Prague International Streetball Cup 2017

12.11. 20:15:13 Uncontroversial intercontinental flights, so could be named the Slam Dunk Battle for Europe competition at this year's Prague International Streetball Cup, where the prize money of 500 euros were also fought for the first time. This prize shared two great guys Arek „Aro“ Przybylski - Ivars Rihards Žvigurs. The second named, who was defending colors of the Latvian Ghetto Basket team, gave Streetball mania an exclusive interview.

Ivars, together with Ark Przybylski, you overmastered in the Prague International Streetball Cup in 2017 the smash competition. How did you enjoy your triumph and duel with Arek?
Arek is great dunker. I loved going against him. But this wasnt the first time we had a duel. We both took part at qualification for Ghetto Kings of Air in Riga and we both got there.

Your contest was extremely attractive for the fans. Did you reliaze that you made the fans absolutely crazy about that? Did you enjoy this?
I absolutely enjoy that. I love to involve fans in my performance. That gives me great energy.

Were you satisfied with your dunks? Did you do them exactly the way you wanted? Or did you improvise somewhere and added some extras?
There was some things I wanted to do differently. But I won´t give away my secrets.

How did you like the place in the heart of the capital city of the Czech Republic, where was the Slam Dunk Battle for Europe and the tournament itself performed? Did you love it?
Prague is very a beautiful city. I absolutely loved my time there. I'm looking to visit this city in the future.

Do you have a long-term goal in smaching competitions that you would like to win?
One day I would like to be one of the best dunkers in the world. But you have to put a lot of time to acheave that. Right now being a professional basket player it´s hard to find time just for dunking.

Let's go to the tournament inself. You didn´t manage to go through the quarterfinals when you were eliminated by a later overall winner, Extra Auto Vrbas from Serbia. What were in your opinion the causes of this defeat?
The cause of the loss was that we didn´t played defense as we should. Also the luck wasn´t on our side.

The early elimination is always sad, but still. Did you enjoy the tournament for maximum? And if you should compare it to the other tournaments, what was it specific in, different and interesting?
I didn´t enjoy the tournament for maximum, because we lost. But that is our fault. The organization was great, we got to live and play in the city centre. There were a lot of fans. I would love to participate in this tournament next year.

Official highlight from Prague International Streetball Cup 2017 → http://bit.ly/2wI3ltj
Video from Slam Dunk Battle for Europe on our Facebook → http://bit.ly/2htBPNi

Photo: Jakub Nedbal