CSKA in Prague. Day two

The day before the start of every representative tournament is the most bustling but on the other side it is marked with maximum good words said by all the team representatives. It is the time to explore the hotel, the arena, to meet friends. But everyone knows that tomorrow the things would change dramatically. But now Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon may break an order of Euroleague official press conference and ask Ettore Messina on some details of his life in Moscow. Theodoras Papaloukas may afford to ‘resent’ on the media for excluding him from the list of NBA potentials. Tomorrow there could be no jokes, just concentration and confidence.

Sazka Arena also is getting ready for the games. It took about 17 hours to put the wooden court on the ice. Fortunately not for the first time. The court was already used by Chezh National team in the game with Polish NT in the European championship preliminary round. The court looks great. It is made of Canadian maple and according to the description of the local media could be used even for the NBA game. Probably it is the reason for the security to guard all the areas of the arena carefully. For example, only the general manager of our team Yuri Yurkov was cleared to make pictures at CSKA locker.

CSKA stepped on the court rather late in the evening. The team was the last to practice and the time was set for 22.30 (Moscow time). In the morning the team had a practice in the gym of Marriott hotel. All the team was present except to Papaloukas and Messina who attended the press conference mentioned above.