To win just once: The Galway basketball story

Galway has produced some of the best players in Irish basketball history but never won silverware at the Superleague level. Now Maree are on the verge of changing that

FINAL-BOUND: University of Galway Maree’s Rodrigo Gomez celebrates after the semi-final. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

He was right, you know. Your boy Tolley. Winning is everything and nothing else matters. I mean, I’ve said that so many times myself, I’ve lost count. Doesn’t matter what sport, what country, any coach worth a darn believes those words. Fact.

And then I came here. And for the first time in my life, maybe for the first time in the history of sports, suddenly it’s just not true anymore. At least not here, not now. You see, Red, it doesn’t matter if we win or if we lose. It’s not even about how we play the game. What matters is that we play the game. That we take the field, that we suit up on Saturdays and we keep this thing alive. We play the game, Red, and I’m telling you one day, not today, not tomorrow, probably not even next season but one day you and I are going to wake up and suddenly we’re going to be like every other team in every other sport where winning is everything and nothing else matters.