Reporting from Istanbul: Antonis Stroggilakis
“Are you series when you ask me if I had a plan against Spanoulis? Is this a joke?”, was his reaction after being asked if he had done the number one thing every coach facing Olympiacos has to do.
Before that, he spoke about the game: “I would like to congratulate Olympiacos for the win and the qualification for the final. The semifinal is like a final. We had our good moments. It hurt us a lot that they were fighting more on the boards. They had 9 in the fourth quarter and 8 offensive rebounds in the first quarter. They did a great job shooting the ball, rebounding the ball, and that hurt us a lot. We had open looks, they had open looks, and they made theirs. We will not have the opportunity to go to the final to defend the title, but that is how the Final Four goes. History says we lost two semifinals against Olympiacos since I had the head coaching job here. They have a great team, but I don’t need to answer that specifically about Olympiacos. There are four great teams here. History doesn’t play basketball, the present moment plays”.
Here’s the video of the full press conference.