By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Coach Marco Crespi and Siena were denied in the Legabasket finals of a fairy tale ending. In Game 7 they couldn’t defend the championship title of a proud team, which practically was disbanded after the end of the season because of its financial woes. However coach Crespi and his players turned heads all around Europe this year by staying focused only on the court and delivering a great final stand.
After all, despite the bitter end for Siena, that was just the start for Crespi and many members of the team and Eurohoops just had to interview the man behind this small miracle.
– Did you expect such a finish when you decided to be the head coach of Siena last summer and during the season, when the team lost Daniel Hackett?
“Our season goal was to get the play offs fishing the regular season in the Top 8. At the beginning with Hackett and at the end of December after the trade with Milano. The January was our pre-season period after the changes made in the roster. We struggled a bit but I got all the players were trusting in building a team job possession by possession”.
– Siena all those years had a clear identity, specially in Europe, of a “no surrender” team. How hard was it this season to keep this identity and get to the finals in Italy?
“Simple. Talking, listening and working. Every day one goal, one detail to improve. Trying to transfer to everybody to be involved in the product, in our game”.
– How could you keep your team focused with so much going on off the court and knowing that in the end, Siena will be relegated in the fourth division and lose its Euroleague license?
“Just talking about basketball goals. We had to make single improvements and get more solid in our game day by day. That was proven enough”.
– You seem to make something out of nothing. You got a player like Marquez Haynes who was the odd piece in Milan and turned him into a leader. It was just the different environment or something else?
“Marquez loves to play basketball. It was the first time he played not just point guard but he was leading the team. That was an extra-motivation for him”.
– Do you feel a bit unlucky, because you got the chance to coach a modern Italian dynasty in the worst possible conditions?
“I’m just happy for the high-level job we made”.
– You touching speeches after games were made public via youtube, a very uncommon practice in Europe. Many say that the locker rooms are a sanctuary and outsiders should be kept out. Your thoughts on the matter?
“I love to talk with the players as a human being to a human being. I’m trying to get everybody involved in a contemporary way. Saying play hard is not enough, or better everybody already knows that”.
– You are a very vocal person, twitting a lot and getting in touch with everyone. What’s your philosophy behind that?
“Baskeball is (E)motion. The team goal is to build something all together taking care about technical details and having a common emotion with everybody involved in getting your game better day by day”.