Bartzokas: “Papanikolaou proved why he is a real leader. I love Walkup”

Overjoyed with the performance and the win (95-76) of Olympiacos against Zalgiris was the George Bartzokaswho deified him Kostas Papanikolaouas he struggled with back pain.

At the same time, the coach of the “red and white” thanked the medical team of the Piraeus team, while he also spoke in the best words about Thomas Walkupafter a related question.

“It was a crucial game for us as well as for Zalgiris. In my opinion all matches and wins and losses count double, because math is very important for our goals. I want to congratulate everyone and especially our captain, Kostas Papanikolaou. He proved why he is a true leader. He had tremendous pain in his lower back, in the morning he couldn’t even move. He injected and played 27 minutes, helping the team get this important victory. I cannot express how grateful I am for his effort. I also want to thank our medical team, they dealt with him all afternoon, they did a great job and the player was able to play“, initially stated George Bartzokas at the press conference and added:

“Congratulations to the whole team. Everyone contributed to this great result. We had a lot of assists and amazing two-point shooting percentages. We controlled the pace of the game, created a lot of open shots and scored them. Our main problem was just some defensive rebounds that we missed and Zalgiris got second chances from them. I wish Andrea Trinchieri and Zalgiris the best of luck going forward. We have two games at home against Bologna and Panathinaikos and we are very optimistic».

Asked what he should do Ignas Brazdeikis to help more in the future he replied: “It has ups and downs. He had some very good matches and some not so good matches. And this is reasonable until he adapts to the new environment for him. Many players play better in their second season in our team see the example of Peters, Kanan and even Walkup. It has to adapt to the little things that we have in our philosophy and that takes time. He is a very positive character, he works hard and I am very optimistic about him».

Finally, whether o Walkup will be the next captain of Olympiakos, he replied: “He is our second captain, behind Papanikolaou and that is something really rare for teams like Olympiacos. He is very important to the team and selfless. He plays to put all his teammates in the team system. He always plays to win. I respect and love him».