His bitterness about the way he, and sometimes his teammates, are treated by some of the world was shown by Kostas Papanikolaou. His leader Olympiakou led his team to victory over Virtus Bologna having 16 points and 8 rebounds.
“We come from a long season, from a difficult summer and we are playing in red. This is not an excuse, but a reality. In a season everyone has their ups and downs, but we are in an organization that helps and gives space and time to the players. I was disturbed by some things that were written and heard about me mainly on social media… I was thinking recently when I was 15, 16 and 17 years old, my father used to take me from Grevena to the levels of Northern Greece of the National teams. We left at 3:30pm. and we were returning at 11 at night and he was waiting for me without even having eaten. Without him I wouldn’t be here and normally I shouldn’t care about any of these things. Just wanted to mention that. Few will understand if my child is sick and I have slept two hours the night before“, said the 34-year-old ace annoyed.
As for his team’s progress and the goal of placing in the highest possible position, he said: “The important thing is to bring yourself to be in that position. If, for example, we had been defeated by Virtus, we would have said something else. We have proven in the past that we are not concerned with where we finish for the playoffs, but of course we are also interested in the placing. In the first half we allowed Virtus to play comfortably and score 46p.. That was the whole point of the match at the beginning. Even ten centimeters if you press the opponent, you can cause a shot in bad conditions and we didn’t do that in the first half. However, in the second half we raised our intensity».
Despite the new upheaval of Olympiakos, he warned that “… we did it, but the chip won’t always change that easily. We won’t succeed every time. They all deserve credit, because we filled the void of those who did not compete. Walkup brings peace to the team. Williams-Goss was coming off an injury and, to put it plainly, there was a bit of a… anabambula at first! However, we succeeded with a team effort and hard work, especially in the defensive part».
Source: Sport Fm
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
