By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
The latest Euroleague promo is probably the smartest, funniest and best ever video produced from the European top league. The idea of coaches spying on each other is hilarious and that proves they have a healthy dose of self sarcasm.
However, it’s easy to misinterpret the light mood and create a fuss specially in Greece, because among the coaches spying Olympiacos’ Giorgos Bartzokas is Panathinaikos’ Argiris Pedoulakis. In the video Bartzokas holds a file named “Secret tactics to win Euroleague” which proves to be empty to the “displeasure” of Budivelnik’s Ainars Bagatskis, Siena’s Marco Crespi, Laboral Kutxa’s Sergio Scariolo and Pedoulakis.
The joke was misinterpreted – in most cases intentionally – by Olympiacos affiliated media in stories with titles like “Bartzokas fooled Pedoulakis”. So we asked coach Bartzokas about the video and if it could have been possible to have in Greece a similar video about the domestic league with the roles reversed, since Panathinaikos is the champion. As he said: “It was a funny and good idea. Many great coaches, with a lot of experience, specially compared to me who I am almost a rookie in Euroleague, were delighted with the idea to be the “spies”. I think the best “actor” was coach Blatt. A similar video in Greece probably wouldn’t have been possible, because the fans are not ready to accept it”.
In the recent past, there has been an advertising featuring both Thodoris Papaloukas and Dimitris Diamantidis, making fun of the fact that 3D doesn’t like to speak publicly.