The Euroleague draw for the Champions
The European Champion Olympiacos leads the third group of the Euroleague for the 2013-2014 season and will be playing against Siena, Unicaja, Galatasaray, Zielona Gora and Bayern Munich for the Regular Season of the competition.
The owner of the Club Mr. Giorgos Angelopoulos attended the draw in Barcelona, together with the Club’s Vice – President Mr. Giorgos Skindilias, the General Director Mr. Christos Stavropoulos, the Marketing Director Mr. Nikos Lepeniotis and the Communications Director of the Club, Mr. Christos Bafes.
ANGELOPOULOS: Total recognition and admiration
The Administrative leader of the Club, Mr. Giorgos Angelopoulos led the ‘reds’ delegation that went to Barcelona to attend the draw for next season’s Euroleague.
Right after the end of the procedure, the strong man of the Piraeus team spoke about the results of the draw and not only: “Each draw has its pros and cons. I think it’s a normal draw, with smooth trips, no hard to reach cities. We’ll see. I think it’s going to work out fine”.
He then referred to the award presented to Giorgos Bartzokas as the top coach of the Euroleague for the season past. Mr. Angelopoulos, who were last season awarded –together with his brother Panagiotis – the trophy for best executives of the season, was asked on whether the Olympiacos model continues being successful: “This is recognized by the whole of Europe. You can see total acceptance and admiration on executive level as well as with the fact that our coaches and players are wanted by everyone. The model will not be changing. Congratulations to Mr. Bartzokas for an amazing season and this huge honor. It’s the first time a Greek coach receives this award”.
BARTZOKAS: «Olympiacos is going to be a protagonist»
Today’s Euroleague draw for the 2013-14 season was special not only for Olympiacos that once again participated as the reigning Champion, but also for Giorgos Bartzokas who was honored by Jordi Bertomeu as the best coach of the season.
The Greek coach referred to the honor received but mainly stood at winning the Euroleague, an achievement that brought everyone joy: “It’s a very important personal achievement and I’m very happy about it. However, I definitely need to dedicate this to my associates because this had been absolute team work and also I need to dedicate it to the owners and our players. I think it’s a very important honor for me and the most important thing is the trophy we won two months ago in London. This is the most important achievement for our team and fans”.
In regard to the results of the draw, the top Euroleague coach for the 2012-13 season commented: “The team rosters are not complete at this point and no one knows how things are going to be exactly. At this point all teams are difficult and it doesn’t matter who your rivals are going to be. What’s important for us that are involved is what kind of trips we are going to be facing, because we are aware that many times it is the trips themselves that shape the results if they are especially tiresome. I’m happy in general terms. I think that others should be more worried than us”.
STAVROPOULOS: «An interesting and difficult season»
The General Director of Olympiacos, the man that has been present at all Euroleague draws for the ‘reds’ for many years now, commented on the results of the draw.
“If last season it was everyone that wanted to beat the European Champion, this season it is going to be even harder, since everyone will be eager to win against the back2back Champion of Europe”, was the original comment of Mr. Stavropoulos who went on to say: “For sure it is going to be a long season with many games. Just like we saw last season with the new format of the competition, you need to be ready and your team should be ready from the first to the last game. We can’t say more for the teams right now because they are being built at the moment. We are going to have a much clearer idea after a month when everything will be clear and the roster will be settled. It’s going to definitely be an interesting and tough season and our goal is be at the Milan Final Four”.