By Alex Molina / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos managed to win in Vitoria after eight consecutive years, with Kendrick Nunn killing Baskonia in the finale with an amazing buzzer.
But Ergin Ataman was not at all happy.
As he explained: “We won the game. Of course, I’m not 100% happy with how we played tonight. Except for Kendrick Nunn, our performance was terrible! With only one player, we can’t achieve any of our goals. It’s a very dangerous situation because, honestly, I don’t like this basketball we play with only one player scoring and the others not using the ball properly, missing shots, missing layups, losing everything. This is not big-team basketball; we were lucky that in the last seconds, Nunn scored. He deserved it because he played exceptionally. I am very upset with the basketball we are playing, and we played especially in the 4th quarter tonight”.
And he continued: “It is definitely a victory, but it is what I told you, you cannot win with such a roster with only one player, it is a very dangerous situation that we have now, and we will try to solve it. With this roster and this team, we cannot play like this. Everyone was giving the ball to Nunn. I did not like our mentality. Nobody wants to take responsibility. We missed layups, we missed open shots, and we gave them offensive rebounds. It’s a weak mentality. I didn’t like the mentality of the team. Everybody escaped from taking responsibility and only watched Kendrick Nunn scoring”.
A little later in the press conference, he emphasized, “Until the fourth period, we had control, we were turning the ball over. In the fourth period, we lost control, we did not take responsibility, except for Nunn. Everyone tried to give the ball to Nunn. We missed some stupid shots and layups. In the end, we got the win with a shot at the end. Nunn played an amazing game, Osman played well, Hernangomez played not badly, but the rest of them didn’t give anything. This is dangerous for our future because we have big goals. I don’t think we relaxed. Nobody wanted to take responsibility. We missed layups, we missed free throws, and they got offensive rebounds. We had a weak mentality. When you are a big team and you concede 15 points at the end, that’s a problem. I don’t like the mentality of the team; everyone wanted to escape responsibility, and they gave the ball to Nunn to score.”