Zeljko Obradovic held a press conference for the Final Four to be hosted in Barcelona (6-8/05), having by his side Dimitris Itoudis and Kostas Tsartsaris, Antonis Fotsis, Nick Calathes and Ian Vougioukas.
The four players of Panathinaikos spoke of being present in yet another Final Four, Nick Calathes being the only one never to have been present in an equivalent get-together in the past.
Kostas Tsartsaris, the player to be with the team for the most years in a row, stressed: “We are only a few days before the great rendezvous. It is a great challenge ahead of us. We must forget all that took place in the prior encounters, or even the ones versus Barcelona . Everybody is going over there behind the same goal. Everybody wants the title. We prepare really hard in order to be ready as ever. The team has heaps of potential and through playing its game it can go a long way. Siena is a real tough team. It has been competing behind the same style of playing for many years now. Every year they introduce something new and on this we must be prepared and be ready when the time of the game arrives”.
Tsartsaris was questioned about the differences between the previous Final Fours and this season’s: “I don’t think that a difference exists. The preparation is the same; Coach knows what must be done in order for us to be ready both mentally and physically. Every Final Four has its own difficulties. We know who are opponents are. But in the last two F4s in which we finally took the trophy certain special conditions applied. One was at our home-court and in the other we had to face Olympiakos in the semifinal. Though one thing remains a fact; that we are looking at two encounters we must prevail in regardless of who the rival is. And based on this we prepare”.
Antonis Fotsis, who was present so much in Thessaloniki in the year 2000 as in Berlin back in 2009, in two of Panathinaikos’s European trophies, stated: “Only a few days are left for us to prepare for the clash versus Siena . It will be a tough game, since it has already proven what a great team it is during the series with Olympiakos. We must give it our all on the court, to try for the best. It will be a tough assignment and we have to perform our game so as to amount to a positive result”.
Fotsis was asked for his comments on the fact that many view Panathinaikos as the favorite after Barcelona ’s disqualification: “I don’t believe that we contemplate on the issue in the same manner. The mentality we were in before Barcelona is the one we continue to enforce after Barcelona . We knew that sooner or later we would be up against a good team. It is only natural down the stride towards the Final Four. These encounters though, belong in the past. In order for our efforts to accumulate to something of any value we must prove though we are righteously in the Final Four and perform at the equivalent level”.
As far as what the “key” is, in order for Panathinaikos to proceed even further he noted: “Prior to anything else, we must step out on court and prove that we have come to win. This element will be the most important. Siena competes behind an aggressive, tough game and we must be prepared to face it and be as tough and immensely focused. We must give it our all and aid the team towards winning. Certainly there can be no comparison amongst the 2009 play-offs and this season’s semi. Different team, different phase… It is a semifinal without a second chance and we must not let the chance slip away, we must exploit it to the best of our advantage”.
Nick Calathes, a Final Four rookie stated: “I am excited to be participating in a F4. We work real hard and I believe we will be ready to take advantage of the chance we have ahead of us. Personally I have been working really hard, I have been doing everything my coach has requested, I believe in myself, my team trusts me and I will try to do anything it takes in order to help. I will try to be ready and have the correct mentality steeping out on the floor”.
Ian Vougioukas opting for the second F4 of his career, stressed: “The F4 is close, we have a few days, a few practices to work further on Siena , a team which has proven its greatness. It wins local championships, has players who know what to do even at the very last second and we have time to improve at give it our all over there in order to achieve our goal”.
Comparing how he is today as player and how he was in his first F4, Vougioukas underlined: “Anxiety and pressure exists, but I believe that what I feel will vanish once the game begins. Certainly it is a great moment for me to be in a F4 with Panathinaikos. I think for me personally as it generally happens with the tall guys, every year that goes by makes us improved players. The last two years I have improved, I have more experiences and I believe I am more prepared both mentally and physically to help my team”.
