Greek guard Kostas Sloukas is the newest Eurohoops blogger. After Giannis Antetokounmpo and Cedi Osman the new member of Fenerbahce will have his official blog hosted in Eurohoops.net.
We would like to thank him for accepting our invitation to share his thoughts and sentiments via our site and those are great news – we hope – for our Turkish readers and the millions of Fenerbahce’s fans!
Kostas will write whenever he wants to express himself and his blog will be his way to communicate with his fans. After all he doesn’t use social media and this will be his personal internet space.
His first post was written in US soil and to be exact in Brooklyn! Read what he had to write just hours after the Fenerbahce game against the Nets and just before the next challenge against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
This is new to me!
I am spending my first days as a member of Fenerbahce and everything is new for me. It’s the first time I play outside Greece and I admit that during the first days I was nervous. I am a guy who loves his habits and the fact that my way of life and also my career changed completely, it’s something that I will need some time to get uset to.
My first impressions from my new environment are better than expected. The club has an amazing arena and amazing facilities. This is something very imporant for any athlete. I received a warm welcome from everyone. I like my new teammates, they seem to be great guys and I understand that everyone from the club is trying to make me feel at home. The coaches, the management, everyone.
The most important thing for me was that I found an appartement just outside the arena! I am near the building where I will spend most of my day and I will not have to deal with the notorious Istanbul traffic! I have spend very little time there, because we are traveling around the world from the moment I joined the team. Still with time I will adapt and the fact that I have my own people with me helps me a lot.
A raw diamond with amazing talent
I am still trying to find out the full potential of my teammates and my team. We didn’t even have a full practice yet with everyone onboard! Some of us had to play also in the Eurobasket, some other players are injured and still we are not all together.
What’s easy to see already? This team has great potential and impressive talent. I see my teammates in practice and when I think about us as a unit it’s like seeing a diamond in the rough. However I know very well that just talent is not enough. We need to work hard. It’s the start of the season, we still have time, but we have on the same time to win in the official games.
The offensive talent is obvious and if we also become harder in defense, create chemistry and turn out to be a solid unit, then we can go very far in the season.
Obradovic: Like I expected him to be
Coach Obradovic is exactly how I expected him to be. He knows everything about the sport and he knows how to treat a player. He helps me adapt and he is right behind me for everything I need. I can say that all the coaching staff is working overtime. They give us all the data we need to know, they do the best possible job in practices and we try to get ready as fast as we can.
Everyone is doing an amazing job. I am specially impressed with our trainer who is doing a tremendous job. He is Serb, he has worked in the past with Dimitris Diamantidis and Lazaros Papadopoulos in Iraklis BC and also in AEK. He was the personal trainer of Pedja Stojakovic.
The Nets game
Honestly I will remember more the amazing arena than the final result! It was mind-blowing! For the first time in my life I saw an elevator for the team bus! We entered it at the ground level and got us at the -1 basement.
Also getting ready for the game, the way thet do it in the US, was different. Every player has to work on his own and the team has just 10 minutes to warm up. During the game suddenly I realised that my opponents are those guys that I have faced in the NBA 2K! It was strange.
Now it’s time for breakfast and we have to leave New York for Oklahoma City. We have one more game against the Thuunder and then we have to start working for the official games. Season openers in the Turkish Superleague, then in Euroleague and then the first big game against Darussafaka.
I don’t make promises – I work and I hope
By now I have realised the size of the club, the expectation and how much the fans of Fenerbahce love the team and they are part of its joys and its sorrows. I don’t like big talks, I am not a guy who makes promises.
My job is to “talk” on the court with my game and that’s what I will try to do. The club and the coach believed in me and are counting on me. It’s a great challenge for me to prove them right and to do on the court what they expect me to do. I will keep working hard everyday and I hope that I will deliver…
I will also try to write regularly on my blog and be sure that I will read every comment!
Kostas
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