By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Giorgos Bartzokas is the first Greek coach to win a Euroleague – with Olympiacos in 2013 – and now he returns to the Final Four on the bench of Lokomotiv Kuban.
As he said after the big Game 5 win over Barcelona: “It’s a pride-like feeling. Not many things to say. Just congratulations to our crowd and our club. It was a great job this year. We were very consistent in the game, even when Barcelona played excellent in the third quarter. We stayed focused on our game plan and finally we won the way we wanted”.
In the press conference he explained: “It’s a big day for our club, for the city of Krasnodar. We are so happy we gave such pleasure to our fans and everybody who loves this team. It is not easy to go from south Russia to the Final Four. Today there are not many things to say about tactics and strategy. I would like to dedicate this to our fans, because this atmosphere here today wasn’t a typical Russian atmosphere. The fans helped us step up our game when it was tough. Barcelona has the quality and very soon they came back from an 11-point deficit and they were up 5, I think. So we had one more time in this game to show character, mental toughness. We showed it, all the players helped a lot; Chris was one of them. And finally we won this game. It’s not easy to [beat] Barcelona four times in a season, Panathinaikos three times, Efes two times. We made some amazing performances and great wins this year and I think we deserve to be in the Final Four, especially the way we did it. I have to say congratulations to Barcelona; they have a great team and a very famous club”.
The man of the match, Chris Singleton, added: “I’m so happy to be part of the Final Four and going to Germany. Thank you to all the fans that came out. It’s been a great year. Hopefully we can try to win a championship. It’s Game 5: you’ve got to leave it all on the court. It’s win or go home. I got open shots: I made them. I was just being aggressive and believed in my teammates”.
Source: Euroleague.net