Spanoulis: “To build on the first half and how we reacted in the end” – what he said about arbitration

Our National was anxious, but showed character and celebrated the first victory against Spain, booking an appointment with Israel in this year’s “16” phase of this year’s Eurobasket!

After the end of the match and during the press conference, the Vassilis Spanoulis He stood in the very good first half of his team and the character he showed in the second, he described the victory against the Spaniards, and also expressed his complaint about the arbitration and the way John Antetokounbos is treated.

In detail what our national coach said:



“I would like to congratulate Coach Skarolos for his great career with Spain and wish him good luck in the new challenge of his career. I congratulate my team, made an amazing first half, one of the best he has ever done. In defense, attack, rebounds, shoots, everything. Then we set speed, but we showed character, even when Spain went ahead. We made big defenses and got the victory that would help us.

It is a great victory, we know our rivalry with Spain. I saw again in another match with Spain huge differences in shots. It is not possible for Lucas to take 20-25 shots and John begs to get shots with his opponents hugging him. We have to deal with all players in the same way. There are very few shots that John is taking. I respect Coach Skarolos and the Spanish National for their achievements, but I want to be fair and tell my truth.

This match is an example of what will follow. Nothing should disturb our concentration and we should have the same concentration throughout the match and not just for a half time.

Throughout the first phase I trust all the kids, I have put everyone, because we need them all. Today, Dinos, who is one of our best players, played less because the opponents were playing in a special way. He is an excellent child and very coachable. We want the tournament to have a road yet, we have to stay humble. We have to build on the first half and how we reacted in the end. Papanikolaou has done a great job in defense throughout the tournament, Sloukas, who is one of the best in Euroleague decisions, made the right decisions in the end. John must … kill his brother because he lost a basket that gave him a pass (laughs). He trusts his teammates, he is very important and was one of his most mature appearances.

At some point you will lose differences. And we’ve got medals like that. We see groups escaping and psychology may change. For me, the most important thing was our reaction. Maybe we were happy with the first half and relaxed, we gave the momentum to Spain and we shouldn’t do that. But we keep the reaction. “