By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
While his quotes about Kevin Durant made headlines, Svetislav Pesic addressed yesterday the issue of his quotes about ELPA and personally director Bostjan Nachbar that resulted in a disciplinary proceeding against the coach.
Pesic explained the context of the post-game press conference after the contest against Crvena Zvezda: “Every time I am in Belgrade, Serbian media wants to know about everything going on in basketball. It was a press conference with two parts. First, we talked about the game we played against Crvena Zvezda and in the second part since I coached Yugoslavia and the last one to win gold medals, in EuroBasket and the World Cup, and I coached Zvezda, the first club in the Balkans, very popular, everyone talks about them. The media wanted to know what Pesic thinks about some things, like the Serbian national team results in the World Cup. I am a coach and have to respect that people want to know what I think about this and that”.
On the central issue of his quotes about ELPA and the new rules about practices, Pesic added: “As everyone knows, I am not a person that says in press conference everything you like to hear. Sometimes I see situations with different ‘glasses,’ but I try to give my opinion about so many injured players – Zvezda also had those problems. No more, no less. When I talked about injured players, especially after the World Cup, I tried to explain why players got injured and what happened. I have been a coach for 35 years, and I played professional basketball for 15 years, so it is logical for people to ask, and it is normal that I know how a player has to prepare and how to prepare a team, especially nowadays, when you play ten months in Europe. If anyone felt offended, I can say sorry. I didn’t want to criticize anyone or attack anyone, or offense this or that person. I have to say I am sorry if someone feels bad. Let’s think about the future of basketball in Europe and how it develops. I didn’t say a word about the EuroLeague. I didn’t talk about the EuroLeague, but about the problems, we have with injured players. Let’s say the truth and talk altogether and find a solution. This is a big problem, and all of my colleague coaches know – some talk, some don’t, but everyone knows we have many injured players, especially in basketball. As German people say, there are no problems, only solutions. Let’s talk about solutions, all together, for the interest of basketball, players, and the quality of the game in the competitions we play in.”