Finland will meet Croatia in the quarterfinals of the European Basketball Championships on Sunday at 3:45 p.m. The match will be seen live on channels. EC basketball is followed in this article.
PRAGUE. A large part of the history of the Finnish sport ends at the European Basketball Championships, when both Shawn Huff that Petteri Koponen end their careers.
While walking the streets of Prague, the duo’s mind has not yet been struck by the desire for comedy. Experienced competitive athletes still have success in their minds.
They are fascinated to do something that has not been seen in Finnish basketball in the new era: win a playoff match and reach the top eight in Europe.
The preceding sentences reflect well how huge a leap Finnish basketball has taken. The 38-year-old Huff played his first international match in 2003, the 34-year-old Koponen in 2006. Even then, the qualifiers were divided into two divisions. Finland was in the lower B division, twisting with other small countries.
– There wasn’t even a chance to play against bigger countries. We dreamed that we would even have a chance to make it to the Games. He didn’t even dare to say it out loud, Huff recalls.
Over the years, the men’s national basketball team has become the Susijengi that everyone knows. The team is already playing for the fifth time in a row in the European Championships. Today, the race venue is even considered automation.
Back in 2008, Susijengi took the first steps towards the top of Europe in front of 1,500 people in a half-empty Areena in Vantaa. Petteri Koponen was on fire in the EC qualifiers. Serbia, the future European silver medalist and fifth in the world ranking, was knocked down in a sensational way.
Now in August, the last national match of Huff and Koposen’s career in Finland took place in front of more than 11,000 spectators in Tampere. Before that, Susijengi had filled the Helsinki arena to even louder numbers several times in the EC home games. Thousands of Susijeng’s fans travel abroad for prestigious competitions.
– It’s incredible to think about where Finnish basketball is going today. It’s the new normal. The standards are high. Our youth department has not seen what Shawn and I have seen. It’s kind of cool. It’s normal for them to get to the Games and do well there, says Koponen.
Now the basketball promises are able to look at the top of the world from a better starting point. For example, there is Urhea Hall in Helsinki, there is an academy system and so on.
Coaching and support are available. Less than twenty years ago it was different. Huff had already played his first men’s international matches when, in his twenties, he had to look for games outside.
– I just wanted to get somewhere to play. The halls were closed. There were renovations or gym shifts, but there were no players, says Huff.
Huff has a more special memory of the national team
Koponen’s and Huff’s eras have seen many Susijengi games that have become classics. However, Huff remembers a slightly different national team game from his career.
He brings up the 2017 European Championship home match against Poland. At that time, Huff was not at his best. The score column showed zero before the end of the actual game time.
– The match was one of my worst games statistically. I thought that I had to do something for the team and win a situation, Huff recalls.
The match was quite a thriller. Susigengi was still eight points behind when there was less than a minute left in the Pelikello. However, Finland rose to the level and was about to take the match to extra time.
Poland still had the last possession. Huff settled down to glue Poland’s star player Mateusz Ponitka.
– I know Ponitka will get the ball. I defend him. It was up to me whether we would get to overtime, Huff begins.
– There was such a good feeling that I knew we would win in overtime. After the game had gone down the drain, this was my chance to wash my face. I knew the scout about Ponitka and where he wants to go. I guessed right. I managed to stop Ponitka. He had to take a bad throw.
Susijengi won the match after two overtimes and took a big leap towards the next games.
– In team sports, you are never alone in the middle of a bad game. There is always an opportunity to help a teammate. In that moment, the beauty of team sports crystallized for me, Huff expressed.
A wonderful legacy for future generations
Koponen cannot name any single match or memory, but talks about the entire 16-year journey in the national team. Koponen, known by the nickname “The General”, has offered quite a few hit games in his career.
Huff rattles off one example when the conversation turns to Koponen’s legacy in Susijeng. The game is from the European Championships 2013 in Koper, when Koponen scored 33 points in 29 minutes against Greece. Susigengi knocked down one of the pre-favorites of the games under the leadership of “Kenraal”.
– Petter’s legacy for the national team is that there is one player who can decide matches at the international level with his own individual performances. Such a player raises the level of the entire team, Huff states.
– Then you know that you only have to take care of your own plot and the team rises to a new level.
Huff reminds that, like Koposen, Susijengi is now being carried Lauri Markkanen.
– When we know that we have such a tough player in our team, the level of our game rises to a completely different level, Huff emphasizes.
Huff inherited the role of Susijeng captain From Hanno Möttölä in the summer of 2015.
Listening to the praise, Koponen can easily see Huff’s legacy for Finnish basketball.
– Shawn takes everyone into account and takes care of everyone. He is such a good person and sometimes even too good. Sometimes you wonder if such a thing can exist, Koponen praises and laughs.
– That’s why I sometimes shout that you shouldn’t fish.
On the field, Huff has the same traits as off the field. Koponen incenses him as a link knife that can be put on the field in any role in any situation.
– A perfect person, a perfect team player, Koponen summarizes before Huff interrupts.
– A link knife is not anyone’s first choice, but it is good to have one with you.
The two reveal that they haven’t always been basketball lovers. Koponen says frankly that he hated basketball when he was younger. He didn’t like to constantly spend time in the halls while his mother played basketball. However, the godfather was able to turn heads in favor of basketball.
Huff has also been playing on the basketball courts since he was in diapers, when Leon-father played in the Finnish premier league. However, at the age of 11, collecting NBA cards ignited a spark that made Huff start playing basketball.
Now the two say they want to continue playing basketball in one way or another. Huff already has one way in mind. He wants to help young people get involved in basketball in Eastern Helsinki.
In any case, Huff has brighter plans for the time after his playing career than Kopose. The Susijengi captain already works as a city councilor for the Greens in Helsinki and is also a parliamentary election candidate.
– Shawn wants to save Finland, Koponen throws.
Koponen, who suffers from hip osteoarthritis, states that he plans to take some oxygen after the European Championships before starting to draw more precise guidelines.
– I have been chasing the ball like a horse for quite a long time. Now I want to give time to children and family.
Koponen laughs, though, that his own son has the same situation as he had himself. You can’t taste basketball when you’ve been knocking around the halls after your parents since you were little.
Even the wolf gang has become a kind of family for Huff and Kopose, who have seen everything. Crying, laughing, bad claps. The duo will miss all that community when their careers finally end.
Koponen, who has played successfully in Europe’s top clubs, says that the importance of the national team is even difficult to explain.
– As a professional, the competition is raw and tough every day. You have to fight for your position. In the national team, it’s like playing with friends. This whole journey has been so amazing. I have been able to be here with such great people all these years. These moments will be missed.
It’s time to dance with the wolves one last time in Berlin.