By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Monte Morris has sign with a EuroLeague contender and if the first big test for him was to play against Panathinaikos on the road, he did a fine job.
Olympiacos prevailed over the “eternal rival” Panathinaikos and Morris had some high praise for his teammate and top scorer in the game with 24 points, Sasha Vezenkov.
“Sasha reminds me so much of Nikola Jokic, in ways”, Morris said in his post-game interview to Nova TV.
As he added about Vezenkov: “Just his touch around the rim and IQ, knowning how to play”.
He also had some good things to say about center Nikola Milutinov, arguably the best big man at the moment in the EuroLeague: “Nikola, he’s a big body. He made some great passes off the short roll tonight that opened up big shots down the stretch”
On a personal level, Morris admitted that his extra motivation come from his teammates: “I feel good, there was a lot of talk about the derbies, I just wanted to come out and do what I could with my conditioning being where it is right now. Just play for the guys, I know how important for them it was to get this win, they were talking about how serious is this rivarly and I was excited just to be a part of it”.
Morris contributed eight crucial points and more importantly he was among the players who closed out the game, admitting that he is still trying to figure out the European game: “It just felt good. I have been in big moments and big games throughout my career. So I know it’s a different ball game here, I am learning about the rules, but you are only going to learn by making mistakes, just getting the experience. So me being in there in the fourth quarter shows just how much the coach trusts me”.