By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
LILLE, France – 16 years ago, when Greece last won a game in the Olympic Games prior to today’s action, Vassilis Spanoulis was on the court displaying magic.
Now, as his country found once again success on the Olympic stage by beating Australia, he was on the bench, starting a new era for both his resume and the whole country’s basketball ambitions.
“This is a great day for Greek basketball. We play against the best teams in the world. One bronze medal, Canada last year [at the World Cup], Australia, bronze medal in the 2020 Olympic Games, and Spain, European champions. And we are here”, he opened.
“We lost on one possession from two teams and we won for more than 38 minutes against Australia. This is amazing. For the Greek national team after 15 years, so many years that we have had one loss after another. It’s very difficult for one team to be in great shape two times during one month”, he continued.
“Two times you can be in top shape during the year. So imagine during one month to be two times in top shape. This is what our players are doing, it’s unbelievable. They immediately bought in on the game plan, and they ran it perfectly”, he added explaining what Greece had to achieve since at the start of the month they played in the Olympic Qualifiers.
Calling Giannis
Vassilis Spanoulis also shared his dissatisfaction with the refereeing criteria, especially on Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“They have to respect us more. The criteria are not the same in three games. I have all the respect for the coaches and for all the teams we play. But they have to respect us more because we sweat, we don’t sleep, we prepare the games the same as the other teams and they have to respect us more, that’s it”, he explained.
“The criteria of the refereeing is not the same for everybody. I mean that we have a lot of complaints every game by situations that they are not 50 -50. They are clear on one side”, he said before mentioning problems on free throws. “11 -21. Same with Spain, 5 -18. Same with Canada. In the first quarter, it was 22 -3, 20 -something. We cannot play basketball like this”, Greece’s head coach continued.
“We have the best player in the world. We have amazing players next to him. It’s a lot of things that I see during the game that cannot be the same as they give to all the other teams. And they have to respect this one. They beat him [Giannis Antetokounmpo] more than every player that I see in this Olympic tournament. This is not basketball, this is some other sport. To play strong, physical, on the limit of the foul, yes, but to be unsportsmanlike a lot of times, no. This is not correct”, he said.
Then, he came back to such a proud day.
“This is a big day for the Greek national team. We didn’t play with the score of the game in our minds. We played at our best and I think we had a great performance. This format gives a chance to everybody to wait until the last moment for the opportunity to go. We Greeks were good at this. Nobody believed in us. Nobody takes us seriously. Nobody believes that we will go on. We are this kind of people”, he said with a smile.
“This is the best we played in this tournament. All these teams have been together for years and we are just in the first month of the new era, so I’m very proud of my players and we will be better. I’m very proud that I represent my country and we represent the Greek nation. I’m very proud. My players had a big heart to not say something else”, Vassilis Spanoulis concluded.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA Basketball