His name became a song on the lips of the friends of Panathinaikos. And he made his familiar gesture: He turned and pointed towards his players. He did as much through words, speaking a little later in the Press Conference. Serious, laughing, intensely, silently, Zeljko Obradovic steer attention towards his players. “It is very tough to be performing in a semifinal. And becomes even tougher across from such a team as Montepaschi Siena, a very aggressive opponent. We did not start off well, we had rebound trouble but we did much better in the second half. I am overall pleased in the way we competed but especially in the way we performed during the third quarter. Essentially it was that period of time we managed to exploit in order to set the foundations towards prevailing. My players are experienced and know how to react. We committed certain mistakes, however we got some range behind particular shots, missed others, the majority of which though were good choices. And here I would like to express my gratitude towards our team’s fans for all their support and help. Montepaschi Siena is a good team, an aggressive performed which had every right of being here”.
Closing his initial approach and since there was no immediate reply to the question “are there any more questions”, he turned to leave snickering. Questions though did exist and finally he answered every single one of them wining over the impressions once more. First questioned concerned the couple of the other semifinal: “Finals are always the same. It would be nice to face Real Madrid in which I have lived three unforgettable years. And if we should face Maccabi Tel Aviv it would also be nice…”.
A journalist’s question in reference to Simone Pianigiani’s thoughts on the fouls award during the semifinal (30-21 for Montepaschi Siena), Obradovic replied: “If the referees award the fouls, then they are fouls. We are in the Euroleague F4, the best referees are performing. Personally I care only about what my team does. Those are other’s issues”.
Nick Calathes’s performance in the encounter was a surprise to a representative of the Spanish Press. Obradovic though begged to differ: “For those who do not know Calathes, maybe it was a surprise. For me, his Coach, it was not. I had spoken to him before the game, I had told him he would be the key player for these encounters, as he was in the lay-off series versus Barcelona. He has quality but he is also young. He does something smart, then he goes and commits a silly mistake. That is why I yelled at him at a certain point. He knows me though. We have our own code of communication, our way of doung things”.
A journalist from Greece reminded him that after the second game versus Peristeri in the Greek League play-offs, he had stated that his players should… shake their heads… “Apparently they shook it” Obradovic replied smiling only to continue: “Those are different games and it is hard to find motivation to compete in games straight before a F4. I can relate. It was the same deal with all the teams of the F4. Maccabi bested its opponent struggling; Siena and Real lost their equivalent local league games. Everyone’s mind was set already on the F4”.
Next questioned presented him with the opportunity to talk once more about Diamantidis: “He is a magnificent player. He can read the game exquisitely and knows exactly what he is supposed to do on court at any given time. He couldn’t care less if he scored or not, he does everything anything he sees that needs to be done. He is number one in every department”.
