Pro basketball

Tuesday evening Garry and I went to our second pro basketball game in Zaporosia (most people spell it Zaporozizhia in English- but I think you be closer on pronounciation - Zap- por- rose- ah - the way I spell is the way it sounds to me if it was English) We stopped at Mc Donalds first for cheeseburgers (at Ukrainian McDs - the meal deal is the menu- as in Royal cheeseburger menu- its kinda a quarterpounder with cheese- with fries and Cola (or Sprite or Fanta- but they always ask Cola? after you order a menu- no one ever calls it Coke here.) After all, this was a date night, we haven't had many lately.

Garry remembered how to get to the gym- last time we had gone with a friend. We got tickets and the place was packed. This was the first home game for the semi-finals, they had lost the first two games away (best of five.)We walked in and the teams were warming up. The two guys we went out to dinner with in March were playing, although Christian the guy from New Jersey did not play much- at half-time we found out he had hurt his back (he did not play at all in game two.) Kendrick (from Texas) played nearly the entire game.







The pre-game includes player introductions and the playing of the national anthem (which can be translated Ukraine Will Not Die- I think one of my English students told me or Ukraine will go on... wait that's the Titanic theme.) No one sang- just the music, but people faced the flag, some with hands on hearts.







There is a clapping, chanting group of guys with drums in one end of the stands that provide most of the traditional cheering- with the additional of pounding drums- they were across the gym from us with a huge banner to start the game. Ferro (the Zap team) was behind by 12 when they dramatically caught up and went up by nine at half.

I took some photos of the cheerleaders- last time I didn't bring the camera- they do dance numbers at centercourt during timeouts, with numberous costume changes from basketball uniforms to the Micheal Jackson homage and Ukrainian traditional-inspired (if there were no skirts traditionally) to the sparkly gold and black outfits. There are boys with brooms to mop up the floor too, at timeouts and if anyone falls on their side of the gym (thre






It was however, the last game of the season, there was a large number of fouls called on the Zap team to start the second half, none called on the other team until they were up by 12 again, the Zaporosia team only scored a couple buckets in the 3rd quarter and got blown out, although they tried hard, (they were rather out-sized) and were applauded by the home crowd at the end. I am sure the American players are ready to head home, the two guys whose wives were here in Ukraine for sure, as they left for the states at the end of March (they were in on the 3 month- no visa needed since January.) The players say the money is good to play in Ukraine, but only one guy on the team was back for a second year.

Unlike in March it was still light when we got home from the game, and garry had to go breed a cow in the village. In March it was dark by the time the game started at six- and there was ice on the sidewalks.