By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
When Sarunas Jasikevicius will be presented in OAKA, he will probably earn a standings ovation. It will be an awkward moment, not only because he returns to play against one of his former teams. He did that before and everywhere he is beloved by the fans.
This time, however, he will be facing the team that proposed him last summer to be its coach. With Zeljko Obradovic out of the picture, Panathinaikos thought that Saras could be his successor. He had 10 days to think about it, but before the deadline ended, he decided that he still wanted to remain a player. What is not widely known is that Panathinaikos after that offered him a respectable contract in order to remain in Athens as a player. Despite his wife being Greek, Saras didn’t sign it, cause he felt really strange about the fact that the team which wanted him as a coach, after some days decided to keep him as a player.
Saras didn’t know what to expect if he remained in Panathinaikos, so when Barcelona came knocking he jumped at the chance to return to his beloved city. Still, Panathinaikos is a very big part of him and he said in tovima.gr and to Greek journalist Costas Sotiriou: “I really don’t know how I will react. I am preparing myself for this game for the last two moths. From the time it was evident that we will finish first in our Top16 group and Panathinaikos could be our play offs opponent. I believe that I can be perfectly prepared for this game mentally. I am an emotional person and it will be hard for me. I also understand that this time I return to OAKA as the enemy, with our team and Panathinaikos chasing the same big goal, the Final Four qualification. I have to say that Panathinaikos’ fans were great to me all these years. They were my family, so even if they treat me like the enemy for two hours, it’s something that I will accept. That’s life, but I am sure that I will not have any kind of problem after the game”.
Still, you can understand the irony of Barcelona and Jasikevicius being in danger of ending prematurely their Euroleague season by the team that Saras couldn’t trust for his immediate future on the bench, or on the court.