By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
David Blatt of Olympiacos, Ertugrul Erdogan of Galatasaray, Oded Kattash of Hapoel Jerusalem and Dimitris Priftis of Unics Kazan were present in the official press conference of the Heraklion pre-season tournament.
They all agreed that the Greek island of Creta is an ideal location for such an event and they all admitted that the games are even more important than usual. “We have very few time left until the start of the season and we were missing many players due to the FIBA Windows”, said Erdogan and all the rest agreed.
However, Oded Kattash stole the show, when he was asked to explain what makes David Blatt special. Kattash smiled and said: “It’s not simple to explain. I was asked the same thing about coach Obradovic last night and the answer is the same. It’s not one just thing and you have to see the whole process in order to understand it. What I can say is that Blatt’s teams recover more than efficiently, no matter the result, no matter if they win or lose. He is a great coach and I will be happy if I have 10% of coach Blatt’s success in my career”.
Blatt immediately returned the favor: “The secret is to have star players, like Oded. I was lucky enough to be an assistant at Galil Elyon when he was starting his great career as a player”.
Olympiacos will meet Unics Kazan on Sunday and earlier in the day Galatasaray will face Hapoel Jerusalem.