By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
The unlucky man of Panathinaikos. Roko Leni Ukic got injured during Eurobasket 2013 while playing with the Croatian national team and he just wasn’t himself this season. His injury in Achilles prevented him from practicing with his teammates, he never was 100% healthy. Still in Game 5 of the Greek championship finals, his presence was more than felt, as he showed that he still has the quality to be effective despite any problem.
After this tough season, his contract with the Greens ended and his mind is focused more on his injury and his rehabilitation. Just after winning his second Greek championship, the Croatian guard talked to Eurohoops about everything that happened since last October: “The results this season were the same with the last one, but for me personally it was much, much tougher. I played through adversitiy the whole year and it wasn’t easy for me to play different roles in different minutes. I never knew what to expect from myself. I didn’t play as everybody expected, but at the end of the day we got two trophies and there is no reason to think about it”.
How hard was for him to play in many games without being part of practice? “That was the biggest thing. I am the type of player who can’t play without practice. I depend on my physical abilities a lot. And if my physical abilities are not there, my whole game is different. If another player had this injury problem, he wouldn’t suffer that much. But I suffered a lot and I just hope to get healthy, get back into shape like I was before the Eurobasket and play basketball like I did in my whole life”.
Croatia will participate in the upcoming World Cup of Spain but the captain will not be there. Roko Leni Ukic will not play as he explains on Eurohoops: “I really need to rest. If I have any action, I want to be 100% healthy. My health is now the first thing on my mind. I have to see how my Achilles will react after a six weeks pause, after some treatments I have already scheduled to do and if my Achilles recover that time, I will think about playing”.
Though all these difficulties, Panathinaikos won the championship against Olympiacos and Roko Leni Ukic celebrated his second double in row wearing the Greens. He was great in Game 5 and helped his team (once again against Olympiacos) to win the trophy: “The whole series was very tough mentally. Two great teams played against each other, especially two great defensive teams. We just tried to do our best, especially in the 4th game. We changed the momentum of the series. In the end I believe we deserved to win it”.
The clutch game in the final series was the fourth, when Panathinaikos won in SEF after Olympiacos’ break in OAKA: “We knew after that we had huge advantage in the fifth final. The easier part for us was the way we have finally won it. If every team had kept the home advantage, we would have a Game 5 at OAKA. But it’s great to be 2-1 down and react. The reason Panathinaikos won so easily the last game, having 20 points lead, was that we started great. That’s the point of having the home advantage. They did that in the Game 2”.