Ataman: “Barjoka, don’t talk about me, you don’t need to be jealous – Let us play basketball”

Ergin Ataman reacted to statements by Giorgos Bartzokas and expressed complaints about the arbitration after the 83-76 win in the third final.

“I heard that my friend Bartzokas talked about me again My friend, stop talking about me. Everyone should do their job. In the future you can get some Euroleague, no need to be jealous. I know it’s something he wants. In the previous game he again said about me. Do your job, don’t mention my name at the press conference“, he initially said.

“Today we played basketball. We are the best basketball team in Europe and we have shown that throughout the season. Please let us play basketball. I said that not only after the previous game, but also after the match against Aris in Thessaloniki. It’s basketball, not the NFL. They told me ‘you’re right’. The leading scorer in the EuroLeague, who averages 5-6 shots, was scoreless in the first two games. Let us play basketball, we showed that we are a better team. If they let us play basketball on Wednesday, we’ll try to win. If we fail, we will congratulate the opponent. Congratulations to my players“, he added.

Asked if the anniversary of the death of Pavlos Giannakopoulos and the loss of Paris Dermanis was a motivation for his team, he answered: “They are two big names in the history of Panathinaikos. Mr. Giannakopoulos created this best basketball club in history. And Paris, whose death saddened us and tomorrow the whole group will go to his funeral. He was a fantastic person, the first person I met when he came, who helped me when I came, gave me team clothes for me and my son. He was always smiling, he was a very positive person. It’s a big loss for us, but that’s life. Sometimes these things happen. I don’t know if we had extra motivation for it. We thank Olympiakos for the gesture they made by giving flowers for Paris. We were motivated because it’s a final, we never give up, like we didn’t do with Maccabi either. Today we changed the situation and now we go to Wednesday to bring the series to a fifth match at OAKA».

Regarding the difference in fouls and shots compared to the previous two matches, he said:Today the fouls were 20-26. In the first two games what was the difference? The shots were 57-23 in favor of Olympiakos. That’s basketball. Today we had a Euroleague referee and he blew his whistle like this. That’s basketball, if there’s contact, there’s a foul. But in the first two matches, one team made 57 shots and we made 23. We saw this basketball for seven months in the Euroleague. It’s not the NFL we played with Aris in Thessaloniki or SEF. This is not basketball».

Finally, to a question about the role of the coaches in the tension between the players, he answered:It’s all in the game of basketball. There are technical penalties, there are suspensions, but there can be no gestures towards me at my players. My players never gestured to coach Barzokas. I never tell my players to make gestures like Kanaan did to Sluka or Walkup did to me. We play fair, whether we win or lose».