By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@Eurohoops.net
Vasilis Spanoulis will be the hottest free agent in Europe this summer, but at this point he is still the captain of the defending Euroleague champions Olympiacos, last season’s final MVP and one of the main favorites to win this season’s MVP – the other is Rudy Fernandez of Real Madrid.
He is one of the most important guards in Euroleague and the only one who has two titles in two Final Four appearances, while being named both times the MVP.
Eurohoops had a long talk with him before the departure of the defending champions to London and as usual he was totally focused on the task before him.
“The only thing in my mind is the semifinal against CSKA. The secret is to be 100% ready mentally and physically and play the game possession by possession. I don’t know if our opponents are still thinking about what happened in Istanbul. We don’t. We have forgot what happened there”.
Spanoulis lets others decide who is going to be the MVP: “I am the last who is entitled to have an opinion about that. There are people who are more qualified. Basketball is a team sport and what really counts is what can Olympiacos do in London. Everyday I work hard, I try to have new motives and I want to keep improving everyday since the day that I will retire”.
Speaking about the qualities of the new Euroleague champion, he said: “Too many details. The day of every team, the heart, the passion, the determination, even the ego are going to play their part in the equation. Olympiacos has proven its character in many games and we are going to do the same now. Win or lose, our target is to know that we did everything we could when the curtain drops”.
As team captain, he has only good things to say about Kyle Hines and Kostas Papanikolaou: “When Hines was signed, I knew that this move was good. To be sincere, I didn’t expected it to be that great. He is a big time player. He fits perfectly the style of Olympiacos and he always finds a way to get things done. I was really happy when Papanikolaou got the rising star award. He is one of the key players for the team, he has already helped us a lot and if he continues like this, he will have an exceptional career”.
And then, Spanoulis’ mind drifts back in Istanbul: “What can I say? What was done is one on a million, or even billion years. It’s still hard to believe, specially if you think about the way our season started, what we had to overcome and what happened in the end and in the final. If that was a movie script, I would say that those things just don’t happen”.
As for him personally, he knows that he will have always to fight against a double, or even a triple team: “It’s true that the last two season, defenses are always fixed on me. At this point, I am used to it. To be honest, if there is only one player guarding me, I don’t know how I will react”.