By Nikos Varlas – Lefteris Moutis/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Vassilis Spanoulis spoke to Eurohoops when Olympiacos’s locker room doors opened. Sitting at his usual spot, with ice on both his legs, he admitted that as the game turned out Real deserved it and won it fairly: “In sports you have to learn to lose. When you accept the loss and handle it like you should, you become bigger and make the big step to win next time.
We wanted it, we fought, but in the end it turned out that we didn’t have the required energy. It was a crucial point when we got a run and Carroll scored those consecutive three-pointers. They haven’t won a Euroleague in 20 years, they were playing at home, they were better in the end and they deserved it. Truth be told, the home court is an advantage. Imagine if we played a final at SEF with the people on our side and shooting at the baskets that we execute every day.”
Spanoulis, as much as Printezis, seemed like they lacked the energy to make a difference in yet another big game. “Real was very focused in defense. They dispatched two and three players on me and unfortunately, even though we had a lot of free shots we didn’t score. In games like these you have to be more accurate and you can’t miss as many free throws as we did. We brought off some great upsets, we reached this point when nobody thought we would, but tonight it was not meant to be. Life goes on. The goal is to make a quick comeback to the final four. If it’s possible in the very next season in Berlin” (in the same arena he won the Euroleague with Panathinaikos in 2009 as an MVP).
How does he feel that after so many years and 7 wins in a row, he lost in a final four game? “At some point it had to happen. You can’t win all the time. It wasn’t meant to be.”
The next day brings the Greek playoffs and the goal of the championship. Olympiacos doesn’t have… a lot to spare. After the championship in 1997, they got only one. In 2012. Panathinaikos has been “wounded” by the whole Gist story and Nikos Pappas’s serious injury. We asked Olympiacos’s leader about whether there are any musts in the upcoming final series.
“First of all, because life and the human element are more important than basketball I’d like to offer my condolences to Antonis Fotsis who lost his mother. I also sent him a message. I hope he’s strong and he remembers his mother as is fitting. I know about these kinds of situations. I would also like to wish a speedy recovery to Nikos Pappas. It’s always bad when a fellow athlete gets injured and is going through such difficult situations. At Olympiacos we have been through our fair share of injuries too all these years. I wish Pappas overcomes it as soon as possible and he returns to games and basketball.
In terms of basketball, we have our final goal ahead of us and we have to take it. We have to calm down, to unwind mentally, to get some rest and get prepared to play the basketball that we can. We want the championship,” Vassilis Spanoulis said and our conversation was concluded with the subject of the people of Olympiacos.
He had become disenchanted with some reactions by a (small) portion of Olympiacos’s fans in the recent past. How did he feel about the behavior of the team’s people towards him on both nights of the final four? “I say this from my heart, what I felt and received is more important than a lost title to me.”