He tried to run to the arena for a game after realizing he'd sent all of his money -- including cab fare -- back to his family in Greece only to hitch a ride from a pair of fans.
Reminds me of a similar story from the NHL's New Jersey Devils some years ago. They had a couple of injuries and an illness run through the team and needed to call up a young defenseman from their minor league team in upstate New York. He had never played in the NHL before. He threw his gear into his old, beat-up car to drive the 2-3 hours down to New Jersey for the game that night. His car broke down in the Vince Lombardi Service Area on the New Jersey Turnpike, and he would have missed the game ... but a group of fans heading to the arena found out about his plight and took him with them.
It's coming. France is starting to become a basketball factory. Less than half of NBA players will be Americans in the near future. College Basketball won't be the funnel anymore, it will be Euro Leagues.
And especially amongst the youth in Canada, basketball is replacing Hockey. And in Europe Basketball is quickly catching up with Soccer.