By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
BERLIN, Germany – When Mario Hezonja decided to come back to Europe and sign with Panathinaikos in 2021, he was submerged by a wave of green-and-white fans at the airport.
He spent only a few months in Athens, playing eight games in the EuroLeague – including a clash with the past in going up against Barcelona -, but left his heart in OAKA.
After beating Olympiacos to book a ticker for the EuroLeague 40-minute checkered flag against his beloved former team, he was asked if he received any messages before the Final Four. “Always. [They give me] support, always. [They tell me] to do well, [and they are] always cheering me up”, he said.
Ergin Ataman’s team is a completely different beast than the one the Croatian forward experienced three years ago. Out of today’s roster, only Dinos Mitoglou and Ioannis Papapetrou were already there. “I went there when it wasn’t popular, it wasn’t good to be there. And I did it because of those fans. Otherwise, I would have gone somewhere else”, he underlined.
Overall, the 29-year-old forward is “happy that they’re doing what they’re doing”, and he’s “enjoying their team’s performance”, thinking that “they deserve it”. While his affection for Panathinaikos isn’t a surprise to anybody, he can highly appreciate Olympiacos as well.
Just like his coach Chus Mateo did in the press conference, the Croatian star praised the red-and-white powerhouse. “As I said before the game they’re extremely well-coached, they have played very well for years now. You need to fight in these elimination games because if you’re not at their level they’re going to really beat you. We did great”, he summed up his team’s performance.
Despite Olympiacos trying to come back early in the third quarter, the defending champions already made a statement in the first half. “We made some mistakes, we left off the gas a little bit in the third quarter. But we were playing extremely well in the first and second quarters. So it was obvious we were going to slow down a little bit“, he talked about his team slowing the pace.
“We didn’t miss necessarily anything. Okay, I missed a lot of shots”, he took responsibility for his shooting night, ending with 3/11 from beyond the arc. “They got some easy ones, [Alec] Peters got a little bit hot. I mean, a lot bit, because 20 points in the Final Four is crazy”, he added about his opponent.
“But we expected this from them because they’re an extremely well-coached, extremely good team. You need to slow them down, you know they’re going to come back and they’re not going to quit ever. We were really good in that”, Mario Hezonja continued praising the opposing team’s attitude.
However, as Guerschon Yabusele and Luka Doncic said in the last few days, this is the DNA of the Spanish team. “To finish, the DNA of Real Madrid is there. In those important moments, we always find a way to get a win”, he commented.
Learning from the best teachers
Sunday could mark the last time with the 11-time EuroLeague champions for quite some veterans on Chus Mateo’s team. And once again when it mattered most, players with more experience on their shoulders made an extra step to help the team.
“Fab [Causeur], Chacho [Rodriguez], Sergi [Llull], Rudy [Fernandez. I wouldn’t do it for anybody other than them. They deserve this”, Mario Hezonja first said about Real Madrid veterans.
“For how many years are they doing this? For how many years are they at the top? Quite frankly, when I was growing up and I was a kid coming from Croatia, I was looking up to them. They were the ones at the top, so I have the best teachers in the world right now”, he finally said.
Mario Hezonja’s full quotes in the mixed zone:
PHOTO CREDIT: Eurokinissi