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Amid ‘Scary Dream’, Ukraine’s Basketball Team Plays in Spain

Ukraine players during the national anthem before the match. (Reuters)
Ukraine players during the national anthem before the match. (Reuters)
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Amid ‘Scary Dream’, Ukraine’s Basketball Team Plays in Spain

Ukraine players during the national anthem before the match. (Reuters)
Ukraine players during the national anthem before the match. (Reuters)

After waking up at 5 a.m. to the news of their country being invaded and scrambling to find out if their relatives were safe back home, Ukraine’s national basketball team had to find the strength to play a World Cup qualifier in Spain on Thursday.

The game went on as scheduled despite the requests by some of the Ukrainian players to postpone it, and the mentally exhausted Ukrainian team lost 88-74.

“Today (was) a tough game for us,” Ukraine captain Artem Pustovyi said. “It’s really hard to play in this situation, with what we have now in our home. We tried to do our best. Nobody was thinking about the game. Everybody was thinking about our families, our wives and kids who are there. It’s a crazy day for us.”

Pustovyi said it was a “scary dream” to wake up to the news of what was happening back home.

“From five in the morning we don’t sleep because we received a lot of messages, we read a lot of news,” he said. “Nobody can believe that this happening in our country. But we are really sad because it is not a (expletive) dream. This is reality. How can you prepare yourself for the game? Our families stayed in Ukraine.”

Pustovyi also angrily berated Russian President Vladimir Putin in expletive-laden comments, calling his actions “crazy.”

He told other European nations to stick together because if Putin “is doing this (expletive) now in Ukraine, he will never stop, he will go to other countries.”

Ukraine coach Ainars Bagatskis, who is from Latvia, said it was “not so easy to talk about basketball ... in this crazy situation.”

“There was no mental preparation from the team,” he said. “From 5 a.m. in the morning everybody was awake. I’m proud of the players.”

The Spanish fans — and the home team — loudly applauded the Ukrainian players before and after the game and Bagatskis thanked the crowd in the southern city of Córdoba for their support.

“For moments, I think the crowd was more on our side,” he said.

Despite calls to postpone the game, Bagatskis said playing was maybe “the best thing” they could have done in this situation.

“For the moment, (it’s the) only thing we can do for the country. No more, no less,” he said.

The return game against Spain in Kyiv that had been scheduled for this weekend was postponed.

Bagatskis declined to disclose where the team would stay in the coming days, saying: "I don’t want to tell.”

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Sports

Pope Francis Was a Card-Carrying Football Fan and Promoter of Values in Sports

Francis met his fellow Argentine Maradona twice as pope. (AFP via Getty Images)
Francis met his fellow Argentine Maradona twice as pope. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Pope Francis Was a Card-Carrying Football Fan and Promoter of Values in Sports

Francis met his fellow Argentine Maradona twice as pope. (AFP via Getty Images)
Francis met his fellow Argentine Maradona twice as pope. (AFP via Getty Images)

From meetings with Diego Maradona to the passion for his beloved Buenos Aires club, San Lorenzo, Pope Francis was an avid football fan. And a promoter of sports in general.

Francis died Monday at 88 and the football and sports world immediately paid homage.

All sports events scheduled for Monday in Italy were postponed to mourn Francis, including four top-flight football matches. A minute of silence will be observed before all sports events this week, the Italian Olympic Committee said.

“Italian football joins in the mourning of millions of people following the death of Pope Francis. He was a great example of Christian caring and dignity in the face of suffering and he was always attentive to the sports world and particularly football, of which he was a fan,” said Italian football federation president Gabriele Gravina. “He will always remain in the hearts of the faithful and lovers of football.”

Francis’ passion for football became known almost immediately after he was elected pope in 2013 when San Lorenzo tweeted a photo of him holding up the club’s crest. He was even a card-carrying member of the club, with San Lorenzo ID No. 88,235.

San Lorenzo is nicknamed “the Saints.”

In Italy, there were also suggestions that Francis supported Juventus since his family came from the Piedmont region where the Turin club is based. Francis' father, Mario Bergoglio, was a basketball player.

San Lorenzo, one of the oldest teams in the Argentine Football Association, performed well after Francis was elected as the 266th pope in March 2013. The team won a national title in 2013 and then claimed the South American Copa Libertadores for the first time a year later. Club officials traveled twice to the Vatican carrying trophies to thank Francis for his support.

A planned new San Lorenzo stadium is to be named for Francis.

During a meeting with the Argentina and Italy national teams shortly after he was elected, Francis noted the influence of athletes, especially on youth, and told the players to remember that “for better or worse” they are role models. “Dear players, you are very popular. People follow you, and not just on the field but also off it,” he said. “That’s a social responsibility.”

Francis met his fellow Argentine Maradona twice as pope. There was a special audience in connection with a charity football match in 2014 when Maradona presented the pontiff with a football jersey, emblazoned with the name “Francisco” — Spanish for Francis — and Maradona’s No. 10.

“I think we all now realize he’s a (star),” Maradona said after another meeting in 2015. “I’m Francis’ top fan.”

When Maradona died in 2020, Francis remembered the football great in his prayers.

Francis often hailed sports as a way to promote solidarity and inclusion, especially for young people.

During a global conference on faith and sport in 2016, Francis implored leaders to do a better job of keeping corruption off the playing field and said sports must be protected from manipulations and commercial abuse.

“Francis was a special pope, able to illuminate in his time like only the greatest can,” Gianluigi Buffon, the former captain of Italy’s national football team who met the pope on multiple occasions, said on Instagram. “He showed us the way with great courage and moved our souls. I will carry his example forever in my heart.”