Bartzokas: "What we have done up to now is huge"

Giorgos Bartzokas explained the importance of the Olympiacos’ big return to the Euroleague playoffs and all the more with a home court advantage.

During his original comment about the game against Villeurbanne, the 56year old coach stressed that “at first, I would like to say a few things about Villeurbanne. They are a very good team with quite a lot of talent. They have a strong team, tonight they had quite a few players off rotation, because tomorrow, due to this crazy scheduling, they have a game for the French Cup and that was significant for us. All the rest that got to play were greatly motivated. They had not pressure, like it usually is with games like that. I repeat, there are no easy games with the Euroleague. There are no easy or indifferent games in the Euroleague for anyone. That’s how Euroleague is and all eyes are turned on it. It’s a tough competition” and he went on underlying the significance of the qualification of the organization of Olympiacos. “Congratulations to the team, to the organization, our fans, who have followed us everywhere in Europe and really supported us tonight. From my point of view, it’s huge that we are back at the TOP-8 and all the more, we have secured the home court advantage. I’m not saying that it provides you with something special, but we are starting the playoffs at home, with our fans and it’s going to be a great joy for the organization that we are returning there”.  

In a follow up question, the Greek coach was asked to explain about the qualification possibilities give the expulsion of the Russian teams from the competition. “First of all, I would like to make clear that we have come in this position with the Russian teams still in the competition. And now the teams making the playoffs below the fourth seed, are great ones and hugely motivated to qualify to the Final Four. I have decided to take one step at a time and the organization has agreed on that. Therefore, we have to concentrate on the next game and nowhere else. I wish we are healthy and nothing more. We don’t know exactly who our opponent in the playoffs is going to be, but we are going to be fighting hard against anyone that comes to play against us. The team has qualified in four Final Fours during the last 12 years, we won the title twice, in 2012 and 2013 and made two more finals in 2015 and 2017. For our club, it’s very important that have returned to that level, we had been consistent for the most part of the season, we have had only a few bad games throughout, which is only logical within such a long season. Our mentality and our approach throughout the season had been to only focus on the next game and that’s what we are going to keep doing. I’m not saying that as a cliché or to avoid giving an answer but because that’s the truth. And that’s how we are going to keep working”.