The St Patrick’s Day Miracle

ERA Nymburk’s sheer refusal to die stood to them on St Patrick’s Day. On the road, with the odds having been against them all season, they somehow beat Gran Canaria in Las Palmas. Emmet Ryan was on the call for an epic night in the Basketball Champions League. He takes you through an odd day that was fitting for ERA Nymburk’s odd season.

I literally asked for this. When the assignments for the last two rounds of the last 16 of the Basketball Champions League were being made, I specifically requested one on St Patrick’s day. When the assignment of Gran Canaria vs ERA Nymburk came up, I wasn’t expecting much.

Now I’m regretting not buying more beers earlier.

Ludicrous context

ERA Nymburk have a record of 6 wins and 8 losses across the Basketball Champions League so far. Two of those wins however came in the play-in, the extra round they needed to play just to make the round of 16.

If we remove those two wins (given tonight’s opponents Gran Canaria didn’t have to play it), the record drops to 4-8 in the two group phases. Why do I bring this up? Well it might be because of one unusual bit of correlation.

When I’ve been on the English language broadcast, ERA Nymburk have gone 3-1 in group games. When I’ve not been on the call, their record in group games is 1-7. This is the type of pointless and useless data that I love. It’s whimsical, irrelevant, and ends up with situations like tonight.

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The day

St Patrick’s day is a public holiday in Ireland. As a result, I didn’t have to worry about anything other than the big one. ERA Nymburk were only alive because they beat Trieste a week ago and Gran Canaria lost to Tenerife. If either result had gone the other way, this would have been a dead rubber.

Instead, a 4 point win for Nymburk in Las Palmas would change everything. By freak chance, I’d landed a whopper of a game and treated the prep accordingly. That is to say that I watched the final promo for Wrestlemania X7 along with a whole pile of clips from Rocky movies.

The one that stood out in my head was the conclusion to the fight in Rocky II. For those who need a recap, Apollo Creed as defending champion led on points in the final round against Rocky Balboa. Rocky knocks down Creed but collapses to the canvas himself in the process. If neither man beat the count, Creed would retain.

You can see why it stuck with me given the points issue. So, spoiler warning, this is how the fight finished.

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The actual game

ERA Nymburk just couldn’t get in front but they wouldn’t go away either. With 8.13 left in the first quarter, Gran Canaria took a 6-5 lead. They wouldn’t lose that lead for even a second until there was 6.41 left in the third, when Goran Filipovic first leveled matters and then gave Nymburk the lead at the line.

Up to that point, Nymburk had led for 22 seconds in the whole game. They wouldn’t hold a lead greater than 1 point until there was 3.21 left in the third, thanks to a Jaquan Lawrence dunk to go up 57-54. Yet still, it took until 6.37 left in the final quarter to lead by more than the necessary 4 points.

That came via a JT Shumate three. Still Gran Canaria kept coming back but Nymburk were unloading now. Another three by Shumate and then one by Tony Perkins. A jump shot from a horrible position by Ondrej Sehnal followed. All before the big Basketball Champions League moment.

Filipoviću MAJSTORE!!!

Gigantic three-pointer by the Croat to push Czech champs to the Quarter-Finals!!#BasketballCL pic.twitter.com/B8NZB7zZs6

— Basketball Champions League (@BasketballCL) March 17, 2026

Big game Goran

There were still 11 seconds left on the shot clock. His team was up by 5 points with only 43.2 seconds left on the game clock. There was nobody guarding him and he was about 5 feet back behind the arc. Basically, everything logical said Goran Filipovic should kill some more clock.

Instead he nailed that monster three and ERA Nymburk’s mission was complete. They had gone to Las Palmas against a Gran Canaria side hoping to play its part in turning the Basketball Champions League Final Four into a version of the Copa del Rey.

The side from Czechia did the unthinkable and I was left spewing comparisons to St Patrick. We were taught a lot about his miracles as kids in school but even he would doff his mitre at Goran Filipovic and the remarkable ERA Nymburk side. They refused to stay down and now they remain in the dance.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s pinting time.

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