By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
VITORIA-GASTEIZ– Winning the EuroLeague title will mean the world to Fenerbahce Beko forward Nicolo Melli.
It will get him the highly coveted trophy for the first time in his career. And, it will also help delete the image of losing to Real Madrid in the 2018 championship game.
A year ago, Melli scored a career-high 28 points (apart from grabbing six rebounds) in the EuroLeague Final. Despite his sometimes epic efforts, his team ultimately fell to the “Blancos” and didn’t manage to win the back-to-back title.
Now, Melli looks forward to completely evaporating every aspect of this “bitter memory” by winning the first EuroLeague title of his career.
“For sure. it’s [the 2019 Final) a bitter memory. We were very very close to win the EuroLeague, my personal performance. aside. But we are here again. Fifth time in a row for the club. And we are going for the trophy again.”
Melli is adamant that he and his teammates already have plenty of fuel in their tanks and don’t really require any extra drive.
“You are in the Final Four and you are going for the biggest trophy in Europe. If you need an extra motivation, you have some problem. For sure, what we have experienced last year is an extra boost. Something we want to erase. But it’s just that.”
Fenerbahce will go into battle for the second EuroLeague title in the history of the club minus center Joffrey Lauvergne and forward Gigi Datome. Coach Zeljko Obradovic said that center Jan Vesely and forward Nikola Kalinic will play in the semifinal vs. Anadolu Efes but there’s nothing certain regarding the minutes they’ll get or how much they will be able to contribute.
For Melli, this woes are going to help rally Fenerbahce to fight even harder.
“Obviously it’s a bit upsetting because we couldn’t prepare as we wanted for this Final Four. We are still missing players who aren’t playing 100%. Everybody needs to step up and give something more to the team.
“It’s tough but it’s part of the game. We have to use it as a weapon on our side,” Melli added.
Fenerbahce is facing Efes in the semifinal. Both teams are extremely familiar with each other since they’ve skirmished multiple times in EuroLeague and the Turkish League this season.
What does Melli think are his team’s biggest advantages and disadvantages against Efes?
“Efes is deeper than us today. They have more options. We are going to try put our experience on the court. Because it’s not easy to play at this stage and i think that this is going to be a big factor and it’s going to play a big part in the game.”