Giorgos Bartzokas: “I thought that maybe I shouldn’t continue at Olympiacos”

2025-06-09T00:21:35+00:00 2025-06-09T00:22:23+00:00.

Aris Barkas

09/Jun/25 00:21

Eurohoops.net
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Giorgos Bartzokas, who has one more year of contract with Olympiacos, spoke about his team’s 15th championship, but also about the thought that made him consider leaving the bench

By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net

Giorgos Bartzokas never thought of hiding that he is also an Olympiacos fan, and after winning the club’s 15th championship title and his third on the bench, he talked about the difficulties of the season and what made him think of leaving his position, despite having one more year of contract.

Speaking in the press conference after winning the 2025 championship title, Bartzokas addressed the situation in connection with the fans’ reactions after losing the Final Four semifinal to Monaco and the attacks he suffered from certain media.

As he said: “I have always advocated the unity in the club. Always my goal, even with collateral losses, was to keep the team united. In basketball, everyone plays together, and everyone participates. If there is a bad link, if one person creates division, they should not be in the team. I wondered if I was the one who was disrupting the unity. I thought that maybe I should not continue at Olympiacos. If I am the one who is disrupting the unity, I should leave. The reactions of the fans were like this: what makes me most happy is winning titles for the club, we are not passersby. What remains is the owners of the team, against a situation where the obvious is being shot and logic is being rushed”.

However, this was a night of celebration, and Bartzokas added: “Today our season ended with a happy ending. I don’t want to say too many things. Well done to the presidents, the players, and those who worked to win the trophy. I want the dust to settle and analyze things inside me, and the difficulty of the project”.

Speaking about those problems, Bartzokas explained: “Last year, we lost Fall and were left with one center in the finals. This year, unfortunately, we lost Williams-Goss in the series. Vildoza was also hurt, Fall was seriously injured, Fournier was sent off in the previous match, and today Vezenkov was out for the second half. The team spirit gave us the trophy, we won Panathinaikos three times in a row. Against such a good team, we showed superiority, we showed that we deserved the championship”.

Olympiacos owner Panagiotis and Giorgos Aggelopoulos were present in the press conference, they also talked about the “toxicity” in the rivalry against Olympiacos and also asked everyone to be “positive” about the possible decision of the Greek goverment to give to the club a long-time lease of the Peace and Friendship stadium in similar terms with Panathinaikos‘ deal for OAKA.