By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes wing Krunoslav Simon talked about the potential resumption of the EuroLeague season, playing alongside Vasilije Micic and Shane Larkin and how “unstoppable” the latter has been.
Here’s what Simon said to Sport Klub’s “Give & Go” podcast:
EuroLeague:
“We have chemistry, we play fantastically from the beginning and, most importantly, we enjoy it. We enjoyed every game on the court – in the Turkish League and EuroLeague. It was seen in the results and the game. This is a force majeure, what happened happened and we’re certainly sorry. Even if EuroLeague is played again, it’s not certain that we will return in the same form, that we will find the same chemistry and that everything will be the same as before. And if EuroLeague resumes, it will be more because of TV rights and sponsors, but it’s not easy to say whether we will be in the same form.”
Sharing the backcourt with Larkin and Micic:
“It’s a special situation, I don’t think anyone in Europe has such a five-man squad and I’m especially in the best position here. Each coach will put the two best defensive players on the two of them and then you are left with the third one, which will drag a little. Is it [Vassilis] Spanoulis, is it [Sergio] Rodriguez or players who are great in offense but a little weaker in defense. This is why I say that I’m in a great position here. I played with top players but having such two players in a team at the same time is a rarity. The two of them, and even the three of us, when we are together on the field, we complement each other. Each of us plays in that mode and it’s not really easy to beat us.”
Larkin and his “unstoppability”:
“In practices, you don’t get that impression [him being unstoppable] because he doesn’t play at full strength. There are a lot of games, trips and the coach will let you relax a little. You can rest a little, if at the moment you feel that you are tired, that there’s fatigue. It’s not about breaking the floor in every work out. So, Shane has some balance of his own and when he takes the ball you can see after five seconds what kind of players he is. You can’t get that impression about him in practices, like in a game when he’s in full force when he’s concentrated from the beginning. Sometimes, I get surprised when I see him at a game doing what he does. I think: ‘That’s impossible what this man is going.’ It gives additional quality and such security to the rest of us in the game, which is immediately easier to play. If you don’t know what you’re going to do at some point, here’s Shane, give it [the ball] to him, he’ll always invent something.”