Zeljko Obradovic congratulated Ikaros on their performance, while he did not omit to commend negatively on the decision to broadcast a basketball game at the same time with the football derby, underlining that such decisions harm basketball.
“Ikaros played very seriously to the last second. Congratulations for the way they played. They had a lot of open shots. One thing that we talked about during halftime was that despite having received just 24 points our defense was bad. On the other hand, we did not receive many points in fast-breaks. I believe that we played seriously. I want to repeat once again that it is difficult for the players to play without the fans.” He went on to refer to the time the game was played: “As if that was not difficult enough, someone had the bright idea of scheduling the game at the same time with the football derby. It must be someone very smart; and that person is very smart because they want to harm basketball. I do not know who that person is, but I would really like to find out. I repeat that this goes directly against basketball. I am happy that I saw some of our friends come to watch us play.”
Nic Calathes, who came to the press conference, said: “It was a good game. We did not start well on the second half, having trouble with our defense, but then got things rolling and did what we had to do. Now, we are just thinking about the game Thursday against CSKA Moscow.” When asked whether he had…promised some assists to his brother, he replied: “No, no… he just happened to be open so he could score. I am excited to be playing with my brother, but as a team there are things that we need to work on.”
The guests’ coach, Aris Likogiannis, noted: “We can only keep two things to mind from tonight’s game. The first is that Baynes is back with the team and got some participation time; and the second is that we won the third period. We had some good game-plays, but were unlucky scoring from the perimeter. We had 1/16 three-point shots and this is a problem that we need to resolve.”
Ikaros’ player Giannoulis Larentzakis said: “It was a very difficult game for us. We knew right from the start our opponent’s potential. We tried to match our game with Panathinaikos. I want to thank my coach for giving me the opportunity to play against such a great opponent. I was nervous, respected the opponents, and only stood to gain things from such a game. We now want to prepare both mentally and competitively for the game against Kolossos.”
