Balcherovski: “At Panathinaikos there were better players than me – I wanted to go to a place to develop”

After a difficult season at Panathinaikos AKTOR, where he never found time to play, o Olek Balcherovsky returned to Spain on her behalf Unicaja Malaga and was presented by the Andalusian club.

In his statements, he acknowledged that the “greens” had better players than him in the rotation, which played a decisive role in his reduced playing time, and pointed out that he needed a change of environment and the move to a team where he would get more opportunities.

In detail what he said:

For Unicaja Malaga: “I have seen a lot of Unikaha, especially last year, the results they achieved, finishing first in the regular season in the league, winning the BCL… It is a project that has been going very well for two years now, achieving very good results and playing very well. Also, looking at myself, I wanted to go to a place where I can develop as a player. I think it’s a very good place for me and that’s why I chose Unikaha.”

For this summer: “It wasn’t easy. At the beginning of the summer I had one foot here, then it turned out that Panathinaikos rejected my departure due to not finding another center or other conditions and while I was already ready to start the second year in Athens, they signed another center. The option to leave the club came back and they gave me the green light. And there I spoke again with Unikaha because from the beginning I wanted to come here in the summer. The decision to say yes to coming to Unikaha was very easy.”

On what he learned in his season with Panathinaikos: “I learned that things don’t always go your way. Sometimes it happens that you go to a place where there is talent and good players and the coach has to choose the best options. At that time there were better players than me in this team. You have to be mentally strong and sometimes you have to look for a much better place for yourself where people believe in you more. Above all, it’s a matter of getting my confidence back, playing a lot of minutes again… I’ll be very good here.”.