By Vaggelis Papadimitriou/ info@eurohoops.net
Shane Larkin was present with Anadolu Efes for the third edition of the Pavlos Giannakopoulos tournament, although he didn’t log any minutes and he explained why.
“I’m ready now. I could’ve played in these games I believe but I had a back injury last year so we’re using a cautious approach, allowing my body to recover and build up enough strength so I can make it through a full season. Last few seasons, I haven’t come in very healthy. I missed the first few games two years ago, and last year the first five. We’re taking a different approach this season and allowing my body to recover, rest, heal and train. So that when it gets to that first game, I’m available and feeling good and in good shape,” he said and gave props to Panathinaikos and the rest of the teams for good competition.
“It was a good tournament, a lot of good teams. Panathinaikos played really hard tonight, they had a bunch of young guys, they’re going to be a tough team this year. All credit to them for winning the tournament. I think we looked good, we looked a little tired, we’ve been traveling a lot. We spent only a couple of days home in Istanbul over the last two, three weeks. But it’s preseason, we have to push through those things, push through fatigue so that we can find that endurance and longevity for the season.”
On another note, Larkin believes it’s a ‘hard life’ being the defending champion but he and his teammates are aware of that and know what to do to reach the top once again.
“It’s more difficult to be a defending champion. We’ve been, in my opinion, the best team over the last three years. Two years ago, we lost in the championship. The second year, when COVID happened, we were in first place by three to four games, we were dominating the whole season. Then we came back the next year and won the championship. We understand what it takes to be at the top, we understand what we need to do, how we need to prepare, how we need to play. And at this point, everybody in the league knows that we are, if not the best team, then one of the best teams and we’re gonna get their best shot every single night.”