Ataman: “The real party will be when we get the title – Proud of Giannakopoulos for renewing Lesor”

THE Ergin Ataman emphasized at the press conference that Panathinaikos played like a true 2024 champion against Virtus Bologna (111-90), stood on his appearance among others Omer Yurtsevenwhile he also talked about the renewals of the contracts of Matias Lessor and Juancho Hernangomet.

Everything he said in detail:

“Today we played perfect basketball. We played in the first match of 2025 as the true champions of 2024. We started very well in attack. Defensively we had problems with Clyburn, who made big shots. Then we found solutions in defense.

In the second part we continued like this. Bologna are a dangerous team now. In the last period we solved the problems in the attack with Nan. Juancho had an excellent game. Yurtseven played his best game this year. Everyone helped the team. Brown also offered at the end. Amazing basketball.

Before the match I said it’s not time to party and our fans supported us amazingly throughout the game. In the final it was like a party because we played amazingly in this first match for 2025.

Actually no. The loss to Efes didn’t affect me, or the team, because we didn’t have our best player, our best striker this year, Kendrick Nunn. At that point in the season we realized, however, that we have some problems in defence. We should have been more aggressive. We talked about it and worked on it. Now I think our aggression and our motivation is higher.

The real party will be when we take the title in Abu Dhabi. After each victory we can celebrate for 15′-20′. We can’t party because we got one, two, three wins in the EuroLeague.

Yurtseven is a player, who wants to play enough, he is a psychological player. Today he took the role of the main center, started well and continued like that. Last week was a lot.

Matias is the best center in the EuroLeague in the last 2-3 years. I am very happy to work with him and that he will stay for another three years. Juancho has shown great character and has stepped up his performance this year. He was also part of last year’s smash hit.

I am very proud of our president, Dimitris Giannakopoulos, for giving Lessor a three-year renewal after such a serious injury. No one else does this in Europe. This shows that we are a family.”