By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The main subject of talk in the OAKA press conference room was Euroleague’s Final Four. Three Panathinaikos’ players, Ian Vougioukas, Kostas Kaimakoglou and David Logan, talked about their motivation to play in the final and beat CSKA Moscow on Friday, getting revenge for their teams’ two regular season loses.
But when the star of the evening, coach Zeljiko Obradovic, started to talk, he mentioned one more very important thing after a related question, the possible sale of Panathinaikos to a Russian energy corporation and the future of the team: “I have no idea about those rumors. What can I do? Should I grab someone by the sleeve and ask him? Nobody talked to me about it. We are one month before the end of the season and if nobody knows what will happen, that means goodbye. But for me this is an extra motive, because this is maybe my last Final Four with Panathinaikos. I have enormous respect for the owners, Giannakopoulos family, they are the reason for us being here and I will respect their decision”.
The cat was out of the bag, the topic was changed and Obradovic was more than happy to speak about his career and his possible future: “The main thing that changed from 1992, when I won with Partizan the Final Four in Istanbul, is that my hair was then black and now it’s white, like a said in Belgrade when we celebrated the occasion some days ago (laughs). Ok, no more jokes. Many things changed. I have experienced, I have work with many great players that made me a better coach and I have assistants like Itoudis. I was lucky enought to work in teams that always had the goal to be in the Final Four. Partizan, Joventut, Real, Benetton and Panathinaikos. I don’t know if a cycle is closing. It’s hard to think about the future when you have in front of you the Final Four and the league finals against Olympiacos. But after 21 season, 13 Final Fours and two Saporta Cup finals, I don’t know what the river of life will bring me”.
The feeling of a possible farewell was magnified when Obradovic said: “Many years from now many people will talk about some of our games”. And when he was asked about his favorite Panathinaikos game, he smiled: “It’s like asking me to chose one of my children. I will say that Game 5 against Maccabi was special. I had this feeling when I was entering the court. Maybe it’s just a fresh memory, but many friends from all over Europe called me and talked to me about this game”.
All this can wait. For now Obradovic and Panathinaikos are focused in the Final Four: “After a very hard summer with many problems we qualified again in the Final Four. We are very proud about this. I am proud for my players and the way they played and now we have the chance to win one more title. Our Final Four is the game against CSKA Moscow. It’s a great team with a great roster and they have played great. We lost to games to them, we played very well in Athens, but they beat us in overtime. In Moscow we had a good first half, scoring 49 points and then CSKA had a 14-0 run in two minutes. We have to play in a better level in order to have a chance. In order to beat them we have to play the perfect game”.