Spanoulis: “The children are proud to wear the national team jersey – We are ready for any opponent”

Ready to take the first of two big steps needed to qualify for the Olympic Games is the National team which on Saturday (6/7) faces the Slovenia of Luka Doncic, in SEF in the semi-final of the Pre-Olympic tournament.

In the context of the match, the coach of the “official favorite”, Vassilis Spanoulis he talked about the match in question, the thirst that the players of the national team have when wearing the jersey with the national emblem, but also the “titan battle” between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic.

Among other things, Vassilis Spanoulis spoke about the absence of Costas Antetokounmpo, while he also spoke about the National team’s plan.

Coach Spanoulis’ statements in detail:

“We are looking at the first step, the one we have tomorrow, not the two. We play our basketball, we enjoy what we do. We are a group, we are a country that plays in our stadium and the whole world with us is one. We all strive with the same concentration and confidence

The children are ready. We’re ready for one more game, like all the others. To prepare for such a match, you should have worked and played all the other games at a very high intensity. And we didn’t discount our energy and the way we play. We will compete in the same way in tomorrow’s game.”

For Giannis Antetokounmpo: “When Giannis plays you will look to find the solutions to be as efficient as possible. Another player is Lukas, another player is Giannis in terms of their game. In other ways one scores and in another way the other. Our job is to put each player in the right spot to score. You can’t have Giannis on your team and not be a point of reference. Beyond that, basketball is not… tennis for playing one-on-one. It is a team sport, we have the blessing and luck beyond Giannis to have excellent players, who have succeeded exceptionally well at the collective level and now we want to succeed at the national level as well”.

For the quality of opponents: “As much as you know these players, it depends more on them and what day they are on. What we have to do is to make it as difficult as possible for Doncic and his decisions. As Slovenia will try to do the same with Giannis. But they are such great players and have such a large repertoire that it is difficult to stop them. But you can certainly make their life difficult and limit them.”

For the team’s plan and qualification goal: “We have talked to the kids about our plan. Everyone has understood what we have to do. It’s about going into the game and having fun like we’ve been doing these two weeks. It’s a basketball game and no one is going to shoot them in the head if they miss a shot or don’t play some defense. We will give everything we have and don’t have to succeed. The kids should feel proud of the moment they wear this jersey and not play with this huge stress of the result. I believe that in sports and in general in life, anyone who goes into a game and is afraid of losing, will lose it. We have to go into the game and face it seriously with discipline and play in the game plan we have said”.

For the teams that the National Team finds on its way to Paris: “To come out first in a Pre-Olympic Tournament you have to play with all your strong opponents. It’s not a cliché. We look at our own team and to be ready for every opponent”.

On the injury to Costa Antetokounmpo: “I am upset, like all the guys in the team, for Kostas above all as a person. For me above all is health. As I told him, there are much more painful things in our lives. Losing a person, not having your health, you or your people… All this is much more distressing. In life, everything happens for a reason, and so in sports. That’s why you have to be strong, so that when something happens you deal with it and not say ‘why did it happen’.

For Luka Doncic: “Doncic has my respect. He is a role model for many children around the world. On Saturday they will be our opponent for 40 minutes, everyone will want to win for their team, but the respect remains.”