| 09 February 2010
 | Jeff Taylor has been covering European basketball since 1997, when he first worked on the television program SLAM. He has been a basketball writer and broadcaster since that time, traveling the continent and covering the game in depth for FIBA Europe since its launch in 2003. |
Pokey Chatman is not short of energy and enthusiasm when she's coaching Spartak Moscow Region or Slovakia's national team.Just watch the American for a few seconds of a game in the EuroLeague Women, or at a EuroBasket Women, and you'll know what I mean. She has a real zeal for the sport. Chatman is also full of compassion off the court. She remembers where she comes from. Chatman is from New Orleans. You know her as a former college coach in America, and as the coach of Spartak - the team of superstars. But did you know she helped fundraising efforts for the New Orleans Area Habit for Humanity (NOAHH) to help people rebuild lives after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. ‘Operation Rebound' raised more than 100,000 US dollars. It's why in the early morning hours of Monday in Russia, she and fellow Louisianans Christie Sides (another coach at Spartak) and Sylvia Fowles (Spartak's USA international center) were wide awake and slapping high-fives. They were watching the New Orleans Saints play in the Super Bowl and upset the Indianapolis Colts. "Well, my mood regarding the Saints championship run has been at an all-time high for the past few weeks," she said to FIBA Europe. "I'm not sure if I can put into words how deep of an emotional appeal this win has for the people of New Orleans." In the old days, the struggling Saints were "the Aints". Some fans were so embarrassed by their performances that they showed up at games wearing bags on their heads. But that's not why the win was so important for Chatman and everyone else in Louisiana. "Their story can't be told without speaking of Hurricane Katrina, and the devastation it left behind," Chatman said The Saints couldn't play their games in New Orleans after Katrina, but instead went up the road to Baton Rouge. Neutral fans all over America began to hope the Saints would find some success to provide a diversion for the people of New Orleans and to give them hope. "To keep it short," she said, "I will say this: I screamed, I cried, I hi-fived Big Syl (Fowles), I screamed some more, I cried again...and when I come off of cloud nine, I will toast the Champions!" | 
