7 Yellow Heart

The human memory can hold so many details – colors, scents, words, sounds and pictures.
There are so many ways to recall, so many details to remember. However, there is one unique moment that is more memorable than all others. One moment that explains everything, one which answers all of the questions, one that I will never forget. For me, it was the semi-final against Siena in the Final Four in Madrid.

I don’t remember how many points he scored, I don’t remember how many minutes he played and I don’t even remember if it was a good game of his. On the court everything went wrong. The win seemed so far away and nothing went right for Maccabi– one substitution after another, several attempts to make a comeback and nothing worked. Siena was on its way to the finals. My head began to ache, like it wanted to tell me that we had tried everything. Then, it simply gave up and the heart took charge.

Second half, Siena had a safe double-digit lead, and Nicola Vujcic was looking from the bench towards the fans; the fans looked back and started to call his name. The arena shook, the head simply gave up and the heart started to work. He made his way to the substitution bench and the crowd cheered from the bottom of their hearts. One last spark of hope began to spread. Siena had the ball, still in their half of the court. Nicola was focused on defense. The fans were ecstatic and so was he. I looked at him like a child asking for help. The singing got louder and Nicola simply started jumping. That was the moment I won’t forget for the rest of my life. The moment that will always remind me of Yellow Heart number 7. That strong desire to return our love, to return to us the desire to win, the ability to play with his heart, the amount of energy that went from him to the fans and back; from that moment, everything changed.

That moment was not mentioned in any statistics form, but any fan who was in Madrid that day will proudly say that this was the moment that brought back Maccabi into the game. That moment was all it took in order in order to enable us to sit one day with our grandchildren and tell them who Nicola Vujcic was.

That moment explains to us how it is that a foreign player fell so much in love with the yellow jersey and the state of Israel. It explains to us why a Croatian player came to drive his car in his homeland with an Israeli license plate. It explains to us how it is that even when he left, he said that this is not the end; that he will return, whether as a player or as a proud citizen. In order to make it even more clear, he even had his picture taken with the veteran team’s shirt. This moment explains to us why we loved him so much, why we are going to miss him so much, and moreover why we are going to remember him as one of the best players that ever played here.

Five years ago, after the unforgettable “Zalgiris miracle”, one of the journalists wrote about how this arena’s ceiling has seen everything. Well, almost everything.

This Saturday night we are going to watch one of the most exciting nights ever, as we will get a chance to say goodbye to Yellow Heart number 7. True, maybe we’ll shed a tear, but Nicola has already said that it is not “goodbye,” just “I’ll see you later” – because that’s the way the heart goes; he can’t go too far, surely not for a long time. On Saturday night we will meet for the first time this season on our home court and begin a new season in the best possible way – we will start to weave the dreams of tomorrow while we thank the one who granted us our dreams of yesterday.

Thank you Nicola, from the bottom of my heart.