Media day statements in view of the finals
Olympiacos head coach Giorgos Bartzokas, team captain Kostas Papanikolaou, and Thomas Walkup spoke during Media Day ahead of the Stoiximan Basket League Finals.
On whether the Final Four result affects the Finals series, coach Bartzokas said: “Of course it affects it, because the team needs a regrouping; primarily a mental one. Events like this always influence teams. Usually, one team leaves the Final Four happy and three leave in some form of crisis, whether smaller or greater. But we have the championship ahead of us, which is particularly important, and we need to approach it with passion, will, determination, and pride, to play for our team.”
On injuries, he added: “Right now, the only player whose participation is questionable is Goss, who didn’t train today. But for more details, it's better that I give you an update tomorrow. If I'm not 100% sure, I don't want to say anything. But he does have an injury issue, and we’ll see how and to what extent it might affect our foreign-player rotation.”
On the mental aspect and whether it's possible to mentally reset himself and his players, Bartzokas stated: “We’ll see. I don’t want to make big statements. It’s not something you can easily put behind you. But the effort from everyone in the organization, from everyone around the team and the players themselves, is to prove that a single bad game in the semifinal, regardless of all the good we’ve done this season, shouldn’t affect us. We have to move forward. That’s life; you must advance to the next stage and show you’re fighting. That’s crucial, and we’ll pursue it in every possible way.”
Papanikolaou: “We need to thank our fans on the court”
Team captain Kostas Papanikolaou, when asked whether the result in Abu Dhabi adds more pressure for the finals, responded: “No, I think that regardless of the result, the Greek championship closes the season, and every team wants to end the season on a high note. Of course, there's disappointment and sadness about what happened at the Final Four, but the pressure would exist either way, whether we had won or lost in the Final Four.”
When asked how easy or hard it is to turn that disappointment into motivation, he emphasized: “I think it comes down to looking yourself in the mirror, how much of a professional you are, and how much at peace with yourself you want to feel at the end of the season. Knowing you left everything on the court, that you respected your own effort, and the sweat of the last 10 months. That, to me, is the most important thing, and it's the greatest motivation we can have.”
On what will make the difference in a Finals series between two teams that know each other well, he said: “As with all big games, it's the little details that make the difference. And those details can change from game to game; it could be a dive for a loose ball, a rebound, a big shot, or a key defensive play. The point is to be present, ready, read the moment, and sacrifice yourself so that the moment represents your team and gives you momentum, confidence, or whatever is needed in that instant.”
On what that brief exchange with Olympiacos fans in Abu Dhabi meant to him, he said: “It was a difficult moment for the whole team. It’s not personal. It’s not that I felt worse than any other player. I was genuinely happy to be with them and feel the warmth of their voices, their embrace. The ‘we’re here, and we’re with you’ meant a lot, and I shared that with the rest of the team. That’s why we had to get near them at the end, to thank them for their support. But to truly thank them, we have to show it on the court starting Friday.”
Thomas Walkup, when asked how difficult it is to change mindset just days after the Final Four, said: “It’s hard, but there are many hard things in our profession. It's hard to reset after a win and also after a loss. But this is the situation. From an incredibly stressful weekend, we immediately jump into something new. You have to be able to relax, digest what happened, and then get ready again for a ‘war’; for these upcoming Finals. Essentially, it's five different battles. We have to win Game 1 and quickly move on to prepare y for Game 2. These are five completely different chapters of a book you have to be ready for. You close one, and immediately you have to prepare for the next.”