Listening to the Spanish commentaries in this video summary (and reading some biographies on the net), you’d be forgiven to believe Brazzaville-born NBA basketball player Serge ‘Air Congo’ Ibaka is from the DRC. But that’s on the other side of the Congo River. He acquired a Spanish passport in July this year, so the Spanish national team welcomed him with open arms. And went on to win the European Championship on Sunday night. Thanks to Ibaka’s blocking five French shots in eight minutes. Nice. A “taponaso,” they call it.
Since arriving in the NBA’s he has adopted well to American sports. Eurosport did a good feature on the rise of ‘Iblockya’ a while ago:
“tapón” is block. “taponazo” great block. and an anecdote: when in july, the government speaker announced that he was granted the Spanish nationality, he jumbled his words and called him IKEA instead of Ibaka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRz8C35AaW8