Papanikolaou: “We have a short memory – We cannot afford to dwell on a good result”

THE Olympic beat her Maccabi 79-74 and returned to the victories in the Euroleague, however for the Kostas Papanikolaou all he has to do is forget this result and continue in the same way.

The captain of the “red and white” spoke on his team’s official channel about the upcoming match with Red Star (16/11, 21:15), emphasizing that the Olympic he needs the win and can’t afford to settle for a positive result.

In detail what he said:

For the match with Red Star: “It’s a league where you have to have a short memory, as we say. To forget what happened the previous day and to see the next one as a new one, starting again from scratch. It must have the ability to reset very quickly, keeping mainly the positives and working on the negative pieces, which you may have presented in the previous games. We cannot afford to dwell on a positive outcome. We have to look at the next day and what important match is always next. We have to do this for tomorrow as well. Let’s show up ready. We have seen what the coach also says, that the league is not easy. Year after year it evolves and all teams get even stronger. He has to give his best in all 40 minutes of the game in order to win.”

For injuries: “It’s certainly not positive that he doesn’t see the team healthy and complete. All teams go through it, as the coach said. But as for our own team, think that we still haven’t been able to do a training together. Let’s play a game together. Let’s really see what our ceiling is. How good can we get? How much room for improvement can we have and this is a big headache, mainly for the coach and the technical team, but also in general for everyone in the team, through the situations that can be presented in every game. On the other hand, when you’re competing and he’s on the pitch, you don’t have time to think about what has happened, who’s missing, what’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen. You have to be ready to give 100% what the coach asks and what the game demands to reach victory. This is what we are going through and we all understand that it is a difficult period, which we have to cope with, but this is our job. It’s on the floor, to work, to try our best and to be able to claim the victories”.

For its use in position “4”: “It’s not a change for me. Now, the way modern basketball has become, 3-4 have very small differences. I’ve always been of the mindset that you have to do whatever you can to help your team. It happened earlier that I played, I distinctly remember, a game with CSKA in here, where I was at 4 and Papapetrou at 5. It was a very inexperienced formation, but it was what the moment required for this particular match. You have to do what you can, everyone give what they can, so that the team can win and come out unscathed, from this condition, which we have at the moment.”