Stamati: “Gustafsson is the best player to come through Greece in the last 10 years”

Its leader was hosted on the EEC Web Radio Olympiakou, Evina Stamatis. The international guard spoke about her injury that cost her participation in the finals, the extra motivation given to her team by the exclusion from Panathinaikos in the Cup, while she referred to the special offer of Ayuso and Gustafsson. In detail, he spoke:

On how he experienced winning the championship: “I feel joy, excitement, all the good feelings that a championship gives you at the end of the year. I’m a bit weird in the sense that I’m injured, not in a negative way. That is, I was a bit strange yesterday (02/04) during the game and at the end, because I experienced it from a different “point of view”. It’s my first injury, I haven’t had the chance to sit and watch a match like this from the bench and it created strong emotions that when I play I can manage them. Yesterday I experienced joy, anxiety, fear at one point, uncertainty, I saw the girls determined at one point and I was encouraged again. They are feelings that when I play I don’t let them affect me.”

On whether they were stubborn about his exclusion from the Cup: “It definitely played a role that we missed out on one goal, the Cup, because we knew that all we had left was the league and that gave us an extra boost. From here on, in order to move forward you have to leave it behind. We didn’t go in thinking we’d lost the Cup, but it definitely gave us an extra boost because we knew that was all we had left and we wanted it very much.”

Regarding the fact that in this year’s matches against Panathinaikos they did not start well: “This year in general we did not start well, not only with Panathinaikos. It was something that we talked about as a team and as pairs or trios, the girls as we had our conversations on the field. What we were saying was that for this to come out in the cohesion of the team, everyone had to come to the field ready. I think it was purely a matter of concentration.”

On the Finals MVP, in her opinion: “I think that in the last two games Ayuso was decisive. For me he had the best performance, which he hasn’t had until these two games. We may all be talking about Gustafsson, because, yes, she is a barometer for us, but usually the MVP is not the one who scores the most points, but the one who makes the right decisions at the right time. Agiuso did that, mainly offensively, so for me she was the “key” of the last two games.”

On whether their participation in the Euroleague was a profit: “Of course it was a win, the team gave us the opportunity to qualify and play in the best league in Europe, so it would be very bad to say it wasn’t a win. We only had one win, there was disappointment during the year because from one point on we thought we were used to losing, but at the end of the day I can only take positives from this championship. We saw what it means to play at a competitive level, with better and more trained athletes, but also with a higher IQ, at other intensities and with other bodies. This for me as an athlete is a motivation to be better the next day. In other circumstances, we could talk about better results, because for me the team was not that experienced to play there. Our participation there only benefited us”.

For Megan Gustafson: “She’s a player who has great scoring appeal, she catches the ball wherever you throw it to her. Great athlete, professional, always smiling and cheerful, kind, sociable. She liked Greece very much, she loved it, she likes the Greek culture. It is the best play that has come through here in the last 10 years. She was a “barometer” for us, the team was built on her.”