By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
In the eve of EA7 Emporio Armani’s arrival in Athens for the crucial game against Olympiacos (the Italians need to beat the Reds and they hope for Caja Laboral’s defeat to Cedevita, so they will qualify to the Top16), Antonis Fotsis and Yiannis Bourousis talked to the Greek press. Or to be exact, Bourousis’ interview to the Greek TV Station “OTE TV” got on air on Tuesday, though it was taken two months ago.
Fotsis talked to tovima.gr, where he said: “We really have a tough task ahead of us, but it’s in our hands to make the impossible to improve our image and be the best we can. If not in Euroleague, for sure in LegaA, which is our primary goal”. He clarified that “it’s not something special to me the fact I will play at SEF, cause it’s not the first time I will do that. Maybe for Yiannis it will be something difficult. For sure it will be an emotional game, at least for few minutes, at the beginning. From my experience, you are getting over everything as minutes go by. It’s a fact that every personalities are different and I cannot know how Yiannis will react or how much he will be affected. He is the only one… who knows how he feels”.
He was asked about the possibility to change team before the end of his contract (the summer of 2013) and he reminded: “I have a valid contract with Armani, so it’s not up to me to decide. But since you ask me, I have to say I don’t think it’s possible to leave Milan, before the end of the season. I gave a promise to Armani, the day I signed my contract and I tend to keep it. Then, we will see what will happen”.
However he added that “when Dimitris Giannakopoulos came to Milan to watch our game against Cedevita (the next day Panathinaikos played against Cantu), I really appreciated this gesture. It shows that once you become a member of Panathinaikos‘ family, you are always a member and I am really happy for that”.
There was also a Yiannis Bourousis’ interview aired on Tuesday by “OTE TV”. Bourousis said -among many things- that he has no interest coming back to Greece to play for a Greek team, that coach Scariolo helped him get better and that the NBA is still an option for him. Few minutes later, Bourousis stated to Eurohoops.net that he gave this interview before the game against the Celtics, in early October, that something was also made clear by Armani’s press office, via a press release, which concluded to the fact that the timing of the interview’s airing was the worst possible