By Eurohoops team/ info@Eurohoops.net
“It was a terrible year for everyone with the COVID pandemic and this is a great present to the city of Burgos”, said a content Joan Penarroya in the press conference for what has been a fairytale-like season for his team.
However, don’t call San Pablo Burgos a Cinderella anymore. After winning the Basketball Champions League title twice in less than eight months, Penarroya enjoyed the way his team got the win, not only because of their talent but because of the mentality that they demonstrated.
As he explained: “The most important is that we played together, Karsiyaka is a great team, very good in the offensive rebound and the most important thing is that we were ready to play hard. In Athens, we played great in offense, we scored the three, we scored in the fast break, but here in Nizhny Novgorod our offensive talent was not the most important thing. The important thing was our composure, our defense, rebounding. We played like champions”.
Penarroya also tackled a question about the referees and their second-half performance in a close game in a very direct and elegant manner: “The referees will always have a very difficult task. I think they made a good job and I have to further comment”.
The only issue that the coach has to face is that celebrations must wait – even if the MVP Vitor Benite has a different opinion – after the voyage back to Spain from Russia: “It’s an amazing success for us. Sure we will celebrate, but now on the flight back to Spain,st it’s not possible. Now we will have one week with ACB games, so we will be able to celebrate”.