By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
At 27 years of age, he has already achieved almost everything. EuroLeague champion (2017), Serbian Championship (2015) and Cup (2015) winner, Adriatic League Champion (2015), Turkish Championship (2016, 2017) and Cup winner (2016), World Cup silver medalist (2014), and Olympic silver medalist (2016)… Now, it was time for Nikola Kalinic to have a different experience, where everyone is a winner. Fenerbahce’s Serbian small forward was one of Georgios Printezis’s guests of honor in the third LG AegeanBall Festival, which was just completed.
Eurohoops didn’t miss the opportunity to approach the player in Ermoupoli’s Miaouli Square in order to chat with him about lots of different things.
“It’s a great pleasure to be here with the rest of the guys,” he said and then continued on the reasons that made him accept Printezis’s invitation: “I like Greece, I like everything about the Greek summer, and obviously it didn’t take Printezis long to talk me into it.”
Is his presence in this basketball fiesta considered fun or preparation? “Both (laughs). I’m on vacation but I always work out a little.” And, as it is known, training doesn’t always require the presence of a coach. Even though in these tournaments there’s no room for coaches. Or is there?
“I don’t know what Obradovic [his coach in Fenerbahce] would be able to do here. But if we gave him a board, he’d come up with something. All jokes aside, these tournaments are for the people. There’s no competition, it’s for the pure joy of the sport. Whenever I go back to Serbia, I don’t miss the opportunity to take part in 3-on-3s. I like things like that.”
In fact, he likes them so much that, “I’m thinking of putting together something similar, obviously not as big as this tournament, perhaps a camp, anything that would allow me to contribute to society. Others have already done it before me – Teodosic a bit further back and Bogdanovic more recently – but it’s generally nice and I’m going to try it.”
Until then, Fenerbahce will remain his main occupation. A Fenerbahce team that just “lost” Wanamaker and Nunnally, but that is still… Fenerbahce.
“We lost some players who had been on the team for years, excellent players and people, but others have already started to come, so I think we will do fine. This season, we got one win away from back-to-back EuroLeague titles. It was a poor game from us, Real Madrid played excellently – my congratulations, again – but I believe we will be stronger next year. The management and Zeljko [Obradovic] have already gone to work,” he said, ahead of the new season.
“Lauvergne has already come on board, others will follow, so I think we will be stronger next season. I’m not worried about the competition. We will play for every trophy once again, we want our second EuroLeague,” he added.
Despite the festive atmosphere, our discussion couldn’t have ignored Tyler Honeycutt, whose tragic loss has shocked the entire world of European basketball and beyond.
“I don’t know what happened. My condolences to his family. I didn’t consider him someone who would use a gun. I didn’t know him personally, but whenever we played against each other I had a pleasant man across from me. Who knows what happened…” he said, as, indeed, no one is in a position to know what goes on in the mind of another person.
Nevertheless, in leagues such as the NBA, the creation of a department for psychological support has been a priority lately, much more so after some intimate revelations from players such as Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan. To what extent will the formation of a players’ union help in the EuroLeague as well (ELPA)?
“It’s important that we formed a players’ union in the EuroLeague. We have our own Gigi Datome in the position of vice president. We hope to take European basketball to a higher level. Like the NBA, to become a players’ league, not a teams’ league, not a coaches’ league, not an agents’ league. Players are the ones who compete and they are the ones who should come first.”