletes, like my Czech countryman Jan Vesely and Tomas Satoransky. These two are great athletes, but honestly, I’ve never seen anyone dunking like this, with so much, like… electricity! It’s the energy that he is giving us. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a player dunk like this outside the NBA. In practice, he does not dunk that much. Of course, he dunks from time to time. I always make fun of him. I think I saw a video in the EuroCup in which they were showing all of his dunks and I told him to stop doing just these regular dunks, that he had to do some windmill dunks or something.
And there is actually this story. I don’t remember which game it was, but we played at home and he was amazing. He had this huge volleyball block on a three-point shot. He went the other way and I thought: ”Maybe he is going to do the windmill dunk or something!” And he tried to do it and missed it! It was funny because he was hyping himself so much! After the game, we were sitting in the locker room and started to make fun of him. And he was like: “It’s on you, because I had you in my head. I knew that I would go and do the windmill dunk and Ondra is going to be all hyped up, but I missed! How the hell did I miss that?!”
We are going to play against “Promitheas” in the quarterfinals. I know some of their players really well. I played with Arnoldas Kulbokas for two years in “Bilbao” and then Dustin Hogue started the season with us and is now with “Promitheas”. So it is going to be interesting. They made some changes during the season. Also, Kulboka has changed a lot since he left “Bilbao”. He went to the G League and is more experiences now. He is also a little bit different as a player than when we played with him. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet, but I will. Soon.
We haven’t played but of course, I watched their game against “Bourg”, knowing the winner would play against us. I was switching between “Promitheas” and “Joventut” against “London Lions”. And then, I went on to watch “Gran Canaria” against “Bursaspor”. I was trying to watch all the games. EuroLeague TV is a good thing to have!
It is time to focus on “Promitheas” and try to make it to the semi-finals. Winning the EuroCup woul mean everything, especially in this club, not just at the sports level. It would mean everything because the situation is not easy for everybody, not for the club or the players or the whole country of Ukraine. Of course, if we can cheer them up in any way, it is amazing. I think that if we have the chance to win it, it would be something huge, but it is a very long shot. There is a long road ahead for us and I don’t even want to think about the possibility of winning. I just want to go game by game and if we can make it to the final, then we will see."
