By Nikos Varlas
Yiannis Bourousis is hot (having scored 21 points yesterday, as Antonis Fotsis also did, in the away win against Montegranaro for the Italian league) and loves being in Italy and in EA7 Milano! After seven months outside Greece, he feels a changed man! He clarifies that his teammate Antonis Fotsis can confirm it and he wish to see two Greek teams in the Euroleague Final.
He is also considering retiring from the Greek national team in the summer of 2016, together with Fotsis. The Armani Milano center talks about everything in Eurohoops.net
– Are you pleased so far with the results of your team and your individual performance?
“It’s the first season for me outside Greece and I am feeling very happy to be here in Italy. We didn’t started well, we have many new players and we are building a new team. I have lived that also in Olympiacos. I didn’t had any adaptation problem, it felt right from the beginning, but I wasn’t as good as I should be in every game. I was tired from my summer effort with the national team and it was something obvious in the court”.
– Many Euroleague teams signed NBA players that left after the end of the lock out. Was that the problem for Milano?
“No, I don’t believe that this apply to us. Galinari is a great person and a great player. He is Italian and he knew well the mentality of the team. Armani wasn’t build around him, as many said. We knew that eventually he would return to the NBA. It was just natural for a team with so many new players to take its time until the point of finding chemistry”.
– Your team seems to be in a hot streak. But your only target left is the Italian championship. You have to win it in order to consider this season a success?
“We won three games in Euroleague Top 16 and that was just the second season of the team in that league. We missed the play offs because of the point differential. But here the mentality is different compared to Greece. You don’t play with a gun in your head. There is trust and they give time to coaches and players. Our main target is to qualify in next season’s Euroleague (ed.note: there are two position for grabs from the Italian league, besides the A license of Siena). Of course we want to play in the play offs finals”.
– Can you break the dominance of Siena?
“We have played them three times. We won once. We lost one game by a shot, in the Italian cup and we give them a fight in their home court. Yes, I believe we can challenge them and fight for the crown”.
– You like living in Milan? Do you prefer the city compared to Athens?
“I prefer living in Milan. I had this conversation with some of my close friends. Maybe I should have left Greece earlier. If you find the right team, it’s better to live abroad. You get to be more calm and relaxed. If you lose a game, there isn’t any uproar. From the first day that I became a player of Olympiacos I didn’t like to hide in any level. There was always pressure on me and I always tried to live up to the expectations”.
– Do you regret not signing with San Antonio Spurs in the summer of 2009? If you could turn back time, will you do the same thing?
“If I could turn back time, I will probably choose to sign in Real Madrid, that wanted me badly. But a that time, I could only think of Olympiacos. I don’t want to “sell” it, but it is the truth. Spurs were a great chance. Coach Greg Popovic came to Europe, we met and we talked about many things. But, I wanted to stay in Olympiacos. I felt that I had a mission to accomplish. It wasn’t a matter of money, I wanted to stay and I didn’t think much about going to San Antonio, or Madrid”.
– You lived a very troubled summer. Is that story behind you?
“No. It’s not. There are people that disappointed me. When I will return to Greece, I will do what I must do. My name was in the eye of a storm. If I was a nobody, nothing like that would had happened”.
– Will you play for the National team this summer? The schedule of the Italian league is really long and the pre-Olympic tournament starts in July 2. Are you ready for no vacations?
“We have the opportunity as a team to play one more time in the Olympics! We will go to Venezuela and we will fight. It will not be easy, but it’s a dream, the highest honor to play in the Olympics. We talk about it with Antonis Fotsis and if we stay healthy we plan to retire from the national team after the summer of 2016, after playing in Rio”.
– What do you feel for Olympiacos after a five years career in the team?
“Just what you said, it’s five years of my career. That’s says everything about it. All those years in Olympiacos I tried to honor the team, having good and bad moments”.
– What are your Final Four predictions? Do you have any favorite?
“I think that the wish of every Greek is to see two Greek teams in the final, something that never happened before. Barcelona seems to be on a slump. Olympiacos will try to steal the semi-final. Panathinaikos on the other hand is the Euroleague champ, a very experienced team, playing against the favorite for this year’s title. The team that will be better that day, will win. If you ask me personally, I would like to see the two Greek teams in the final”.
– How do you explain Olympiacos’ progress and the fact that its young players had key roles in the qualification to the Final Four?
“It was a team that needed time. They signed two important players in Top 16. In Joey Dorsey they got a front line player that plays amazing defense and is the “glue” for the team”.
– Did you expected from young Greek players to be so effective in the court?
“The young players of Olympiacos have already important experience that helps them. Sloukas plays like a veteran, I don’t consider him a “kid”. Mantzaris took the opportunity. By the way, I want to congratulate Vasilis (ed.note: Spanoulis) for his second child! Like always, he gives 100% for the team and plays amazingly”.
– After seven months abroad, do you see things differently? Are you a changed person?
“Yes I am. I think differently now and if you don’t believe me you can ask Fotsis”.