Giorgos Bartzokas spoke at the press conference after Olympiacos’ game against Aris for the 25th round of the Stoiximan GBL.
In his opening statement about the game, the Olympiacos coach said: “It was the penultimate game of the regular season. We wanted to win it, to distribute the playing time, and to play with greater intensity than we actually did, which we didn’t. We also wanted to thank our fans, who showed up in great numbers on a Sunday afternoon for a game without any significance for the final standings. That’s something we appreciate immensely. In that sense, I think the kids and families enjoyed the game, and Aris helped with that as well, because they played very well. Now we have a week without a European game and we need to prepare. Our last game is on Saturday against AEK, followed by the playoffs, so this is a particularly important period for us. We need to stay healthy, focused, and professional to get ready for the upcoming matchups.”
When asked whether he will try out new things in the game against AEK, Bartzokas said: “First of all, we need to see who our opponent will be. We’ll know on Friday. You can’t really try things against a specific team like AEK when you’ll be facing another team with different characteristics. We’ll try to play with intensity and obviously we want to finish the league undefeated. AEK are in good form, as shown by their qualification for the BCL Final Four; congratulations to them. But I don’t think that’s directly related. What we want is to stay healthy and distribute playing time there as well. The practices we have this week are more important in terms of who we play next Tuesday, so this game might also be part of the process to get us there.”
Regarding Kostas Papanikolaou’s record, the Olympiacos coach commented: “Not only for me, but for the entire Olympiacos organization, it’s a huge achievement and we feel grateful to have such a player with such contribution. Playing 800 games for Olympiacos is like playing 1,500 for another team, in my opinion. The pressure at this club, where you’re not allowed to lose, is enormous. It’s different from playing a game without any stakes. At Olympiacos, you never play a game where losing is acceptable. Beyond the physical fatigue, the psychological and mental burden is huge. So he deserves all the congratulations available, and I wish him good health and to increase this number even further.”
