Bartzokas: «We were quite serious»
At the post-game press conference following our team’s win over Promitheas for round 18 of the Stoiximan GBL, Giorgos Bartzokas commented the following:
In his opening statement about the game, Bartzokas said: “Congratulations to our team for another win. I believe that offensively we were quite serious, at least until the 35th minute. We played unselfishly and altruistically, especially on offense, with the embodiment of that mindset being the player who does it more than anyone else, Walkup. That’s why we are truly a very good offensive team. Promitheas, having many absences in their backcourt, which is a problem for them, put in a very respectable performance. Their Greek players, as well as their 3 foreign guards, who are good players, scored quite a bit. I think the fans enjoyed the game. Now let’s focus on the next one, against Crvena Zvezda, which is very important for us.”
Asked about the condition of Olympiacos’ injured players ahead of the Zvezda game, Olympiacos' coach commented: “As far as Joseph is concerned, this is something that will take some time to recover from with treatment and so on. These situations are classic cases of players coming from the United States who are not in game rhythm. Here, the demands in terms of athleticism and pace are extremely intense, and it’s difficult to be in playing rhythm when you haven’t been playing games. So, we are ‘victims’ of this situation. Morris’ return, not for the EuroLeague game, but for the Cup, is on a good path, as is Ntilikina’s. We’ll see how many players we’ll ultimately have available for this game, because it’s important. We want to be as healthy as possible and ready. It’s a very tough game; traditionally we struggle against Red Star, and it’s important for us to win.”
Bartzokas then answered a question about Thomas Walkup’s performance, saying: “He is the embodiment of the unselfish player who wants to get his teammates involved. Especially in games like this, he enjoys passing the ball. If he had played more, we might have reached 50 assists. I’ve said that his contribution should be fully assessed when his journey with Olympiacos is over. Until then, let’s focus on what he gives us.”
Regarding the long-term role Omiros Netzipoglou could have within the Olympiacos organization, as well as how easy it is for the team to ‘produce’ Greek players of EuroLeague level, the Bartzokas stated: “When Barcelona or Real Madrid start producing players to play for their own teams. When Spanish basketball, with seven times the population of Greece and such a strong tradition in the sport, cannot produce players to play at that level, when you see something similar in Italian basketball… At the moment there is a major crisis in player development, which has intensified because in the NCAA kids can earn huge amounts of money from a very young age, and at the same time obtain a degree, which is very important for their lives. All of this goes against what we are trying to do here in Europe. But this is not a new issue. As for evaluating what Omiros can do… Olympiacos, both in practice and by law, must always have Greek players, and from time to time gives such kids the opportunity to enter this system. How far they go, I believe, largely depends on themselves. This particular player is the hardest worker here and is a wonderful kid. I was very happy that today he got more playing time, played well, and I feel that there will be continuity to this. Now, how that develops depends first on him and then on everyone else.”