By Niki Bakouli
He started his press conference by saying “we don’t have many things to say. It’s Game 5. A game with no tomorrow”. Twenty minutes later, it was clear enough Zeljko Obradovic was wrong.
Panathinaikos coach clarified “with the exception of the first game, all the others against Maccabi Electra for this series were the same. We play at OAKA, some things are too good for us and I expect from my players to play at the highest level, for all of our fans. We need high concentration and the last thing we need is anxiety. We need to have the minimum turnovers and to take care of rebounds. We try to incorporate some details into our plays and we will see tomorrow night where we are”.
And what about Maccabi Electra? Are they going to try something new? “We expect they will, in offense. In every game they tried something new. But after four games, it will be easy for us to see it and react in the appropriate way. For sure, I am not expecting any surprises. Unless Sofo goes for pick, pops out and shoots a three-pointer”!
Will the greatest personalities make the difference, as it happens in every do or die game? “Always you have a player, who does big things. Do you remember last year’s Greek finals against Olympiacos? Mr. Fotsis had 6/6 three point shots. It was his night. Everybody understands it. But it’s not right to say, we expect from a certain player to do everything. I watched NCAA’s final. And at the end of first half, I heard a comment about a player, Anthony Davis, dominating in every area -without scoring even one point. He had rebounds, assists, steals. We have to find a player like him (…he laughs)”.
When somebody asked him about the true meaning of team defense, he talked about Maccabi’s isolation “so, we go to what each player can do. That means everybody has to be ready. This is the beginning of defense. Every coach’s dream is to have players with the ability to play one on one. If you have one player who can do this, you have an advantage. In offense, you give them the ball and you have a chess game. But everything is like life: the great things are simple”!
They asked him a comment about his players… devotion -they wrote at their blogs they could die for him, after he said he can die for them: “I don’t have a clue of what you ‘ve just told me. We are here every day. They can come and tell me this. They can look me in the eyes and tell me all about their devotion. It’s nothing new to me or to them”.
He revealed after the third game “we had talks with every one of our players. I thought we needed to talk to them, one by one. We will do the same now, during practice and at the hotel. But I have to clarify something: nobody came to my room to watch the tape of Game 3. We all went to the meeting room” and for the closing part, he chose to say: “I have to remind you that I’ m very proud of my players. People can change during the years. Some of them have families now. But they have the same passion for basketball and they all will remember this season, as their best one. We had Tracy Marey at our last practice. He was here for few days. You know what he said, after seeing everything we are doing here (“I am always in favor of Panathinaikos“). I am proud of everybody and we will always need the most experienced to lead the way. And one more thing: our fans will be here and we need them to create a great atmosphere. Maccabi’s hospitality was excellent and we need to be excellent too”.
For the third straight day, Panathinaikos owners went to OAKA to talk with the players and to stress their confidence in their ability to succeed. Pavlos Giannakopoulos chose not to say something to the Press. His brother Thanasis assured “the atmosphere will be great, the greatest of the last five years. Always in sporting context. I believe Panathinaikos will be the winner. Our players will give everything, together with their coaches, to make our fans happy”.