By Eurohoops/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos Piraeus is back on the winning path after a convincing victory over ASVEL in EuroLeague Round 17. One of the main reasons for the bounce-back after a stretch of tough results is Tyler Dorsey.
The 29-year-old guard led the scoring for Georgios Bartzokas’ team with 22 points, paving the way to a comfortable home win over the French side.
“That’s where you show your character and who you are—when people are talking down on you, or when you’re losing confidence with losses. As a leader, as a team, that’s when we show ourselves. Hopefully this is a good start to building a win streak. There’s still a lot of work to do, but hopefully we can finish the year with a road win and build from there for the second half of the season,” Dorsey said to Eurohoops’ Antonis Stroggylakis after the game.
He believes that hard work always pays off, no matter the ups and downs that are inevitable throughout the season.
“I don’t pay attention to stuff like that. I’m a calm person and I never panic—even when we lost three in a row, I never panicked. We have to show that we’re dogs, put in more work and time. Hard work is always going to pay off.”
However, after bouncing back, Olympiacos needs to push even harder toward their goals.
“We can’t relax. We have to remember that we have a game on Sunday, so we’ve got to keep our foot on the gas, raise our level, because those games help us in EuroLeague. Also, continuing to compete against each other in practice is going to help. Hopefully this builds confidence for everyone.”
This season, Dorsey is among Olympiacos’ leaders, averaging 17.7 points per game in EuroLeague—a massive leap from last year, when he appeared in only 20 games and averaged 3.3 points.
“I feel like this is part of the plan in my life—where God put me. I’ve been through a lot in my career; I’m mentally battle-tested, I’ve seen it all. It feels good to have this role and the confidence of the coaching staff. I’m here to keep proving myself every night, but also to prove it with wins. As one of the leaders, I take responsibility for the fall of losing three in a row, and we just move forward. Now we’re trying to get two wins in a row, something we haven’t had in a long time,” Tyler Dorsey concluded.