Athenaeus: “The only motivation after the Chiastos was National”

A few days after leaving the action, the Giannis Athens He was hosted at Man to Man Powered by Stoiximan and narrated significant moments from his career.

In his professional career, which began in 2006, the Athens passed through many groups, including Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK, PAOK and Mars.

His last season spent them in Elite League with his jersey Pantracic. Has been, at the same time, international with National Greece.

In detail what he said:

If these 19 years in parquet have passed as 19 seconds or as 19 lives: “Honestly, like 19 seconds! This is what I was saying recently in a chat I had with a coach. Just now I start to realize, to review all these years … to understand who really helped me, what mistakes I made in my course, who put me obstacles … All that you are in the vortex, in the daily struggle of career, you have no time or clear. And after so many years, I finally sat quieter and began to understand situations. Especially in the last one and a half years I played in the Pan -Eryraikos, where I was more relaxed, I did it because I wanted to be my home, close to my own. And through this time, I began to think differently, not only for basketball, but also for time, for life in general. My perspective has changed. I no longer only saw things on my side, but more as a whole. And as I told you, at the end of this route, you start and see, you understand, you realize a lot … “.

For how long he worked in his mind withdrawing from action: “Look, the truth is that I was working inside me. I didn’t wake up one morning and just said “stop”. I could never do it like that. I wanted to design it, to be done right. I definitely worked it, I had talked to people, I was asking for opinions.

In Pan -Erythra, that I worked and came close to young children, it gave me another breath, gave me life. The locker rooms, the travels, the workouts … But when you have in front of you to create something that can keep you for the rest of your life, you have to make the decision consciously. From January-Flevaur I started working more intensively in my mind. I had more serious discussions after the end of the year, which became meaningful. And then I made the decision to stop. Another reason was that I wanted to stop when I decided. To write the end titles in my own way. Not to stop an injury, or an external agent. I wanted to leave properly and as I felt inside me that it was the right time. The decision was made very consciously and very clearly. ”

For what was left in the two decades of his basketball career: “The answer is easy. Because there is really something that has accompanied me throughout the years of my career and this is the unlimited love I have for the sport. I mean it. I’m not saying it like a nice cliché to hear well. It is indescribable how much I love what I do. I love it. Many times in my career I was fooling me, because even in my spare time I saw basketball, all the categories!

But for me, this place is my home. And I think what lasted me for so many years, what kept me up every season, was always the motivation. In everything. I was always looking for small motives in my life. Sometimes I created them myself. You know, this can sometimes turn like pressure. Sometimes it worked negatively, people have told me to me. That is, through this personal motivation, whether I made the wrong choices or I didn’t have the patience that I had to do in some situations. Maybe I should have been waiting a little further, to work otherwise in specific groups. But, do you know what? All these are experiences. I carry them with me as supplies from now on. My mistakes, my right ones … Now that I am in another role, all these are useful to continue to work.

Mentoring is something I consider very important. Especially now that parents have begun to participate more actively in the “game”. And you know what I thought? At the end of the day, I say “thank God that my parents were completely irrelevant to the” fortunate (laughs)! My mom got a view on my 32-33! And he says to me, “Why didn’t you score 20 points?” And I turn around and say to her, “Do you talk to me? What are you telling me now?” 15 years of professional, you never asked me about the game! And now suddenly: “Your father said, you didn’t put a lot of points, what happened?” And I say from within me … “My God, what I hear!” (laughs). ”

For the rupture of the crucifixion in the fight with Serbia at the Acropolis, when he retired in the hands of Bouroussi and Vassilopoulos: “I’ll tell you … At that moment I understood it right away, that we have a serious problem. Although I had never passed anything again, I heard a “crack” and understood directly. You know, it may sound weird, but that was always my biggest fear. I always said, “Let’s get anything except for a jerk.” It was the one thing I was looking at and scared me. I didn’t care about anything else! Of course, we are now discussing something that, in the end, is passing because there are much more serious things. Like what happened with Polonara recently. There we are talking about life. So what can we say now about a hindfold … Nevertheless, it was what I was always scared.

After all, the mind is stronger than we think. And as we say, “what the time brings is not all time.” It was done. I understood it at that time, but when I was going to the locker room, I was sure. I was finding my luck … because I had just got a transfer to Panathinaikos, something I wanted very much and brought me back to the Euroleague. It was also in front of us in the world, we had all fought with the National in the “windows” to be there. And it was the last friendly! I remember we had a Monday-Tuesday and Wednesday we were leaving. And it happened …

At first he had not swollen, so I had a little hope. The doctor told me we would see it with a magnetic. When I did it the same night, I remember being outside George Panou, my manager, at Metropolitan. He was the first man I asked. I say to him, “Is it cruel?” He tells me “yes” … and I remember I threw a bun in a fire extinguisher. Beyond that, when I came home because it took place in front of a lot of people, it got a huge extent. It was all about all this. I remember, the messages were endless, and from people I didn’t even know! For three days it was “non stop”.

And there, when I was lying in bed, I said, “Okay, it happened. Or it throws me and finish here, or because what I do love is not the case with my career.” I just said always, because I knew how difficult it was, I didn’t care what team I would come back. The only motivation I had put on was to call me back to the Men’s National. So this was the biggest challenge. And the second: Once I did the surgery, not to lose the year with Panathinaikos. To get in. If I were able to show that I am well and deserve a second chance, beyond that, get what I can from this year.

Panathinaikos gave me the facilities to make my gym, my physiotherapy, whatever I needed. They arranged me to have access to the pool and that helped me a lot, it was important. I arrived in a situation where I spent eight hours a day at OAKA! Pool, physiotherapy, weights with the trainer, I was watching the team training … It’s not an exaggeration, the eight hours were reality. But I had set a goal to return as quickly as possible.

We arrive in March … Thursday the team for Constantinople, for the match against Fenerbahce, and Sunday I would find them in Thessaloniki. We were playing with Hercules, and Coach Pitino had told me he would put me in the 12th. We come for training and… Covid! And I say … “it doesn’t!”. But there I thought again: Your bad luck will never know what has saved you.

Next time, a friend who had a gym gave me the keys. I had paper for recovery, I also had the travel paper, I was going and working on my own, so as not to lose all this time. The transitional period began with Panathinaikos. It was as if I turned another man. It was as if I had never had the injury. I made a very good transition period, but Coach Vovoras didn’t think I would go back to 100% and so I went to Prometheus next year. And we went and won in the OAKA. And these little ones … are ok. But they give you the motivation. They fill you and bother you. ”

If he closed his career with repulsives: “Look, repulsive and pending I really don’t have. And I’ll tell you why: Why I never thought I could play in A1. And it may sound wrong, but it’s the truth, I have no reason to hide.

I never believed, when I went to Panionios, that I could play in the big category. That is, I was going home and saying “you played five minutes, ok”. And we’re talking about the third best team in Greece then, with a very big budget. I had Ivan Zokoski and Tairis Rice in front of me. I was looking for five minutes from these two, coached by Nenad Markovic, who is an excellent coach and perfectly fair. I was looking for 3-5 minutes. To make them 6. I was returning home and wondering, “Isn’t it A1 in the end? Can I?” Therefore, I had never set a goal to achieve something so big. I like what I did. Everything came in itself, and I always said, “Is that for me?”. Panionios came to buy me from Icarus, and I was saying, “For me? Why?”

I never liked to say big words, I could do it as a defense, so that my mind would not get my mind. I went to Panionios and didn’t know if I could stand on A1. And now that the end has come, I look back and I see that I have been a career that I think is good enough. That was. Better choices I could have made, for sure. Or some things I was called selfishly … it was wrong. But no, I don’t have a repulsive. ”