By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Romain Sato played his best game so far this season in a… lovely place, his last season home. In the night of Mike Batiste his former and current teammate was excellent against their old team, Panathinaikos, scoring 20 points but the rest of his teammates added 35 and now the Turkish team is on the verge of elimination.
The Central African player talked about his game in OAKA and the “final” in Istanbul against Cantu this week: “We want to play hard in every game. We played well only for 10-15 minutes and during the rest we just weren’t there. It’s tough. We must be focused on the group because we have one chance to get to the Top 16. On Thursday we go home and try to play our best. It’s a do or die game”.
Was the game against Panthinaikos emotionally different for you?
“It was mostly for the fans. I know only Dimitris Diamantidis and Kostas Tsartsaris, the two guys I played with them. I know of course, the rest of the players, but I didn’t play with them. So, it was different for me but especially for the fans, who saw me and Mike playing against them. Especially for Mike it was tough. Being here nine years is unbelievable. You can’t see a lot of guys playing in one team for nine years. It was good coming back here playing in front of the fans”.
All what happened also in the airport with Mike Batiste before the game was very… different…
“I don’t know what happened with Mike”.
But it’s the second time a player from Fenerbahce has a problem in the airport after your adventure in Ljubljana…
“That’s part of the life. If you travel a lot, many things happen”.
So, your passport is ok now?
“Everything is good. They told me that they haven’t seen a passport like this before in their life. I’m from Central Africa and I have travelled all over the world. They don’t know where I come from, so it’s not my problem…”