By Nikos Varlas / varlas@eurohoops.net
The Czech Republic made history and accomplished their greatest success yet in the biggest basketball tournaments! They went through to the Top 8 in style, destroying Croatia. The leader of this team is, without a doubt, Tomas Satoransky. The impressively multidimensional Barcelona player spoke to Eurohoops about the big moments he’s experiencing with his teammates, the dream that goes on and the player that influenced him the most for him to acquire his prolific style.
“We’re living a dream. We’re in the quarterfinals and this is an historic success for my home country! But this is not the end of the line for us. When opportunities like this arise, you have to fight to achieve something big. We’re going to keep on dreaming and we want to fight hard.” Was he expecting such an outcome in the game against Croatia? “We’re a team that is not afraid to play against talented ensembles. Everyone knows that we start with defense, we want to stop our opponents and run on the open court. This paid off for us against Croatia, they couldn’t respond.” He played 36 minutes! How hard is that?
“Very! The fixtures are continuous and the games are intense. I was tired at the end, as you saw. That’s why I made some silly mistakes.” How does he feel that he made Tomic and Hezonja sad, two of his teammates in Barcelona last year? “That’s sports, everyone plays for their own country. One day you’re sad, the next, happy. I’m highly motivated to play well with Barcelona in the new season. We didn’t win anything last year and this makes you more motivated. We’ve put together a good team and when the time comes I’m going to give everything for Barcelona.”
The most likely scenario based on the current facts, is that Satoransky will make the big step to the NBA next summer and play for the Washington Wizards. What does he have to say about that? “It’s a decision that will be made next summer. I won’t hide that the dream I’ve had since I was a boy is to play in the NBA.”
We’re talking about a player who can complete a double-double for fun and who often reaches a triple-double! The 10 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals that he tallied against Croatia is a… routine performance for Satoransky. At 24 years of age he’s already one of the most complete and multidimensional European playmakers, with a big body and rich athletic qualities. How does he account for that, how did he build such an athletic profile and whom was he influenced by to advance this style?
“First of all, thanks for saying that! When I started out playing basketball, I wasn’t particularly good at any one thing. I wasn’t a scorer either. My coaches were telling me to try and do a lot of things on the court in order to help my team any way I could. As time went by, I realized that this was my game, to get involved in every aspect of the game. If there was a player that I considered as an ideal example and wanted to be like as I was growing up? Yes, Manu Ginobili!”