Panathinaikos coach AKTOR spoke at the press conference after the victory over the “yellows” about the difficulties that the first semi-final against Aris hid. Ergin Atamanadding that his players showed character, while he also talked about how important it is for the “greens” that they managed to climb to the top of European basketball, despite finishing in 17th place last season.
In detail what Ataman said at the press conference:
“We started the game very well and that’s important after these very emotional days we’ve had, to start the first game of the semi-finals with concentration and play good basketball. Aris plays very aggressively and we made some mistakes, we gave offensive rebounds. We didn’t have the chance to take the game easily, but we controlled it throughout the second half. We got the win and it is important because from these days it was a dangerous match for us. Now we have one more game to win to get to the finals.”.
On whether he expected success: “The first time Apostolis Liogas welcomed me on the court I had a strange feeling of coaching a team with 6 stars. It was a motivation for me to win the Euroleague. We did our best to go to the playoffs, to go to the Final 4. And to be honest in the beginning in the early days everyone was asking me to bring them the 7th star. I still didn’t understand exactly what they were telling me. Then when I came I realized that they were talking about the stars and that they wanted the 7th. And I said we’re going step by step. It’s great that we won the title and brought OAKA the 7th star”.
On how difficult it was to gather the players in the match: “It was a difficult game to focus on, but we showed character. It was not an easy game and it was a surprise for me too. We had the fighting spirit. I don’t ever remember in history a team in either the Euroleague or the NBA finishing 17th one season and winning the title the next. Maybe I’m missing something. It is something magical and historic for Panathinaikos”.
Source: Sport Fm
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