By Achilleas Mavrodontis/ info@eurohoops.net
Sasha Vezenkov had an impressive Eurobasket tournament with Bulgaria and proved on the court that he is among the top players in Europe. That makes even more natural the interest of the Sacramento Kings to sign him this summer.
However, as he explained to Eurohoops during the media day of Olympiacos, staying in Europe for one more year and playing for the Greek club, was the best option for him.
Vezenkov feels that he made the right choice: “It was a beautiful summer, neither strange nor difficult. I got a lot of messages on social media from people, showing me how much they wanted me to stay on the team. It’s a beautiful thing to see. It was the first summer in a long time that there was some solid talk, and the Kings showed interest. Based on the information, what I heard, and what I had on the table, I decided that the best option for me was Olympiacos. I don’t look back. I always stand by my decisions. I’m trying to prove that it was the best choice”.
And of course, with Olympiacos reaching the Final Four last year, the goals on a personal and team level are obvious. As Vezenkov explained the fact that Olympiacos made very few changes in the roster will be the key for the upcoming season: “Keeping a core is very important. The new guys have Euroleague experience, it’s easier for them too. The sooner we find chemistry, the sooner we will perform. In the Euroleague, everything counts from the start. The most important thing is to find the motivation to become better. It exists for me. I want to improve every day, to succeed together with the team. I will give 100%. There will be difficult nights for me and the team. I’m fine with that, the most important thing is that the team wins”.
With the naturalized players debate still hot after the Eurobasket, Vezenkov also spoke on the issue. Having a triple-citizenship, he could have played for Cyprus, Bulgaria, or Greece and ultimately picked the Bulgarian national team, since both his parents are Bulgarian but he was born in Cyprus, grew up there, and moved to Greece in his early teens.
As he explained especially about the possibility of him playing for Greece, that was never the case: “People know that I love Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Greece. I speak Greek, it’s my first language, I grew up here and all my friends are here. No one ever came, when I could pick Greece, to tell me to try it. I don’t blame anyone. Maybe someone didn’t want it, didn’t see it. I don’t even know what would have happened. No one ever came for me, when I was 16 or 18 years old. The only thing left for me is to support the Greek national team on TV. I love Greece and you know that. But there was never a conversation, no one came to see if it could be done”.