By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Kyle Hines will not be a Piraeus resident next season. However, he spend in this city the best two years of his life as a player of Olympiacos and explained in Eurohoops and in the Greek newspaper “Protathlitis” why he left the Reds.
As he said: “From the messages that I am getting, I have understand what most people believe. Most of them say that it’s all about money. That’s life. When I arrived to the team, I think that nobody was excited, but I knew in which team I had came and I have decided from the first moment to give everything I had. While I was playing, I wasn’t thinking that my contract wasn’t big, nobody was thinking about it. Now, everyone talks about this. It was the most difficult decision in my career until now. I spend the two best years of my life in Olympiacos”.
– Have you received a lot of negative messages from fans?
“The truth is that I have received many messages from Olympiacos’ supporters. I can’t describe what I feel. It’s weird. It’s cruel being judged by people who doesn’t know you. They right to me that I am a liar, that I betrayed the team and also them. There are even some more extreme messages. I can’t prove that I am not the guy they describe. I try to stay calm and keep the good ones. With some of the rest I get bothered, some others make me angry. In which team I was playing for the last two years? Didn’t I give everything on the court? Didn’t I give my soul? Didn’t I help with all my powers to give joy to those fans?”
– What happened in your meeting with the president before you left for the States?
“The spoke to me nicely. They asked me to tell them how much money I wanted in order to stay. I explained that that I can’t negotiate personally about money. That’s an agent’s job. They wanted me to give them an exact amount and I finally replied according to the many offers that I already had at this point. I said to both presidents that more or less I would be happy with those kind of money. The final decision was 100% mine and of my family, nobody’s else. I wasn’t vanished. I was always here. I am on vacations with my family and I was expected the move of Olympiacos. After their first proposal that was given to me the next day after the meeting, I didn’t have any update and any kind of communication with Olympiacos. We spoke on Saturday, I left on Tuesday and until Thursday (20th of June), when I replied to CSKA, I didn’t speak again with anyone from Olympiacos”.
– Olympiacos’ people insists that during those days they kept calling your agent (Misko Raznatovic) and he refused to tell them if you accept the first proposal, or how much money you wanted in order to signed. That’s why on Friday Olympiacos made an improved proposal for two years and two millions dollars.
“I repeat that I didn’t speak with anyone from Olympiacos all those days and I was just waiting. For almost a week, I didn’t have any news. If, like a lot of people say, I have decided before that, I would have signed with CSKA one day after the end of the Greek league finals. I didn’t. A lot of time went by, I refused other offers and CSKA Moscow waited for three weeks. That Thursday my agent called me. He said that CSKA Moscow couldn’t wait any more and has to continue its planning for next season. He told that if I didn’t gave them an answer, they would sign an other center”.
– Stephan Lasme;
“His name was heard, but I don’t know, I didn’t ask who he was. I had one more conversation with my family and that was the day that I gave a positive answer to CSKA Moscow”.
– That means that you replied to CSKA before you had the final offer of Olympiacos for two years and two millions?
“I said yes on Thursday and on Friday morning I woke up and I had the offer of Olympiacos e-mailed to me. I have already given my word to CSKA and everything was done”.
– Wouldn’t be right to reach Olympiacos that day and informed them that you have gave your word to CSKA?
“I am not a guy that I can handle easily those kind of situations. The only thing that I will keep for me is how I felt when that e-mail came with the new offer. Olympiacos had contacts all the previous days with my agent and not with me”.
– Did it bother you that for two seasons you were great on the court, while having a very low contract despite being a foreigner and you didn’t have an offer for extension before becoming a free agent?
“I tried not to think about it and not be bothered. For a long time, I couldn’t imagine myself away from Olympiacos. If Olympiacos had came to me with a good offer, the way I felt back then, I would never wanted to be a free agent. I told to my old agent (ed.note: George Dimitropoulos) that I would like to have a contract extension for more years and probably with better money. I wanted the team to stay together for many years. They told me that they philosophy was different and they don’t negotiate with any player before the end of his contract. After two months they came to me and wanted to speak about the extension. I gave them a number that was modest. It was much less that the last offer of Olympiacos. Their counteroffer was a really small amount of money and I said no. After some more time, If I remember correctly somewhere at the end of January, they came to me and said that they want to give me what I have asked in the end of the season. My reply was that at this point, it would be better to wait the end of the season. I wanted to stay focus on the court in the most crucial part of the season and a move like that could have a negative effect to every other member of the team”.
– The riots and the incidents in the Greek gyms were a factor in your decision?
“Not really, it wasn’t a great factor. My parents were worried. I have adapted… My loyalty to the team was such, that I wasn’t bothered. My people, however, didn’t want to take that risk again. CSKA believed in me, respected me totally and they have the greatest ambitions. I want to win titles and that’s the biggest thing for an athlete. It’s a club very well organized in every level and it was also really important for me the way coach Messina approached me”.