The date of the year: Ataman-Bartzokas talk about Panathinaikos, Olympiakos and generally about… basketball!

The date of the year! Bartzokas and Ataman they said it face to face in a hotel in Athens and talked about Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and basketball in general, expressing mutual respect.

In detail what they mentioned

Ergin Ataman: “The perfect player for me is the player who believes that the team doesn’t think of himself first. He thinks about the team, of course, then he thinks about himself because for the team, if he’s good, the team will be good. For me if you ask me what is more important to be physically stronger or mentally stronger for me it is better to be mentally stronger. Because if physically you are not ready, but mentally you are ready, you can overcome it. Every time I said to my players, I have to be honest with you, they are good in my team, I don’t care about the names. Big names that have good quality, good work ethic but do everything to win. To reach the goal. These are the good players.

I like to say the same things about you, because you won the Euroleague here and you work in big clubs in Europe. But the most important things that I saw in you and it applies to me as well, it’s very exciting that coach Bartzokas always starts with the same five. He has that system and that system I think gave confidence to the players. So everyone knows what to do. This is very important. When I walk the streets everywhere, not only in the south, but also in the north, everyone is watching basketball. So when we play, for example, a game Olympiakos-Panathinaikos, the next game I was on the road. So everyone stopped me. Win or lose, it’s the same. Everyone stopped everyone. Everyone knows about basketball. And really this is something different from other countries. There is great faith from the people. I have a great passion for basketball. There is a great rivalry between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos, everyone in my street is asking us to beat Olympiakos».

George Bartzokas: “If you ask me what it takes to build a team that wants to be champions, it’s time. It takes 1,2,3 years to build a core of players who know how to play with each other. Whenever you win consecutive matches, everything is very easy. It’s easy to convince players that this is the way it works and that this is the way to go. When you lose a game everyone starts to have doubts. It is better to deal with this situation during the season than at the end of it. I don’t believe there is a perfect player. Everyone has weaknesses. In my career I had fantastic players. Vasilis Spanoulis was one of them. It had to do with his hard work, the way he treated the rest of his teammates. Saying good morning in the morning is a talent. You spend ten months working with the other person and sometimes you can’t see a face like that, someone who complains all the time. It needs positive people. Thomas Walkup is one of them. He doesn’t care if he has 2 points at the end, if he is free and doesn’t score, he will pass the ball to someone else to make himself feel better. It is an example of what I want at this stage of my career.

Ergin (Ataman) he is one of the highest level European coaches. His strength is how he can and does handle the game. He will not hesitate to make the appropriate move. Even if this is his most expensive player and he is not playing well, he will tell him to sit on the bench. Olympiacos is like a religion for our friends. Winning or losing means more than just winning or losing. Somehow we have to calm down. Sports should be more than that. It should make us happy. Ataman is here and created another atmosphere in the Panathinaikos. In recent years there has been much distress and now there seems to be joy in the group. Of course we think he won’t be happy at the end of the season».