Panathinaikos departed today from Athens and landed in Moscow, where the team is going to participate in “Alexander Gomelsky Cup” (22-24/9) along with CSKA Moscow, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Zalgiris Kaunas. Nikola Pekovic and Dusan Kecman will not be there and are expected to join the team on the 25th of September in Ljubljana and the next tournament that Panathinaikos is going to participate (26-28/9). The team is facing some problems as a result of minor injuries, but Zeljko Obradovic wants to monitor the reactions of his team on the floor.
“I believe that we are going in a very strong tournament in Moscow, one of the strongest in Europe. Four teams that have been crowned European Champions will compete. The level is very high. We want to check the results of our work so far. The only problem is that we had to face some minor injuries that led us to practice with 9-10 players at a time and it’s difficult to keep working in a high level when there are players missing. Things will get definitely better with the addition of Kecman and Pekovic in Slovenia. They will join us on the 25th of September and they will start to work with us, learning step by step our philosophy”.
Nikos Hatzivrettas: “We have some friendly games in our schedule. Till now we had a full schedule with strong practices, working in both basketball and physical condition. We have ahead of us another very important part of our preparation. Now we have to show on the court all this hard work we have done so far. It’s not easy to show it since day one, but I believe that steadily we are going to find our rhythm. We have very strong games in our schedule in Russia and then in Slovenia. This is the way it is supposed to be, since we will have as strong games to face during the season. We don’t forget that we are still preparing for the official games of the season and as we move on we will start to feel more comfortable on the court, we will start binding as team and to be ready for the tough season ahead of us”.
Antonis Fotsis: “I came back to Panathinaikos and I am truly happy about it. We have a job to do, to prepare in the best possible way for the season we have ahead of us. In Moscow I will be in a familiar place since I lived there for three years. I have positive experience from my stay there, I had a good time, I made some friends that I will have the chance to see again with this trip, but we there is also a job to be done there. We want to be better than in the first friendly games in Serbia, we want to find our rhythm on the floor. This summer was a little strange for us with the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and the Olympic Games, but that’s the way things are. We know that tiredness will be there. You can gain nothing without tiredness and effort”.
Dimitris Verginis: “It’s a tournament with four strong Euroleague teams. It’s one of the strongest tests. We have worked hard so far and we are feeling better than in the first games in Serbia. We also want to win because it’s a matter of prestige, because we are facing really strong teams in the tournament”.
