By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
In every Final Four there is a favorite, but this time the favorite had an early exit (CSKA Moscow) and in Sunday’s final the defending champions, Olympiacos, are facing the top contenders of this season, Real Madrid.
So, as it was expected, nobody wanted to have the burden of the favorite, but this time it might be true. Both teams seem to start the final on equal ground, as coach Giorgos Bartokas of Olympiacos said in the press conference of the final: “Obviously the challenge in the final is huge as well is our motivation to get the title. Madrid is the winiest team in European basketball with so many titles. It’s a huge club. We are going to play a completely different team from what we faced yesterday. This team has enthusiasm, speed and is very good offensive rebounding, which will be very difficult for us We have to be very quick on defense and in our attack. The psychology is very important. The physical and psychological aspects are equal. I don’t know if it will be a high-scoring or low-scoring game, but it will be attractive basketball”.
As for the pressure of being the champions, Bartzokas replied: “My players read and know what happens in our country. In Greece the enthusiasm for basketball is excessive. That’s in our Mediterranean character. We have to control ourselves. My players are very good at taking in the information that I give them. They want to do their best and they prepare for their best. I don’t agree that we haven’t done anything so far and that only the cup matters. Coming here was already a very big success. I’m optimistic that we’ll come to the final with a good attitude”.
Last season’s hero of the Final Giorgos Printezis added: “For me and for us it is a great honor to find ourselves in the final after this difficult season and to be able to compete for the trophy. It’s not very easy for our country to have a team in the Final Four every year. In our opinion our opponent has a better team, better players, big bodies. They are in good form. It will be very difficult. If we want to have a chance, we have to show same strength and focus as we did yesterday”.
Coach Pablo Laso, a member of Real Madrid as a player in the Final Four of 1996, the year after the team beat Olympiacos and got the most recent of its eight Euroleague titles (1995), knows that things will not be easy: “This is a Euroleague final against the defending champion, a team which may have seemed to be a surprise last season, but that has proved that it is the real thing by returning to the title game. It is a team with many players from last season and a coach that has done a great job with them. They have been able to play at a high level all season. If we want to get this title, we are aware that we have to have a great game”.
As for the pressure of a final, he explained: “I try not to experience a situation like this as an extra pressure. Coaching Real Madrid means pressure from Day 1 and in the end, you are the one to put pressure on yourself. I know what it means to be in a Euroleague final and my players are aware of that, too. We know who we will play against and have great respect for the reigning Euroleague champion. Right now, after sleeping well, I am looking forward to this game, willing to prepare the team to get to this game in the best moment of the season, so that we can compete and win the Euroleague title”.
Captain Felipe Reyes also elaborated: “We put the right pressure on ourselves. We want to achieve this dream of lifting the Euroleague trophy. We don’t need anyone from outside or you, the media, to tell us that Real Madrid has not won the Euroleague for many years. We try to focus on our work and not pay too much attention to what you say, because that could go against us. It is true that we are all working hard to have a good game tomorrow and to take the trophy to Madrid. It will be difficult; Olympiacos is at a high level, but that’s the goal.”