By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Over the last summer and while AS Monaco was having a pretty busy offseason with some notable players such as guards Jordan Loyd and Elie Okobo bolstering a backcourt that already featured superstar Mike James, there was a common motif in the way basketball fans reacted to these transfers on social media.
“Yes, it’s a big team, but you have just one ball.” “How many balls can they bring on the court?” “They are asking EuroLeague to change rules to play with 3 balls.” “Monaco reportedly signing 7 more balls.”
These and other similar comments accompanied posts and tweets regarding the additions of both Okobo and Loyd. Two players who love playing with the basketball in their hands and were now getting paired with high-usage James.
How many balls does Monaco actually need, five games into the EuroLeague regular season? “We just needed only one ball tonight, right?” Okobo told Eurohoops some minutes after Monaco’s road win over Olympiacos Piraeus. “We showed tonight and in the previous games that we need just one ball.”
“We need five more players,” swingman Alpha Diallo joked in the background.
Monaco gatecrashed the party of Olympiacos in its first EuroLeague home game with fans in the arena and Okobo was one of the main ones responsible for spoiling the fun for the Reds. The French guard finished with a season-high 23 points, shooting the ball efficiently (7-10 from the field), while sending four assists to his teammates.
The Trinity of Mike James – Elie Okobo – Jordan Loyd overall combined for 53 out of the team’s 81 points and 14 out of the 17 assists overall with which the Monegasque side finished the clash. They showcased enviable chemistry on the floor, either when two of them were a pair on the floor or when were all used by coach Sasa Obradovic in the death lineup of the fourth period. As if they have been playing together for ages.
And they certainly didn’t need more than one ball.
“We have smart guys who can share the ball and can create,” Okobo commented. “And we’re finding the rhythm step by step.” His team is now 4-1 in EuroLeague and 6-0 in the French League.
Monaco executives and coaching staff members were high-fiving each other, moments after the final buzzer sounded in Peace and Friendship arena. Spirits inside the team’s locker room were appropriately high after such a victory against one of the two undefeated teams in EuroLeague (the other being Fenerbahce Beko).
Olympiacos had beaten powerhouses Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain and was coming off a comeback win at Baskonia. The Greek powerhouse had also downed Zalgiris Kaunas at home in a match held behind closed doors.
“We don’t really focus on what other teams are doing against other teams,” Okobo said regarding the 4-0 streak of Olympiacos that Monaco snapped. “I think we came out here to play. We knew what the crowd and what the atmosphere was going to be. We had a little time to prerare for it and I think we did a great job.”
There was an additional reason why this result was particularly celebrated by everyone affiliated with Monaco. The last time that the team visited Piraeus was in the knockout Game 5 of the 2022 EuroLeague playoffs, where Olympiacos took a win in the last minutes to advance to the Final Four.
Okobo wasn’t there since he arrived at Monaco in July, but felt that this match now was somewhat personal for other players and that there was a “vengeance mode” providing them with an extra fuel.
“Obviously, as a competitor you don’t like to lose,” Okobo said. “Especially when you have the chance to make Final Four and they didn’t last year.. And now we need to move on. We’re going to enjoy it a little bit but we’ll need to move on because we have a lot of games ahead of us.”
“This year, coming in, we have guys that understand the game and what we are trying to do on the court and trying to fit in,” Okobo mentioned about his mindset this season. “As for me, it’s all about being myself. Being aggressive, to create for my teammates, trying to get better and bringing that energy on the floor.”
Okobo has the utmost faith in the potential that Monaco carries but realizes that there’s a long way until the end of a season that is a marathon, not a sprint.
“Sky is the limit,” Okobo said. “We just need to stay locked in, keep getting better. Understand what we need to improve and do it. Action style. We’re aiming at everything and we want to win championships. But there are a lot of games before we can talk about playoffs.”