By Kostas Giataganas/ info@eurohoops.net
While the first part of the interview was more focused on CSKA Moscow and things happening on the court, in this second part coach Itoudis talks about the possibility of a new EuroLeague format, the idea of a final happening after the league finals and the playoffs being the way to decide who is really the best.
The Greek coach also comments on the FIBA vs EuroLeague debate, the recent Eurobasket, the national team windows and the idea of him sitting on the bench of the Greek national team.
The taxing format and the proposition for the playoffs and the final
How do you assess the EuroLeague’s new format from experiencing it last year? Is it really as taxing and demanding as it looks to us from the outside?
“It was a new situation for us too, for the coaches, the athletes, and the teams, because we now had to adopt a different approach in regards to training, traveling, the rotation of players, the management of situations… We had back-to-back games at least 3 or 4 times that involved traveling, then playing, then the next day training at dawn and then playing again. For us, it was something unprecedented. I had experienced this in the NBA when I went to Detroit the year we weren’t active with Zeljko (2012/2013), but experiencing it from the inside and looking at how you can manage it, is something different. Obviously, it’s very interesting for the fans, because everyone I’ve discussed this with, with friends or anyone, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, which were Champions League days for them, now they generally watched basketball. We were interested in what CSKA was doing, or Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Fener. We are interested in this whole concept.
The fact that we had games until the end, where the bottom teams like Milan or Crvena Zvezda beat playoff teams like Real, who were at the top at that point, shows that our league was very competitive and that it can shape certain situations.
For example, we finished the new EuroLeague with the fewest defeats in all the games, but we didn’t win the title and didn’t reach the final. That didn’t give us something, but if you take a look at the numbers, we were better than Fener and Real and everyone in terms of our win-loss record.
But we don’t play for that; we play for the trophy. So, it gives us one more way to approach things and see things differently, what it means to be first during the regular season and what it means to be fourth. Almost nothing… In the sense that you want to have the home court advantage. From there, you want to say, for example, that Baskonia was the worst team compared to Panathinaikos, who had the momentum at that point, playing against Fener. They were having very good games and they deserved the home court advantage, but they lost 3-0 to the better Fener in that particular series.
So, the best thing is to have a duration in order to stay in the top eight. That’s what the EuroLeague taught us, that you have to be in the top eight. The perfect situation is to be in the top four so you have an advantage, but just being in the top eight is ideal.”
Do you think the new system looks more “fair” since everyone plays against everyone else in the regular season?
“Now you’re… provoking me. For me, basketball means playoffs. Suggesting something like this in football is utopic… I made two suggestions to Mr. Bertomeu, for whom I have infinite respect, as I do for the EuroLeague. I think that they put you in a marathon, which is very nice for the fans. They watch great games all the time… Straining for the athletes, but the point is to put on a show for the people, that’s what they’re paid for… A marathon of 30 games, with the possibility of another five games in the playoffs. So, that takes us to 35 games. A marathon of 35 games and then they say it’s “sudden death”, and then you’re at one game and whatever happens, happens. What you’ve done in those 35 games can count or not count…
The Americans are not stupid. Not in matters of revenues, not in matters of evaluation, popularity, assessment of teams’ progress. Basketball means playoffs. I say this with great respect for the Final Four, because I’ve been an important part of Panathinaikos when we won five trophies, I’m a head coach, we won the trophy last year with CSKA after eight years. I completely respect the Final Four and I’m preparing in order to get there. Whether we lost or didn’t lose is no excuse. I don’t think it should be considered an excuse by anyone, but I believe the evolution of basketball is the playoffs.
If we don’t want to change the playoffs, I have another proposition. To have 30 games during the regular season, another five in the playoffs, which is 35, but also playoffs in the semifinals as well. What were the semifinals last year? Olympiacos-CSKA, Fener-Real. You’re going to tell me that that wouldn’t be of enormous interest for the media and the people, filling up the SEF, the OAKA, our own home court, Fener’s home court? You go up to 40 possible games and then we can try a final.
Why do I say a final? My proposition is that this final can be the last game that basketball teams will play, like in the Champions League. I’ll give you an example. When we won the EuroLeague in Berlin in 2016, among the many congratulations, which were thousands, Joe Dumars called me, like others did from the NBA, and told me, “Congratulations, now you can rest, and light a cigar.” And I told him, “Rest? Tomorrow I’m playing with Khimki.” He says, “What Khimki? But you won the trophy.” And I answered, “We have semifinals against Khimki. We also have to win the VTB. The season cannot be over yet.”
He says, “But you won the big trophy, what Khimki?” This, of course, with all due respect to Khimki, but I’m just explaining how they see it from their perspective. Wasn’t this the big competition? This was the big goal. That’s what we know. But we are all called – all of us, like Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, when we were winning the trophies, Fener, Real… – we are called to go and play a series of games where you might just not be able to perform, either because you’re disappointed because you didn’t win it, or because you were celebrating because you did win it… Sloukas talked about this as well. You were watching the Fener-Besiktas game and for the athletes, it was almost like drudgery, they couldn’t produce energy.
And aside from this, and this is something you can write, I told this to colleagues of mine and I don’t know if it’s been written. Take a look at the finals in countries that are represented with two or more teams in the EuroLeague – aside from Greece, which is an exception because there wasn’t any difference since Panathinaikos and Olympiacos are a level above all the others and they played in the final – but take a look at what happened elsewhere.
In the VTB, the final was between CSKA and Khimki, who were not in the EuroLeague. Their European commitments in the EuroCup had been over much earlier. UNICS, who were in the EuroLeague, were swallowed up in the VTB.
In Spain, the final was between a EuroLeague team (Real) and a EuroCup team (Valencia) and the EuroCup team won it. In Israel, Maccabi, who are in the EuroLeague, lost the final. Over to Italy, where Milan was not even in the final. If you take a look at the strain on the teams, with all the coming and going, it’s not easy to manage.
Aside of Greece, where the pair was the two EuroLeague teams, due to a particularity, though there is also AEK, who are making big steps, Aris, PAOK… Those are five teams, but in our leagues it’s not five teams. I have to travel in the VTB, to go to Yenisey, where there is a time difference of four hours, five in the winter. In the same country, there is a time difference of four hours. It’s almost jet lag. We go there and we try to adjust the team as though we are in Moscow. When it’s 7 there, in Moscow it’s 3, which is afternoon, and in one day it’s not easy for the body to adjust. In Astana, it’s a difference of three hours.
It’s not the same for Olympiacos to fly to Thessaloniki to play, or to play in Athens, or Chalkida, the distances are small. In Spain it’s not the same. That’s why the Spanish teams want to have their own league. Real suddenly have to leave Moscow and go play to the Canary Islands. Is it the same strain on Real as it is on Panathinaikos or Olympiacos?
All of these things have to form a general framework for the media and those who write, so that people can understand that things are not that simple. You think, ‘They have the biggest budget, they have to win it. They have a small budget, they are heroes’… But you have to look at the conditions, at what’s going on. How does this whole thing work? There are particularities.
So you are proposing to have playoffs in the semifinals too…
“My position is playoffs to the end. I expressed an alternative opinion. This final, like Olympiacos-Fener this year, imagine that in the same arena which has been agreed upon beforehand, but allowing a time frame of 20 days, like you do before the Final Four, so that the fans of the two teams and everyone who loves basketball, are able to watch the final like in the Champions League.
To have a game but have the arena full of those fans. Now, we have a Final Four, on which we put the 3-4, which doesn’t have any real substance, the fans try to get rid of the tickets, sell them on the black market, etc… The fans of the teams that are in the final are expecting it and it’s going to be commercial and it will take place in a city that will also be agreed upon beforehand. You’ll have more games, more playoffs.”
And have the final after the leagues are over…
“First wait for the leagues to be over and then have the final. I’m making this proposition and perhaps even the decision-makers might say, “What are you talking about? We already have the season planned out, the windows…” I believe all this can be done in a context of harmony and cooperation between the two bodies and find a solution in order to reduce the number of teams in the domestic leagues, because that’s where we’re headed…
I said it before. The Spanish teams say no to increasing the number of teams, which makes sense, and if you don’t want that we’ll have our own league. This whole thing can be harmonized with having the EuroLeague final as the last game of the season. But we all have to be on the same side to do all this.”