By Alex Molina / info@eurohoops.net
ABU DHABI (United Arab Emirates) – Sarunas Jasikevicius will play his second EuroLeague Final as a coach on Sunday after beating the defending champions Panathinaikos, the team that prevailed over Saras and Fenerbahce in last season’s Final Four.
And of course, in his quotes after the game, he mentioned the 2024 matchup in Berlin: “I take my hat off to my players. We didn’t play perfectly, but it’s not easy at this level. The fighting spirit and the heart were there. We started from the beginning of the match, winning the 50-50 balls. It was exactly what we didn’t do in Berlin last year against Panathinaikos in the semifinal. We found some players today who came forward.”
Those players were Nicolo Melli, Errick McCollum, and Devon Hall, with Jasikevicus giving them their flowers: “You have to have players who know what to do in these moments, and the veterans do that. That was kind of the idea; last year, it seemed to me that we lacked people like that.”
Speaking about the game against Panathinaikos, the Lithuanian coach added: “In this situation, there are many details. But it had to do with the fighting spirit above all and then with basketball.”