It is difficult to calculate who is to blame for the abyss in which the basketball club Partizan is. But President Ostoja Mijailović volunteers for the biggest culprit by not understanding that he has to leave and thus opens up a chance for a new beginning
The phrase that something is "below criticism" in the case of a basketball player's game Partizan it should be taken literally. Below criticism means that it should not be criticized because the matter has slipped below the threshold at which meaningful criticism is even possible. It's not worth wasting words.
To that extent, all topics that have been produced in recent weeks have been missed Partizan. How does Partizan not know how to defend the pick-and-roll, who is soloing in the attack, when Karlik Jones returns, does Peñaroja's coach speak English well, will new reinforcements be brought in? Nonsense.
Especially since they come from the Arena Sport channel, from the industry of sports portals, podcasts and from "insiders" - who are often so confused that they are not even allowed to say a word about the main problem of Partizan. Then they get lost in the details, chasing clicks.
The story of the particulars is meaningless when looking at the total. It's like talking about the color of the facade or the quality of the lawn of a house that's on fire and soon won't be left unturned.
Anyone who has closely followed the saga of this instant-failure, if they are honest, will admit that they cannot quite explain it.
Disturbed relations in the club and the so-called "locker rooms" are obvious, the ugly character of most players as well. But that is too little to explain the deepest depths of Partizan in its history just when it has the most expensive team in history.
I watched videos of fixed football matches in Montenegro and Albania - the goalkeeper falls before the shot, the defenders take cover. Partizan looks even worse than that. This can't even be faked.
Perhaps it is fairest to say that it is a perfect storm that has been simmering beneath the surface for a long time. When the car turned down the side, neither Zeljko Obradovic, the greatest European coach, could not stop them, so he honestly raised his hands.
It is impossible to mathematically determine the culprit. Is it, say, Ostoja Mijailović guilty 43,8 percent, Željko Obradović 13,4 percent, and the rest goes to the player's soul? How much is due to the abnormality of the regime and external pressure? Who could say that now.
Whatever the cocktail of responsibility, the lump has grown so much that it will crush Partizan's self-understanding. This is a team whose players have no basic self-respect, the management is disconnected from reality, and the fans simply won't watch it anymore. About four thousand people paid for a ticket for the game against Olympiakos - you can't remember such a thin attendance.
More important than looking for the culprits is the fact that Partizan cannot be extricated from the gloomy total by changing the details. Cancer is not treated with carrot juice, a broken bone is not masked with powder.
Healing is possible - but by no means certain! - only if everything is uprooted and planted again. This can only come from club president Ostoja Mijailović, whose best moment to resign was at the beginning of December. The second best moment is today.
Judging by his latest public interventions, where he blames all the troubles on the "sports sector" while he secured the money and is supposedly innocent, Mijailović is very far from the idea of resigning.
It is precisely this lack of marriage, and not a share in the initial cocktail of guilt, that now makes Mijailović the biggest culprit and the only significant target of the fans' anger. If he does not step down, he will push Partizan even deeper. And at least Partizan fans know that it can always get worse.
If he resigns, there are great chances that he will be succeeded by someone who is at the will of Aleksandar Vučić's regime. If he is even half as partisan as Mijailović, that could be enough for a new beginning.
The job of that, still imaginary, new management would be to rush almost the entire playing staff as cheaply as possible and secure a couple of signatures of local players for the next season, find a coach that the fans appreciate and who would complete the team in the summer.
Only with that new energy, perhaps with the support of Željko Obradović, fans would once again fill the Arena and pay for season tickets, which are the only guarantor of the budget and the idea that the Euroleague will be played competitively.
And the moment is spicy. European basketball is threatened by a new split, which, paradoxically, is a chance for Partizan and Crvena Zvezda to grab a long-term license to play in the Euroleague. That's a story for the next few months.
But Partizan should be saved now, while there is still something to save.
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