Panathinaikos was at the spotlight the night of the draw of the Greek League 2009-10. Vassilis Spanoulis was awarded the MVP of the season trophy, while he was also member of the best five along with Sarunas Jasikevicius, Mike Batiste, Nikola Pekovic and also Yannis Bouroussis from Olympikos). Zeljko Obradovic didn’t leave the Asteras Vouliagmenis Hotel empty handed, as he was announced as the best coach. Panathinaikos was awarded as a team, for the three titles of 2008-09 season, the team’s second triple crown. A trophy that was handed to the president of Panathinaikos BC, Pavlos Giannakopoulos.
Zeljko Obradovic: “There is no secret for the success of the team. Every practice with guys is a joy. We have in our teams persons like Pavlos and Thanassis Giannakopoulos who work as hard as we do for this team. I want to thank Giannakopoulos family and also my players. And guys… See you in practice tomorrow!”
Vassilis Spanoulis: “For me the most important is that we conquered every title last year as a team. This individual trophies are not as important. The team success is what we are looking for. I want to thank everybody who voted for me and I have a special “thank you” for my teammates, my coaches who make me a better basketball player, but also a better person year after year and the presidents of the team, because they believe in me and they made me a member of this family. There is no limit in what we want or can do. I will say again that all that matters is the team. The team effort”.
Sarunas Jasikevicius: “What I want to say is that I feel lucky to work with these guys in Panathinaikos, with these great players and coaching stuff and for playing for these fans! We’ll try to do what we did last year, to get all three titles”.
Nikola Pekovic: “Thank you very much for this award. I surely didn’t expect such a thing at the end of just my first year in Panathinaikos. I am very happy and I wish this season will end in the same success as last year”.
Dimitris Diamantidis got the award on behalf of Mike Batiste. Batiste couldn’t attend the draw since he stays at home with a back injury.
