By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
For a second consecutive season and fifth time in the last six Final Four tournaments, CSKA Moscow failed to reach the goal of winning the EuroLeague title.
According to CSKA president Andrey Vatutin, the disappointing finale of the “Army Men” in the 2017-2018 EuroLeague campaign can’t be traced simply to one individual. “We all lost”, Vatutin said. “Final Four is a war and we gave the impression that we came just to play basketball.”
Here’s what Vatutin mentioned on the matter during a video interview with VTB League.
On the criticism CSKA receives:
“Criticism can stop only with a victory, and that didn’t happen. If you’re afraid to take a risk then you simply have to change jobs. CSKA will always be in the spotlight and receive criticism. It’s part of the job. It’s nice to be president in successes. The other days, you have to be ready to face the fire. We are trying to not break down from the blows. A wise friend of mine told me once: “Success and health can’t be depended on if someone scores a basket or not. I didn’t listen to him. The second time I didn’t listen to him was after Berlin. What did he tell me? It doesn’t matter.”
The failure of CSKA in the Final Four:
“It’s not one person’s fault. It’s everyone’s fault. The organization, the team. Failure is not a responsibility of one person. We all lost. Real Madrid played with great motivation in the Final and showed totally disciplined basketball. I think Luka Doncic was fouled out for the first time in his career. We, on our side, didn’t have these elements. But let’s make something clear. They say that everyone is guilty. But none in particular. The Belgrade experts expressed the opinion that coach Dimitris Itoudis didn’t have an alternative plan. You know, Pep Guardiola said that he never has a Plan B. That he has only a Plan A and that during a game he tries to improve it. I’m not a coach or an expert to say that there is a need for an alternative plan and how it should be. But the truth is that in Belgrade nothing worked for us. We had neither a Plan A nor a Plan B. Final Four is a war and we gave the impression that we came just to play basketball.”