By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
After losing to Real Madrid at home, Panathinaikos coach Rick Pitino decided to paraphrase one of his memorable quotes: “Ι once made a joke in Boston that Lary Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish are not walking through that door when we were struggling. It was funny at the time… Well, Diamantidis is not walking through that door. Frankie (Alvertis) is not walking through that door, we have what we have”.
The legendary captains of Panathinaikos are not coming to the rescue of a team that was outmatched by Madrid.
Pitino added during the post-game press conference that the solution for his team should be to improve and not any addition from the market: “Last year when I took over this team, we were a bad team defensively, we didn’t rebound well, we were under .500 and then we started playing great defense, not turning the ball over and we have to do the same thing now going forward. We played a very good game against Maccabi, they made some very difficult shots, and we were wide open, and we didn’t make a shot at the end. The one thing you can’t do in this game is to panic”.
Pitino was even more specific, referring to Panathinaikos captain Nick Calathes who had 1/8 threes against Madrid and explained why any addition will not solve any problem: “If Nick doesn’t get to the gym and improve his shot, then they will leave him open. He had to get into the gym and shoot hours, upon hours, upon hours. The answer is for Nick to shoot better. The answer is for the other guy to block out, not to try and pick up a player. If you do that, you trade one problem for another problem, and there’s a reason why those players are available. If we had two million dollars for a player, it would be different, but we don’t have that. My job is to make those guys better, and I intend to do that”.