My Magic Moment of 2023
Dear Justina, am I too late to join the contest? 👯♂️😂
Ahoy, my super-readers! 🖤
So another wonderful day has started and my MartynasGPT engine is finally ALIVE! 🌞
It’s already the second story of the day, and the first one was… “a light talk” about self-promoting! 😂
If you haven’t checked it out already make sure to do it in the very near future! ✅ 🤝🏻
And now, ladies and gentlemen, let’s talk about something different.
It is no secret that our first sweet.pub writing contest is coming to an end, and while reading your stories, I got inspired to write one of mine! 🙌
And it will be not about Medium, not about Obama or other things that I usually write about. 🤷♂️
It will be about a personal magic moment that happened last year. It involves some “celebrities” ( 😅 ) and I’m pretty sure that I will remember it for the rest of my life! ❤️
Enough of the talk, MartynasGPT! Grab some popcorn and LET’S GO! 🚀
The Magic. The Moment. The One.
Hola, amigos! 👨🌾
There is no secret — we are living in Spain.
But in our hearts (and in our passports 😅) we are true Lithuanians! 💛💚❤️
And this means that we are a bit different than 99% of the population. 👽
Why? I wrote about it before:
Believe it or not but most of the time, Lithuanians are born with a basketball ball in their hands. Seriously. And I was no exception to that.
In other words, usually, Lithuanians are crazy about basketball — it is like a religion for us.
So it seems that someone has melted the basketball ball, somehow imported it into our DNA and now the orange blood is running through our veins. 🏀
I hope it’s clear enough! 😁
Yup. So with this story, I want to transport you to April 30, 2023.
On that special and magical day, our current town team was playing against… FC Barcelona! It’s one of the strongest and most well-known basketball teams in Europe or even in the World! Real stuff here, friends! Més que un club, amigos! 😁
So, luckily, on that incredible team there were some Lithuanians:
- A player named Rokas Jokubaitis (nickname: Rokelis) (a promising, still-young rising star);
- A legendary basketball coach Šarūnas Jasikevičius (better known as ŠARAS).
And here, guys, I have to stop and explain to you all who the hell this ŠARAS is and what it means for us — Lithuanians.
This “guy” is a true legend and celebrity in Lithuania! For us, it’s more or less like Lionel Messi in Argentina, or Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal. Or both of them combined — he is like THAT popular and respected! 💯
His basketball player career is over and now he is one of the best basketball coaches in Europe!
And his coaching style! Oh, boy! You better watch out! 😅😅😅
Usually, he is very angry, cursing all the time, shouting all the time at the refs, at the players, and so on. A typical “king” of technical fouls! 🤬🗣️
A few illustrations, boys and girls:
(Caution: Some viewers may find the following images disturbing. Watch at your own risk! 😂)
So you get the point — ŠARAS is a regular everyday normal guy. And like all of us, he has his “angry moments” sometimes. 🤬😅
But nevertheless — he is really one of the best basketball coaches ever lived! And his results speak for themselves! 💪🏀
Ok, back to the story!
When I found out about the game, I was probably one of the first to buy the tickets: for me, my son and his Italian Godfather. (Gosh, this story gets really international, huh? 😂)
So we all went to the game, and the match started! Woohoo! 🎉
Believe me, the match was incredibly and amazingly… BORING! 🥱
To be completely honest, I believe that we spent more time checking snack bars and hot-dog stands than watching the game itself. 🌮🍕🍟
Barça was in the lead right from the start. Crushing their opponents all the game. There was no hope for our poor local team Real Betis! Barça is Barça and sometimes you can’t do anything! 🤷♂️
So the match was finally over and we were walking out of the arena with some mixed feelings: on the one hand, we saw “some basketball lessons” from Barça, saw some true “stars” that we usually see on TV. 🌟📺
On the other hand, the match itself was a “very sleepy” experience! 😴
So as we were walking out of the arena I saw something. It was a small group of fans waiting in front of some bus. 🚍
It didn’t take long for us to figure out that they were all waiting for Barça players. So we joined this “gang” and not so long after, Barça’s players began to come out. 🧑🏀
They all were extremely nice, signing autographs, taking selfies and so on.
We were the only Lithuanian fans there, so we were able to chit-chat and exchange some jokes with Rokas Jokubaitis (Rokelis). And I asked him:
Is Šaras coming? Usually, he looks “a bit” angry. What do you think — will we be able to take a selfie with him? 🤳
And Rokelis just smiled and replied: “I think you will be OK with him today — we won by a big margin! 😂”.
Ok, so we were keeping our fingers crossed and soon… the coach ŠARAS came. Everyone immediately began to scream and shout! And of course, without a doubt, we joined this “trend”! 🙋♂️📣
So he walked to us and we were lucky enough to take a selfie. We tried to exchange some Lithuanian words with him but because of all the chaos around, he didn’t say anything to us. 🤷♂️
Anyway, we were very happy! 👍
Phew! What a relief! 😮💨 I took a photo with Šaras and my son! The job seemed to be done.
So after this achievement, we walked few steps away and found some bench to sit on. You know a regular bench, just like in the park. 🌳
Our plan was to sit, wait and calm down a bit. And wave to the Barça bus that will be passing by soon. You know, just to say goodbye to the magic moment that we just lived on! 👋🏻
But then... Then the REAL magic happened! 💥 You can plan some things in life, but this was just beyond anything!
So the bus started to move, and then… it suddenly stopped! ⛔
The door opens and Šaras gets out of the bus and starts waving his hands (just like in one of his time-outs 😂). My first thoughts were:
- Coach, are you angry? Are we not following the game plan? 😨😁
- Maybe something happened on the bus and they need a doctor? 👨🏻⚕️
- Maybe some crazy fan got into the bus and they needed “a helping hand” of police or security? 👮♂️
But all of my guesses were wrong! Dead wrong! ❌
It took a few seconds for us to realize — ŠARAS was waving to my son! 😳
So we cautiously walked near to him and then… ŠARAS said (of course, in Lithuanian 😅):
Hey boy! We found something in the bus just for you!
And he handed his Barça T-shirt to my son! 😲
All the fans, the policemen, the security guards, and even the cleaning staff began to clap their hands and applaud! Just like in a movie! 👏🎬
This moment happened very quickly, so I was only able to take a photo shortly after it:
A picture says more than a thousand words, right?
All of us were shocked, excited and amazed at the same time… Pure tears of pure happiness! 💧
The Outro
So that was it! ✅ I hope you liked my story!
It really brings me “shivers” even now, when I remember it. It was a pure pleasure to write this story and to relive this moment again!
And for the very end, I want to share one quote with you:
“I’m very much down to earth, just not this earth.” — Karl Lagerfeld
So thank you ŠARAS for being the opposite. For being down to earth. THIS earth — the same that we are all living in! 🌎
Ok, enough of Medium today! Now I am going to “shoot some hoops” with my son! 😂🏀🧡
See ya!
Martynas Ki. (@strangecash) ↯ Pure. Brutal. Honesty.
Thank you once again to all the writers who participated in the very first sweet.pub writing contest! 🙏 ❤️
You’re awesome! And really — don’t forget to VOTE! The time is ticking… ⏳
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