Ergin Ataman: “Everyone come to me after games and tell me they can’t practice”

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

Panathinaikos Athens coach Ergin Ataman was disappointed with the performance of his team in the loss of Paris Basketball, especially in the first three periods.

Paris was up 69 – 86 in the end of the third quarter and held on to get a big away win despite a comeback attempt by Panathinaikos. Ataman was critical of what he sees as a repeated behavior by his players during the last month, on and off the floor.

“This is our biggest problem,” Ataman said. “We aren’t playing good basketball. We’re playing like veteran teams. I talked like this also in the locker room. It’s also my responsibility that we aren’t working well. Everybody thinks they’re a star. Everybody is star but tonight we saw that stars can’t win all the time. Everybody thinks that we’ll have homecourt advantage and go to Abu Dhabi. If we won’t win one game, we’ll be in the Play-In. I hope we can understand this .This is my fault. I can’t manage this every day. Somebody is injured, somebody is tired. We are like a team of veterans in the last month. Basketball is fighting, basketball is playing defense. We play defense only in our last periods, same like the game vs. Olympiacos, ALBA and Maccabi.”

In the games against Olympiacos, Maccabi and Paris, Panathinaikos was trailing by double figures entering the final period and their comeback effort resulted to a win only vs. the Israeli team. The Greens were also behind 66 – 74 two minutes into the fourth quarter vs. ALBA before they got a victory with a late surge.

“This isnt casual,” Ataman added. “It’s my responsibility but what can I do. Everybody is injured, everybody is tired. Everybody comes to me after each game and tell me ‘I can’t practice. I’m tired’. With this mentality we won’t go anywhere. Everybody must understand this. Don’t think about Abu Dhabi or playoffs. We play two strong games, against Monaco and Crvena Zvezda. If we don’t win one of the next two games we will play in the Play-In. That’s the reality right now.”

“I’ll try to focus but if they continue to stay in therapy room, I can’t prepare the game in the therapy room,” Ataman concluded.