By Michalis Gioulenoglou/ info@eurohoops.net
Limassol, Cyprus – The question of stopping Giannis Antetokounmpo is among the hot topics of Eurobasket 2025, and Italian national team coach Gianmarco Pozzecco has a very practical solution.
“Probably we will do this in the first quarter, so he will not play in the second, third, and fourth quarters”, he said with a straight face before delivering the punch line: “A friend of mine is a really good sniper. This is the only option that we have, I already talked about it with my staff. There’s no other option. To stop his is not possible”.
And then of course, he elaborated on a more serious note without opening his cards: “We have to change this kind of mentality and to understand that it would be Italy versus Greece. He is unstoppable in the NBA, and you can imagine we can stop him here? No”.
After all, on a personal level, Pozzecco and Giannis created a viral hug back in the 2022 Eurobasket they don’t want to kill each other – maybe only metaphorically on the court – and as the coach explained, there’s no chance of repeating that viral moment: “It was funny because after our prep game a couple of days ago, when we meet in the middle of the court, the end of the game, he saw me and it was like ready to, and I fail to run and jump. Then I stopped. I said: “Hey, sorry, Giannis, I’m not in shape, and we were laughing. He’s a great guy”.
However, when asked if he would prefer to face Greece without Giannis, or without coach Vassilis Spanoulis, Pozzecco praised his colleague: “He is a great coach, already one of the best in Europe. Since the first time I faced him (ed. note: as a player) he had something huge on him and you could see his winning mentality. And that mentality coaches pass on to their teams”.