By Bugra Uzar/ info@eurohoops.net
ABU DHABI—Sarunas Jasikevicius is a four-time EuroLeague winner as a player. He has done it with Barcelona, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Panathinaikos.
He also played for Fenerbahce, but he didn’t give the club a EuroLeague trophy.
So he did it as a coach, becoming the first person who won the trophy both as a player and as a coach in the modern era of the competition.
“I congratulate our players, our fans, and our club for winning the championship”, he said in the press conference after his triumph. “This is exactly how championships are won. To become a champion, you first need to know how to suffer. There was a burden on my shoulders.”
Jasikevicius had already four Final Fours under his belt as a coach, but couldn’t win the trophy despite the support system of his family and especially his wife Anna: “I have been to the Final Four many times before, but I could not become a champion. It was very difficult for me to cope with this. That is why I want to dedicate this trophy to my family, especially my wife. My wife is the rock of our family. She has coped with me and some of my crazy friends for years. She has come to every Final Four with me for years. Of course, being a champion is not easy, there are some difficulties in this job. It was a very difficult process, but my wife has always stood by me very firmly. She coped with my friends, with the tickets. She dealt with things that are not visible. That is why I want to dedicate the trophy to my wife”.
He did it on the fifth try, while expectations were always high from the first day.
As he explained, “I think there was a very unfair situation for me. When it came to my coaching, people never asked, ‘Will Saras become a champion one day?’ They always asked, ‘When will Saras become a champion?’ Some people don’t realise how difficult it is to become a champion. It is really very difficult. Of course, you need the performance of your players. When the players don’t perform as expected, the first person to blame is the coach. So I think the attitude towards me was not very fair. They kept asking, ‘When will Saras become a champion?’ Everyone took it for granted that I would become a champion one day. I think it was not fair, so many coaches are doing great things. So it was not easy”.
Giving credit to the MVP, Melli, and GM Derya Yannier
Coach Saras also wanted to talk about other pillars of Fenerbahce‘s success, starting from the Final Four MVP Nigel Hayes-Davis: “What people don’t know is that Nigel didn’t come to this Final Four at his full potential. He had a bad time in some of the practices, he didn’t give his full potential. I especially admire his performance in the semi-finals because he played patiently. He didn’t force anything, he waited for the game to come to him. That’s a huge sign of maturity. Of course, he’s a player we want to have the ball in his hands at critical moments. It’s not easy for a power forward, it’s much easier for a short player. But we did everything we could to get him involved in the game. I’m very happy for him because he has a very high work ethic. He’s one of the biggest stars in Europe, and most importantly, he’s a champion now”.
Next in line was another forward, Italian Nicolo Melli, who played in the past for Fenerbahce, went to the NBA, returned to Milan, and last summer decided to come back to Istanbul to win the EuroLeague for the first time in his career.
For Jasikevicius, he was the key: “I wanted to have a player who could play both the 4 and 5 position in our squad in the summer. Nico was exactly the player we were looking for. We had a very nice phone conversation with him before his transfer. He said to me, ‘I don’t care about the coach, the system, or my role in the team. I know you will play me, all I want is to be a champion. He said to me, ‘I want to go back to Fenerbahçe to win the EuroLeague.’ I told him after the game today, ‘That’s why you came here, congratulations.'”
Last but not least, Sarunas Jasikevicius talked about his GM, Derya Yannier: “I am very happy to be a part of Fenerbahçe. When I talked to Derya before coming here, he explained everything to me in detail. He explained how the division of duties would be, and everything turned out as he said. I am definitely here thanks to Derya. Whatever he told me before signing the contract happened. Everything went as we talked and planned. It is an honor to work with the best GM in Europe.”