Walkup: “A final against Panathinaikos will be fantastic”

It will be a fantastic final if o Olympic confront him Panathinaikos AKTOR in the Final Four of the EuroLeague in Berlin, according to Thomas Walkup.

In his statements on the Novasports channels, the 31-year-old guard spoke about the crucial battle with the Real Madridbut also for his emergence as the top defender of the tournament.

In detail, what Thomas Walkup said:

On how he feels about reaching the Final Four and being named Defensive Player of the Year: “Unbelievable. Last year I thought I was on track to win it, and I could have won it, I got it this year so it feels really good. I’m not so much of ‘individual discrimination’ but I won’t hide from you when one of my goals and I achieved it».

As for whether someone else could get the award: “Yes, Mustafa Fal. I told him the day I won it! He’s such an underrated defender and he’s very good in transition, he’s very good in drop defense, he protects the basket a lot and he’s very good in perimeter defense as well. And what I believe is that it is the basis of our defense. I would have been just as happy if we had shared the title».

On what made them continue to believe in qualifying: “First of all, we’ve done it before, so what our experience has given us is the ability to be more relaxed than if this was our first year and we were aiming for the final four or we’d never been before and we didn’t know how to get there. until there. It would definitely be more difficult but this year we knew what to expect, we knew what to look out for, what the playoffs would hold for us etc.

We knew how far we could go, we knew what we had in our locker room and all we cared about was being healthy. In an injury-riddled year, with players on and off the ball, we knew we had what we needed. It was just a matter of time until we put it all together. So we’ve been comfortable all year knowing that it will all work out in the end».

On what they had in mind when they left for the fifth match of the series: “The first thing on my mind was that Buffet was trying to move me out of my lucky row on the plane. So I had to make sure I sat in my lucky row and my lucky seat. But for sure we were very optimistic and it’s not about what team Barcelona are but because we knew what team we are, what we could do, and above all what gives us energy. And from the first second we got together this year we were talking about the Euroleague title. We had a lot of faith in our abilities».

On playing against a team that has hurt them in the past: “We feel fine. I believe that both times we played this year we were not what we can be. We had very bad performances and we want to give our best in this game.

When we played them here in the Stadium of Peace and Friendship we were on a really bad moon, we were out of rhythm and when we traveled to play at home we were decimated by injuries. They haven’t seen our best and I think that’s what it will take to beat them».

For his thoughts on facing Panathinaikos in the final: “I think this will be a fantastic final, in a fantastic setting».

As for whether this thought ‘makes’ him: “No. To be honest the Euroleague season is so long and we said we’ll take it one game at a time, it’s going to be a bit silly for me to think about who we’re going to play in the final when we have Real Madrid to face first in the semi-final.”