Trinchieri is clear: “What they are saying is nonsense, they got it out of their heads”

I really respect Kazis Maksvitis, I faced him and last year it was painful to play against him. You had to beat them three times in one match to beat them. The EuroLeague is the toughest league in the world, so firing a manager is part of the job. Look what happened to coach Ivanovic, he left a team and made so many winning streaks.

I’m here with a goal. To help the team improve and play better. I am highly motivated because I am the coach of a team located in a country where basketball is a religion. I was also coach of Partizan. The fans of these teams are a huge thing, a huge motivation. Of course I only had one training session, tomorrow we have a match, on Thursday we have another match. No one is above the team. And when I say nobody, nobody. We are in a unique organization, what I felt here, I have only felt in Belgrade.

I’ve been doing a lot these past months, I didn’t have any other plans. When Zalgiris called me, I felt the motivation. I only thought about the proposal for a few hours. I watched about 80% of Zalgiris matches, I missed some because I was watching others as a commentator on TV. It’s not very nice to talk about the image of the team, I’m here because something was going wrong. My job is extremely special. We have to improve. Something was missing and we have to find it. It wasn’t one that was missing, it was many small ones. I saw a movie with Al Pacino, who said that success is in every centimeter.

There are 17 matches left in the EuroLeague. We have six consecutive defeats. The 10th is not in Mars, we have to start doing things. My job is to support my players and I will do that. We will have to play 17 matches, every match will be an opportunity. We will work like a submarine, we will go under the water and hopefully we will achieve something. We know that in every match we have to show improvement.

It’s nonsense to say that I had agreed with the team two weeks ago. And believe me, they got all this out of their heads, it was fake news. If I made decisions after an 80-minute training session, I would be a very bad coach. I’ve learned that I have to look the players in the eye, to feel what they feel. This team has talent, I just have to find a way to bring their energy together.