Bartzokas: “It’s ok for them to be favorites, but for the whole… planet to push for transfers”

THE George Bartzokas stated… coldly indifferent to the high position held by Olympic in the power rankings for the Euroleague stressing that it is an oxymoron to consider the team the favorite and at the same time to say that it needs reinforcement. “You will never hear from us that we are the first favorite or that we are a group. Others do this“, he commented meaningfully. He also referred to tomorrow’s match with Monacobut also his condition Keenan Evans. He spoke in detail about:

– Monaco: “They are one of the most difficult teams to deal with in the Euroleague. One of the strongest teams, with a lot of experience, with players like Mirotic, Nedovic, James, who have a lot of experience from the tournament and of course a talented team with athleticism. I think our approach has to be that we shouldn’t look at our record, we shouldn’t look at what we’re going to do in the first round or what schedule we have after that. We have to look at this game, be very efficient, stick to our plan and in front of our audience to win, which of course will not be easy at all, it requires a good effort, a good performance. Overall I feel optimistic because our returning group has become more balanced right now, both in terms of playing time and in terms of sharing responsibilities leading up to the game. So our goal is to improve and show it tomorrow in the game.”

-the trainings: “You know, training is a dying species in European basketball. We played Friday night, then we played Sunday morning, we had one training session in Mykonos, which was more of a recovery training session. Yesterday, after two consecutive games, it was more individual training sessions again. Today we have a training that we can’t stress too much because we play tomorrow and Friday and Sunday. So, maybe the games of the Greek league when they are offered, but also some minimal training when we do in the odd weeks may give us a better result in our performance”.

– Keenan Evans: “What I told you last time is that he is entering the final stage of rehabilitation, he is doing individual exercises and yesterday he did with great intensity, today he will also enter team training and from then on it is a matter of how he will feel and of course he has to find a rhythm and get in shape to play the games.”

-his choices in the starting five: “The five is related to everyone’s form, how we want the first five to be based on the opponent and how we want the second five to be because at the moment you know that more than 7-8 minutes it is difficult to play at a high level in the Euroleague continuously. It depends every time on a lot of other things, it’s not NBA, where the top five is specific every time. It may change, it may not. But I can’t tell you anything specific because I will decide before each match.”

– the fact that he will face Vassilis Spanoulis: “We are competing with Monaco and that’s the only way I see it, I can’t see it any other way. I am the coach of Olympiakos. What can I say about that?’

– the power rankings: “I don’t know how the ranking comes out. I don’t know what… What standards are there for someone to be number one favorite. What analyst pulls this off? I don’t completely agree with them. And it can’t change every week or two that. But I think it’s a bit of an oxymoron. In other words, they consider us the first favorite and here the planet is pressing that Olympiacos is incomplete. So, that is, I don’t know exactly what to believe. I try, as I told you, to stay unaffected, to see what the team needs and what it doesn’t need and to always have confidence in the players we have because I consider them very capable. You will never hear from us that we are the first favourite, that we want to go and conquer the Euroleague, that we are a team. Others do this. We want to improve every day here. We have a lot of faith in our material and we have a lot of faith in the expertise that this club has for this level. From there, many things play a role. Management during the year, health, or sometimes luck”.