By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
CSKA President Andrey Vatutin commented on the decision of head coach Dimitris Itoudis to suspend Mike James from the team’s games.
The suspension came after a VTB League game against UNICS Kazan in which James was substituted after three minutes and never returned to the court. Coach Itoudis commented on it after the game but didn’t go into details.
“Unfortunately, the potential of joint work with Mike James is now, alas, not visible. Mike’s first season at CSKA did not bring us any difficulties, and therefore a three-year contract was signed. This season, the club has done everything possible to make the cooperation successful and bring results. The problems that arose could not be solved, so we acted in a “manual” mode, but we failed to achieve stability in the team”, said the CSKA Moscow boss in a recent interview with metaratings.ru.
“Itoudis is an experienced and knowledgeable coach who has his own perspective on how to build a team, and he is responsible for the result. According to the coaching staff, the decision to remove Mike is fully in the interests of the team, and we believe that everything will work out.”
Vatutin adds: “At the same time, you should not demonize Mike, he is a great basketball player who has won matches more than once alone and amazed the audience with spectacular actions. But it so happened that the situation turned into one insoluble conflict. Unfortunately, it is not possible to settle it, which is very sad, but it is better to admit it, and not live with the hope of a miracle”.