By Bilal Baran Yardımcı/ info@eurohoops.net
From training camp to dealing with pressure, Sarunas Jasikevicius discussed several topics.
The head coach of Fenerbahce Beko is preparing his players for the next edition of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and domestic competitions. In a brief break, he talked to Eurohoops, starting from replacing Dimitris Itoudis as the head coach of the Istanbul outfit last December.
“After one month, one month and a half, everybody already knows more or less what you are asking of them. Right now, the issues are a little bit different,” he compared initial and current situations, “Some guys are missing big portions of the preseason, so there are issues. You just need to deal with them in the best way possible.”
“I do not know, just by working every day,” the Lithuanian tactician attempted to explain his efforts translating into reaching the EuroLeague Final Four and winning the domestic league and cup, “You come and you try to implement your things slowly, slowly. You try to see how the team is reacting, what they can do, can they do more or not. I always said since the beginning, I inherited a team that was extremely, extremely good. I am very happy that we were successful with that team.”
“No expectations”
A four-time EuroLeague champion as a player carrying experience from head-coaching spells with Zalgiris and FC Barcelona in Europe’s premier club continental competition, Jasikevicius is adapted to dealing with possible pressure, which he rejects anyway.
“I am in a professional basketball right now how many, 26, 27 years? I have seen anything on both sides. I have seen all the different countries and everything,” he replied, “There are no expectations. There is no pressure.”
“I am not sure you have that much of a passion,” he continued on the overall approach to basketball in Turkiye, “I think Greeks and Serbians probably have more. If you have a passion there would be more journalists here after the press conferences. There will be press conferences after the Turkish League games which we do not have. So there is a lot more passion in other countries.”
“I do not know why you talk about expectations all the time and the pressure. We do not have pressure. We are the fortunate ones,” he told Eurohoops, “The players are making millions. I mean they are lucky doing what they do. We just come here and we work.”
“Basketball is secondary”
In a busy summer for Fener, newcomers include Boban Marjanovic and Wade Baldwin IV.
“First of all, I search for people, not for players. Basketball is secondary,” Jasikevicius talked about roster decisions during the offseason, “We are spending ten months in the locker room with one another. So, the most important are the other people. How they act with one another. This is a team sport. You need to know how to act in the locker room. How to act in the tough times. How to help your teammate. Simple questions about attitude.”
The conversation spilled into the NBA more or less disregarding positions in recent years and the potential impact on the EuroLeague.
“I do not think European basketball is a positionless basketball. I think European basketball will continue to be a position basketball,” he said, “It would be great to have everybody at around two meters five or something like this, everybody handling the ball, everybody here like all those are in the NBA, the best ones.”
“It is just names”
Returning to the 2024-25 squad, the Fenerbahce boss is looking for his players to strive, maybe flying under the radar.
“On paper, Fenerbahce is a good team. Actually, I believe not too many people are talking about us. We are extremely happy with the roster that we built. But still, it is just names right now. Names with a Fenerbahce jersey. We are not a team yet. We do not know how to play together. We do not know yet the situations we want to be in,” he mentioned, “The names are not bad. But in Fenerbahce or any other teams, at this point, it is just the names.”
“No, we did not,” Jasikevicius wrapped up the interview by replying to a question about a possible interest in Omer Yurtseven before the Turkish center signed with Panathinaikos Aktor.