LEGENDS GAME – JUHO NENONEN ALL-STARS

Rarely, IF EVER, has there been such a game in Finland! As Juho Nenonen brought out the legends to mark the day his jersey was lifted to the rafters of Salohalli.

From the staff on the bench, the coaches, the referees and then the players – talk about legends of the Finnish game. They all game to play in a exhibition game in Salo, before the Korisliiga game.

Running down the list of names : Rannikko, Muurinen, Kotti, Huff, Wilson, Lindcom, Nuutinen, Ahonen, Kaunisto, Mäkäläinen, Rauramo, Svärd, Nikitin, Matinen, Lehtoranta..

Was it something like over 3000 Korisliiga games, and over 1000 National team games between the players on the court.

Oh, and the referees : Saros, Sarekoski and Orava.

That is one thing I would like to ask Juho, HOW!!!, did he manage to get all those players and staff to come and play in this exhibition game? Well, I know he is one heck of smooth talker, so probably didn’t take that much effort.

So when you get players who now have forged their career in the business world, politics, basketball and so on – to come and play for an exhibition game, you know it’s a big.

Then, when the average crowd in Korisliiga is probably around 1000 spectators (might be wrong) – this legends exhibition game drew 2000 fans to watch the game. Goes to show that when special games are held, the Finnish basketball crowd will attend!

I even noticed Henrik Dettman and Tom Westerholm watching the game on the court side seats, and probably missed fair few people amongst the crowd.

Pace of the game was exhibition style, but the skill was there.

No look passes from Teemu Rannikko, skiptty-hops from Jamar Wilson, dunks from Kimmo Muurinen, and just EVERYTHING from Juho Nenonen.

To be fair, this game was probably more entertaining than the Korisliiga game that followed it. Goes to show that ‘once a baller, always a baller’

I love the game, sometimes bit too much – but I would so love to see more games like this in Finland.

So who would be able to get rosters like this – or who I would like to see get games like this in the coming years or months.

In the women’s side, I would LOVE is Taru Tuukkanen would get a ‘women’s all stars/legends’ game together. Maybe in the summer, you could even get some of college players to join in, not to mention lots of legends, there would not be many players who would say no to Taru!

In the Men, problem is that so many players end their career abroad, so don’t have the same kind of connection to Finnish league at the end of their career. Players who’ve recently ‘retired’ – Antero Lehto, Tuukka Kotti, Timi Heinonen … come to mind.

Just from a personal point – for the 17 years I’ve covered the game, Juho has always been there, and he’s always been up for the ideas and interviews and in the later years, he also brought tons of ideas himself.

Like when we put together the ‘Virtual Korisliiga Finals’ during Covid-19 – I spent weeks doing the players of the teams in PS5 and Xbox and then we got players to play their teams and the whole things was live streamed.

Good times – so, just from me – I’d like to say a BIG thank you to Juho, you will be missed in front my cameras (even if I did get your popcorn eating captured last night! but some photos do not need to be shared!)

KIITOS and THANK YOU!