By Michalis Gioulenoglou/ info@eurohoops.net
Riga, Latvia – Greece broke the “quarterfinals curse” and, after 16 years, made it to a semifinal of a major FIBA tournament; however, Giannis Antetokounmpo, just after the final buzzer, gathered the team and asked them to stop celebrating.
“Have we won something? Have we won something? One more game. Ok?” shouted Giannis to his teammates.
“Don’t sleep, wake up,” added veteran point guard Kostas Sloukas as Greece is already thinking of the semifinal against Turkey.
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Captain Kostas Papanikolaou elaborated, speaking to the press a bit later: “We are happy, but on the other hand we haven’t achieved something yet. We just gave ourselves one more chance to dream and now we have to go out there on Friday and fight for this dream”.
Coach Vassilis Spanoulis added in the press conference: “We are always hungry, when you play for the national team, you always have motivation. We represented our whole country and also the Greek diaspora. Sometimes you make it, some others you don’t. We have to live this moment, enjoy it, and move on. After all, we haven’t won a trophy or a medal. We move to the next game”.
As a player, Spanoulis was part of the team that won Eurobasket gold in 2005, FIBA World Cup silver in 2006, and also a Eurobasket bronze in 2009.
Photo credit: FIBA