By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Vassilis Spanoulis gave a big interview for the official website of Olympiacos where he talked about his basketball beginnings, the reasons the decision of moving from Panathinaikos to the Reds and… Kobe Bryant.
“I liked pressure since I was a little kid”, said V-Span. “It was not something that was tough, this is how you are born”. He said. “That’s why I liked the model that Olympiacos developed in 2011, when I had a role that I wanted to have since I was a child, with many responsibilities. I strive for responsibilities, motivation and pressure. I want all these. This new model gave me all that. Challenge and motivation made me go higher and gave me everything in a superlative form”.
The three-times Euroleague champion described what gave him cause to start playing basketball back when he was a kid. “My father died when I was very young and that changed everything in my family. I was already tough as a character but the death of my father made me even tougher. At the same time, It gave me an extra motive to begin playing basketball, in order to make him proud. Of course, my mother and my brother helped me very much as well. There are people that said that I couldn’t play at a top level or that my opposing team would win each game. These are the stuff that made me what I am today”.
In summer of 2010, Vassilis Spanoulis took the brave decision of leaving Panathinaikos in order to sign for arch-rival Olympiacos. A move that changed the course of history not only in Greek basketball, but also in Euroleague. “Thanks God everything went well. The move I made in 2010, going from Panathinaikos to Olympiacos was 100% conscious move. Things have gone incredibly well all these years in Olympiacos. I am happy and proud for my team and for what we have accomplished in Euroleague and in the Greek League. We have created a team that everyone appreciates and respects. I takes a lot of sacrifices to build something like this. I am happy to be a part of this huge team that is Olympiacos”.
The captain of Olympiacos also remembered the moment when he first met Kobe Bryant, before a game between the L.A. Lakers and the Houston Rockets, in 2007. “Kobe told me ‘I saw you in the World Championship. Congratulations, you deserve to be here’. That was the moment when I realized that legends of global basketball watch all games. I know that Kobe has done that with many players from European basketball. He deserves all the congratulations for his ethic, his character and everything he has accomplished, showing that he is one of the greatest players in the history of the sport”.