The Dubai International Basketball Championship slated next week might be the last time we see Andray Blatche in a professional jersey.
Andray Blatche hobbled over to the media scrum, his left ankle having just undergone extensive treatment. It had caused him to sit out the practice session of Strong Group Athletics (SGA) last Sunday as they continued their preparations for the 34th Dubai International Basketball Championship next week.
“No injury, just real sore,” he said of the ankle. “I rolled it (Saturday), so it’s a little sore, that’s it. Just needed some ice and a little bit of rest, and I’ll be fine.”
Blatche was a real trooper, though, encouraging his teammates from the sidelines and dragging himself to the waiting media for an interview. This was, after all, probably the last time they would get to interact with the former Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player in this setting.
From all indications, the Dubai tournament will be the swan song of a professional career that began 20 years ago for Andray Blatche, and naturally he wants to end it on a high note.
“Yeah, it’s looking like that,” the 38-year-old Blatche said. “So I really want to go out there and have fun and definitely get to Dubai and definitely get a championship. Go out with a good bang and a good memory.
“I mean, it’s very important. Like I said, I want to go out there. This might be my last time putting on a jersey. And get a championship and make SGA proud again.”
Serving as added motivation for Blatche is a chance at redemption. SGA dropped a heartbreaker to Al Riyadi of Beirut in the championship game last year on a last-second three-point shot. What’s worse, Blatche was unable to contribute much after suffering an early injury.
“The only thing to do with that is just go out there and win the championship. You know, definitely there was a bad taste. I got hurt in the first quarter of that game and we lose by a buzzer-beater. That definitely hurt.
“We had to sit there and watch them celebrate for about two hours. So that definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. And I want to go out there and return the favor.
“We lost last year, so this year it’ll be great to go there and get another win.”
Blatche has reason to be optimistic about formally ending his playing career on a winning note.
“Oh, it’s great. It’s definitely great. I mean, we have a group of great guys, a lot of shooters, a lot of talent. We have good bigs, good guards. So this will actually be really exciting to play out there in Dubai with.
“I can say, well, we definitely got bigger. We still got shooters. We’re going to miss a couple of shooters from last year. But we got shooters that are stepping up. All the locals are playing great.
“The locals are definitely confident. We got Mikey (Williams) this year also. Mikey, you know, he’s been running the team like a great point guard. So there’s some ups and downs from last year.”
Blatche is hoping that SGA can blow out their opponents early so that the younger players such as Rhenz Abando, Ange Kouame and Dave Ildefonso can get the lion’s share of the minutes.
“The most important thing for us is going to be, when we get out there, is to jump on teams early and let us older guys like myself sit down and rest.
“Last year it was a bad taste, a bad way to lose. I wanted to come back and correct it.”
Banner images from AFP.