Reporting from Istanbul: Antonis Stroggilakis
It’s a well known fact that Zeljko Obradovic and Vasilis Spanoulis don’t see eye to eye since the decision of the star Greek player to leave Panathinaikos and Obradovic for Olympiacos. It was a decision that ultimately changed the balance of powers in the Greek and even in European basketball.
Since then, there’s an obvious rift between them, rarely they speak about each other and while Obradovic was asked about Spanoulis and the influence he may have to tomorrow’s game, he avoided a straight answer: “Before the semifinal I tried to prepare my team to stop Llull. He scored 28 points. What one player does is not important”.
Even with him not being there, Spanoulis was a key topic in questions directed not only to coach Obradovic, but also to Ekpe Udoh, Giorgos Printezis and of course coach Giannis Sfairopoulos who were present in the panel.
Spanoulis and Obradovic didn’t even look at each other in the initial Final Four press conference on Friday, despite sitting side by side, and we will have to wait for the Final in order to see their reactions and any possible interaction.