Bartzokas: “To this day I still say, damn, couldn’t that Llull’s shot have not gone in?”

By Nikos Mastrogiannopoulos/ info@eurohoops.net

Olympiacos got the top spot on the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague regular season standings; this achievement is accompanied by the “curse” of the top seed never winning the EuroLeague.

However, coach Giorgos Bartzokas doesn’t care about that, even though he still thinks about the shot of Sergio Llull that decided the final game in Kaunas, giving Real Madrid the win over the Greeks.

As he said in the press conference after the final game of the regular season: “To be honest, everyone thinks about what they could have done better. In 1994, we lost the final to Joventut Badalona with Cornelius Thompson’s shot, then we lost two years ago with Llull’s shot in Kaunas. A shot that, if you look at who stood up in front of him, how high he threw the ball, and it went in…

It’s Llull’s ability, of course, but was it also bad luck for us? Yes, 100%. To this day, sometimes, I still say, damn, couldn’t that shot have not gone in? But what can I tell you, of course you need a little bit of luck in life. Our concern is for Olympiacos to be among the top teams in Europe, like we are now. Even last year, when very important players left the team and we didn’t have time to do the rebuilding that we needed, our team was in the Final Four. We lost to Real, and to get there, we had to win a Game 5 on the road against Barcelona, ​​which had never happened before. So, since it happened last year, why can’t it happen this year? To break this tradition with Olympiacos. I hope it happens, we want a little luck; we’ll see.”

Speaking about the whole regular season, Bartzokas added: “We managed to complete a difficult and exhausting regular season. It is remarkable that we finished first, having so many players missing and watching from the bench, in the hospital, or in the stands for many matches. I appreciate the effort of all our players. I also want to thank the entire staff and, in general, those who helped us get here.

I do not take anything for granted. Some media, or some guys in social media, think that finishing in the top spot is easy. It is not. Also, I want to say that my coach, Vangelis Nikitopoulos, a legend of AEK and Sporting BC, passed away. I wanted to say goodbye to him from this stage. A man I loved very much, and I wanted to dedicate this journey to his memory”.