By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Dimitris Itoudis didn’t mention the name of Mike James, but he practically clarified that the CSKA top scorer is practically out of the team, despite having a contract with the club until 2023.
As CSKA coach said after the win against Zenit St. Petersburg: “The roster you saw over here and the injured players who have stayed in Moscow, like Joel Bolomboy and Nikola Milutinov, are the roster with which will we go all the way for the rest of the season until I am over here, together with my associates on the head of this great team”.
Itoudis also clarified by reading a written statement: “This is a personal decision because I decided to go to war with the players and the staff and everybody else who are ready to go to war for this team. The players who are ready to respect their teammates, first of all, the players who are putting the team above themselves, those who represent the values of the club that I am coaching. Because if we want to be champions, we have to be champions in everything. If we want to win EuroLeague titles and if we want to be at the top and a great example for our fans and our kids, we need to have a group of players ready to respect each other, ready to respect the game itself. Not just to care about themselves, but to care about everybody. And that’s how you win trophies”.
For the Greek coach, this was a decision that had to be made, for the benefit of the team: “If I do it differently, I couldn’t face my players and say something that’s not happening. So I have to be able to see them straight in their eyes and tell them the truth because they understand really well what is our purpose”.