The coach of Olympiacos, Giorgos Bartzokas and our team’s captain, Giorgos Printezis, represented us at the Press Conference organized in view of the Greek Cup Final Four.

“I would also like to ‘salute’ the organization of a Final Four after too many years”, Giorgos Bartzokas said and went on as follows: “The last time we held one was in 2004 and I remember there had been violent confrontations. We have never had again a tournament of such significance in Greece. All the coaches that are here now, had been working abroad in previous years and we have witnessed first hand how good it is to participate such a tournament. It’s a good chance to enjoy it. Of course the tournament will either be a wedding or a funeral, because the outcome is really important. In essence, only one team will have fun at the end and celebrate while the remaining three teams will be going back to a rather tough routine for all. A sense of responsibility should be present will everyone participating the organization. I would say that we are kind of taking a test for whether our country is able to organize sporting events of that level. The circumstances right now for both the Greek society and Greek sports are difficult. We all share an extra duty to have the games take place in the best sporting spirit possible”.

About the semifinal against AEK, the ‘reds’ coach pointed out: “We are going to try, just like we always do, to show respect to all our rivals. We are not thinking about the final four. We are only focusing on tomorrow’s game against AEK. That’s what our mindset should be. With respect towards the quality and skills AEK has. We need to do the best we can to win the first game and from there on we’ll see what we can do”.

On his part, the Olympiacos’ forward, Giorgos Printezis, stated: “I would like to wish and I hope that the F4 is going to be an F8 in the future and that the basketball community will be always getting better. That the fans of all eight teams that will be participating the tournament will have the chance to watch it in person and watch their favorite players in action. I wish for a gradual improvement each passing year, because Greeks really do love basketball. We all need to have an input to create a healthy atmosphere for the sport”.

Talking about match up, he pointed out: “It’s very important that we are again in the position of contesting a title. We have a difficult game tomorrow. Just like the coach said, this is the only game we need to be focusing on right now. We have come prepared, we are in rather good condition and we are going to give our best to win this Cup which we really covet”.