By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Crvena Zvezda is hosting Panathinaikos in the last week of Top16, a game in which the Greens have the biggest motive to win. The Serbs on the other hand have no qualification chances, but as Nikola Kalinic says to Eurohoops, that doesn’t mean that they will make things easy for Panathinaikos.
Kalinic wants to finish the Euroleague season with a win: “After the unexpected loss against Alba, they have to get a win against us, but we won’t make things any easier from them. We don’t have any qualifying chance, still we have every reason to win. We are the youngest team in Euroleague, we want to prove ourselves in every game and try to get as many wins as we can. And of course, we have an obligation to our fans who were great during the whole season to finish with a home win and to prepare ourselves for a crucial play off matches against Partizan in Adriatic League”.
Speaking about the results of Zvezda in the Euroleague, the Serbian forward accepts that the team could have done better. However the lack of experience in the top European level was an issue: “I think that the experience factor was crucial for is. We had a couple of very close games and we couldn’t finish the way we were supposed to. Also the game in Athens was the same, PAO secured the win in the last minutes, even if they had even a 20 points lead”.
And on a personal note, what are Kalinic’s future plans after this season: “Still I don’t know. It’s a good season for me so far, I mean, as a rookie season in Euroleague. It could be even better,but no hard feelings for anyone. If we make it to Euroleague the next season, as we should, I think it’s more than likele for me to stay in Red Star! But, sometime in the future I would like to test myself and my talents somewhere else also”.