By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
LILLE, France – Serbia center Nikola Milutinov had assured Olympiacos Piraeus teammate and Greece captain Kostas Papanikolaou that his team would beat South Sudan by three or more points.
That was the number needed for Greece to qualify for the quarterfinals.
“We saw each other yesterday night,” Milutinov told Eurohoops. “We saw each other and I told him not to worry because we’re going to do the job. And we did it.”
Serbia did the job indeed since they won 96 – 85 to send Greece to the quarterfinals. Milutinov then explained why the final margin was also important to him and to his teammate Filip Petrusev, who both play for EuroLeague powerhouse Olympiacos.
“I must say one more thing”, said Milutinov with a smile: “We had one more extra motivation on the court because coach Andreas promised us one extra day off for each point in the final margin of win and he’s going to give them to us before the beginning of the season”.
“Coach Andreas” is the Greek national team’s strength & conditioning coach Andreas Gatzoulis, who holds the same position in Olympiacos (in the photo between Milutinov and Petrusev).
So the Serbian front-line duo of Olympiacos just got 11 extra days of rest…
Photo Credit: Greek national federation