Kotsis: “I feel a great responsibility to refer to the Greek GM in Japan”

For ten years served Team Manager her National Greeceworked as a General Manager at AEK and other Stoiximan GBL teams to … move to Japan a few weeks ago and become the first Greek General Manager in a sports team in the “country of the rising sun”.

THE Costas Kotsisher new General Manager Snacking her Fuchukkspoke to Eok webradio For this new experience in his career.

In detail what he said:

For his transfer to Japan as the first GM: “Speaking about Japan, I want to tell you that this is an advanced country that is constantly growing in the technological sector. It is a country in which they are all neat and is characteristic of their culture. Their Europeans see them friendly, they are willing and kind to help you with everything. The only problem I face is language and they don’t speak English so much. Fortunately in my new team there are people about it. I also want to say a lot of congratulations to the entire mission of the National Team on winning the bronze medal in Eurobasket. It would be a great injustice of children like Papanikolaou and Sloukas to leave the National without a medal. I hope they show the way to the next. It was a collective effort, the biggest part of the success has the staff and the players. “

For his transfer to Japan as the first Greek GM of the country: “The proposal existed since last year. I had visited Japan but had then refused for personal reasons. I had met the owner. I want to wish the best for AEK. I made the decision to travel and come close to see the team. A big challenge for me, I thought about it quite a bit. The new league is Japan’s professional category and makes big jumps of progress. It was founded about a decade ago and essentially joined various championships in the country and became a single system that gave a stability. It increased professionalism and promotes quite a bit in all areas. People have embraced it and have a strong interest in filling the stadiums. In general, groups are increasingly investing in organization and infrastructure. They give great importance in detail how the public will enjoy. They have a vision they have explained to me. Japan wants to establish itself in world basketball. All strategic development has a common vision to establish the Premier League one year from now. There will be strict criteria in budget, stadiums and others. Yesterday (29/09) the team’s owner interviewed to inform that in December he would present the new privately owned stadium worth more than $ 120 million. The team lives and operates daily in its own space. The training center is next to the stadium with the offices. It is state -of -the -art with renewable energy and the team operates daily with NBA conditions. The stadium has 6,000 seats, the new one will have more seats. Personally, at my reception I had many positive impressions. They know the story and in particular the successes of Greek basketball. They recognize the experience and knowledge of Europeans for the new league and Japanese basketball. They believe that it will substantially contribute to their development. Foreign players are currently 3 in each team, but there should always be 3 Japanese in the parquet. There is another place for a foreign but Asian. It is a great discussion here and reminds me of the past in Greece that concerned us with regard to the participation of foreign players and the impact. The only issue that concerns the Japanese is whether the public will like the participation of many foreign players. “

For the position of General Chief in Japan: “My main duties are the cooperation of the administration and the coach to form the roster and to scout young athletes. This is dominated by 90-95% of college athletes. It’s like the US. They intend to bring draft options such as the NBA to protect the competitiveness of the league. I was in Tokyo to see college races and was impressed. They have not greatly developed to read the game. They have high speeds but they are continuously shooting. These are the main differences with European basketball. In Japan basketball is fresher, there are no traditional teams. There are foreign coaches and I think they will open the basketball border to get more know -how from Europe and the US. Many players find good contracts with all the benefits of 100% such as health safety and beyond. There are several families and youth audiences on the pitch. We have events in the group every day and there is contact with the world. We want through all these processes to have a “binding” with society. I feel a great responsibility to refer to “the Greek GM”. I represent Greece and Greek basketball, I have to be careful. “

For the motivation of the team: “There is no pressure in the league as we are used to in Greece. Of course, to say it as it is, I don’t know a person who doesn’t want to win. There is no toxic pressure, only joy for the sport. They focus on the spectacle and satisfaction of the world to feel that they deserved and repeat it. “