By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus coach Giorgos Bartzokas said that if he wasn’t a coach and being involved with basketball professionally, he’d possibly pursue a music career with Led Zeppelin’s guitar god Jimmy Page as an inspiration.
“I like music so much, when I was young I wanted to be a guitar player like Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin,” Bartzokas said to the ‘The Coaching Experience‘ show of Spanish DAZN network. “This was my dream you know. So if I had the chance to do something, it would be this.”
Bartzokas also recalled his experience at the helm of Barcelona in 2016-2017.
“I made mistakes. I had the opportunity to live in a fantastic city like Barcelona, coach a fantastic team, and bring the family with me so that we were all together,” Bartzokas said to the ‘The Coaching Experience’ show of Spanish DAZN network. “It was like being in paradise. But the end was like a depression for me
Barcelona signed Bartzokas in 2016 after the team had failed to win the Spanish League championship for two straight seasons while also being absent from the EuroLeague Final Four also in 2015 and 2016. The Greek coach had just pushed Russian side Lokomotiv Kuban to the EuroLeague Final Four for the first time in the history of the club, actually eliminating Barcelona in the process.
Bartzokas brought on board former Final Four MVP Tyrese Rice and prominent sharpshooter Petteri Koponen from Khimki Moscow, along with forward Victor Claver after a standout season with Lokomotiv, Barcelona faced several problems, including injury struggles. The season result found the Blaugrana finishing 10th in the EuroLeague standings, getting eliminated by Unicaja Malaga at the Copa del Rey quarterfinal and not even making the Spanish League semifinals.
After coaching Khimki, Bartzokas returned to Olympiacos, the club he won the EuroLeague in 2013, three years ago. He led the Reds to wining the 2022 Greek League championship and advancing to the Final Four and his team is now first in the EuroLeague standings.
“It doesn’t bother us [whether Olympiacos is considered a favorite],” Bartzokas mentioned “Thank you for saying that and we are pleased when people say that. I’ve always believed that they want to flatter us before games as a part of some tactic but we really feel very good being in that position. We don’t think if we’re the favorite, we don’t feel that way. It may be a cliche but we always think about the next game. We went to the Final Four last year with that logic and we do the same this year. If we make it to the Final Four and we fight, it will be fantastic.”