By Aris Barkas
Maccabi‘s coach David Blatt was trying to be polite after the game: “Details decided the winner, and also Dimitris Diamantidis, who is my… Nemesis! I like him as a person, but I don’t want to see him in front of me in the future. He is a great player. He was named the 2011 MVP and he can be it again”.
And the truth is that Diamantidis with 25 points and 4/5 free throws in the last seconds was the player that made it happen for Panathinaikos. The Champs won Maccabi Tel Aviv 86-85 (3-2) and they will go to Istanbul’s Euroleague Final Four to defend their title. Diamantidis is also named Game 5 MVP, but this not news. Thursday’s game in OAKA was the only Game 5 in the Euroleague play offs and Panathinaikos‘ captain took over when things mattered.
As coach Zeljko Obradovic said: “It was very special. I had that feeling from the very first moment of the game. At the end it was a matter of details, but I think that we dominated. Congratulations to Maccabi, because they are a great team and played the game until the end. I respect them and I enjoy playing against them. We had a tough summer, you know what I mean? We managed to keep the team united and we are here again. We don’t know what is going to happen next summer, but the players are fighting. To tell you the truth, the current level of the team will not be enough to defend our title at the Final Four. We need more players to help the team and this is my goal for the next month”.
But the end of the press conference was a little sour. “We feel honored to play in front of such a crowd”, said Blatt, but Obradovic did not like the fact that some of Panathinaikos fans – like some fans of Olympiacos last week against Siena – invaded the court to celebrate: “I am happy for our fans, but I don’t understand why they entered the court after the end of the game. Every year it’s the same. I understand their joy, but their place is in the stands. Why they don’t let us celebrate for once? After this incident I am starting to think my future in Greece. I asked them “what are you doing? Do you want us to be like football?” I can’t stand it any more. I am angry and maybe this will help me decide if I will leave the team”.