By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net/ Twitter.com/AStroggylakis
The clock was ticking favorably for Olympiacos down the last stretch of Game 5 against Anadolu Efes. Yet despite carrying a steady lead throughout the majority of the 2nd half, the Reds didn’t really feel safe yet. The Turkish squad was heavily breathing down on their neck, like a vampire stalking its prey: Ready to bite and suck all the momentum and positive psychology from their opponents.
When the Reds went up 73 – 67 with almost six minutes remaining, came the first of the two most decisive fourth quarter sequences. Kostas Papanikolaou and Erick Green combined to steal the ball, resulting in the latter’s bucket from beyond the arc that gave his team a 9-point lead.
You might think of it as an audacious move by the American shooting guard since he could’ve easily passed the ball to wide-open teammate Giorgos Printezis under the rim. Then again, there was no one guarding him too. Money in the bank.
Apart from putting the exclamation mark on Green’s fourth quarter valuable six-point (out of 10 points in total) performance, this basket steered Olympiacos one step closer towards the victory that sealed them a spot in the upcoming Final Four in Istanbul.
“This is for sure the biggest win of my career,” Green told Eurohoops. “I can finally say such a thing. Since the beginning of the season our purpose was winning. It was all about that. It’s unbelievable playing with this guys. Being with this great coaching staff. It’s an accomplishment for everyone in the team.”
It was a hard-earned success for Green and his teammates. Down by four, 37 – 41, at halftime they had to storm their way out of the locker rooms with a 9 – 0 run to gain a small advantage that they preserved fighting tooth and nail.
“This was an amazing basketball game. We knew that they’re going to make a run and we knew we had to respond with a run of our own. At the end of the day we stuck to our plan. We stayed hungry. We had a chip on our shoulders and we really wanted to win this in front of our fans. We craved the Final Four.”
The Final Four destination was revealed to Olympiacos after a EuroLeague season that has been widely and rightfully considered the longest, most challenging and tiresome in the history of the competition, spanning through a period of 30 games and six unprecedentedly intense months, packed with action. That’s without considering the playoffs.
Of course, weekly domestic league obligations allowed for scarce moments of rest.
Fatigue wasn’t the only thing that the Reds had to constantly overcome travelling through various trials and tribulations in order to remain among the Top 4 teams of the EuroLeague standings. Coach Giannis Sfairopoulos was watching one key player after the other getting injured, his squad rarely reporting for duty at full strength. Even now, Olympiacos lacks Daniel Hackett (out for the season) and Matt Lojeski (highly doubtful for Final Four).
But these adversities that transformed the EuroLeague journey of Olympiacos to something close to an Odyssey with numerous monsters waiting at every corner before approaching the shores of Ithaca that is Istanbul, helped Green and his teammates develop a thick skin, resistant to any calamity. Become battle-hardened and, subsequently, use frustration as a tool to sharpen their character and fighting attitude.
“Our biggest characteristic throughout the season and in the playoffs was toughness. By far,” Green said. “Physically and mentally. I don’t believe that any team goes through what we go through. I don’t think that any team faced the difficulties we faced throughout the season. We’ve gone through so many hardships that we fed off them. And we used them in order to grow.”
“Take Game 4 against Efes for example,” he added. “In the two previous matches we let them beat us up. So we decided that it’s time for us to throw some ‘punches’. We picked up our defense in the mid of that game. We responded to the occasion. This shows our hardness. How tough of a team we are. You know.. our coach is unbelievable. He gives his best to us and he gets the best out of us every single day. Without him… we wouldn’t be where we are right now.”
Green celebrating with teammates Vassilis Spanoulis, Khem Birch and Vassilis Toliopoulos in Olympiacos locker room.
When referring to his head coach, the Reds’ gunman had a wide smile on his face. But relations between them weren’t exactly peachy some months ago.
In the mid of November, Sfairopoulos had given Green a 48-hour leave of absence for disciplinary reasons. Basically he cut him off the team for two days, reportedly after he complained for his playing time and role in the squad.
One month later, Oly’s coach had nothing that praise for his player. He described him as “more complete, concentrated and focused, in harmony with the team’s philosophy”.
What had initially appeared to be a thorn in their relations, turned out to the advantage of both Olympiacos and Green. One of the adversities mentioned above that brought out the best from the 24-year-old guard.
“Coach told me you can’t always be superman. In the last four-five seasons of my career, I was the main guy in every single team I’ve been on. So the coach helped me to find my role. ‘We don’t need you to score 20 points every night’, he told me. He said that they need me to play solid in general, play good defense. Score when I can score and then give what I got in other areas. There were some up and downs between us, yes. I’m a competitor, he’s a competitor. But I realized what he said. I can score when I have the opportunity and then help elsewhere. Without coach Sfairopoulos, I wouldn’t be on the road of becoming a great player.”
Green put his focus on evolving more areas of his game that he might’v disregarded these past years doe to his affinity and and talent on sending the ball through the hoop. He began building his skills as a defender or facilitator, taking extra steps on the path to ultimately become more versatile. That’s what his personal goal is, after all. But he didn’t forsake the fact that remains a pure-blood bucket maker, ready to deliver when needed.
Such was the case in a crucial EuroLeague road game of Olympiacos against Unics Kazan. The Reds traveled to Russia minus the offensive backbone of Vassilis Spanoulis and Matt Lojeski and needed someone to get carry scoring responsibilities optimally in order to get the scoring flowing.
Green answered the call and emerged as a leader, dropping a season-high 25 points plus setting a new EuroLeague career-high in PIR with 31, while leading his team to victory.
He continued working on contribute in more aspects of the game getting more and more mature in the process. In the series against Anadolu Efes, he almost effortlessly averaged 10 points and 2 rebounds per game while giving his best on the defensive end.
Perhaps the most impressive number in the quarterfinals was the…. 0 under “turnovers” next to his name on statistics sheet. Yes, you read that right. Zero turnovers while spending almost 20 minutes on the floor per game.
While success with Olympiacos is motivation enough for Green, playing alongside a EuroLeague legend like Spanoulis also acts as an enormous inspiration to him.
“He’s a leader. At the end of the day. All he wants is to win. He doesn’t care how he’ll get it done as long as he wins it. He wants to win the game. All I can take of that is that He pushes me to become a better player. A winner. Everybody remembers you if you’re a winner and do your best every single time.
The EuroLeague Final Four will have to wait for now. When I asked Erick Green about what are his thoughts on the semifinal against CSKA Moscow he once again showed the valuable lessons he’s learning with Olympiacos, pointing to the next match of his team.
“Our current focus isn’t the Final Four. It’s winning the semifinals of the Greek League. Second step is getting ready for the Final Four. We’re going to prepare great we are excited. We can’t wait for it. It’s big stuff. And we are greedy.”