Blatt: "If you look back, you will miss what’s in front of you"
David Blatt goes back to familiar turf, however, the only thing that occupies his mind in view of tomorrow’s game (27/12, 18.15 CET) against Darusafaka in Istanbul, is the road win that is going to keep Olympiacos in the top Euroleague ranks.
“It’s good to be coming home to my old home, but I’m happy in my new home, here with Olympiacos”, he commented when asked about his feelings to be coming back as an opponent of the Turkish team, in whose team bench he had sat for the two previous seasons (2016-18). “The two years I spent in Istanbul with Darusafaka were very special. We have had a great Euroleague season, we made the play-offs for the first time in the team’s history during my first season there and we won the Eurocup in the next one. These are wonderful memories, not just for me, but for everyone who participated the effort. We are going to play a very important game and that’s the important thing, however, I’ll be glad to see old friends”.
In a total of 14 games, Darusafaka has won only once (against Buducnost). However, this does not disorient the ‘reds’ coach and his players. “It’s a given they are going to fight. I know many people there, many players, while I happen to know a lot of the newly acquired players. Recently, the team seems to be finding its way. We are expecting a competitive game. However, we are going there to play and do the best we can. I have said it many times. You go game by game in the Euroleague. If you look back, you will miss what’s in front of you. We are going to try not to think about Darusafaka’s record. We have been playing very well lately, we are consistent with our game and we want to continue the same way…”
On whether it was tough for him to make the many family guys on the team get out of the festive mood, he said: “Most of us have been in similar situations many times. It’s part of our lives. For about ten months each year we are more or less married to basketball. We take a vacation in the summer. That’s a part of the pressure an athlete feels and there are no complaints. There are people that have it much harder than we do, so no complaints”.
Sasha Vezenkov quickly vindicated his reply! “Happy Holiday season to everyone, wish everybody’s healthy. We are professionals, we are accustomed to this rhythm all these years, so what we need to do is our job and win the game”, our team’s forward replied on whether it feels weird for being on the floor during this holiday time.
Talking about the game against the Turkish team, he stressed: “We need to remain focused for forty minutes to win. After they changed the coach, we see that Darusafaka has been playing tougher, they are the top offensive rebounding team in the Euroleague, so we need to control that area, control the rhythm and play hard. We need to do exactly what we didn’t do in the previous game against Peristeri, play forty tough and intensive minutes. We are all prepared for a very tough game”.