The moment for Mike Batiste’s honoring on behalf of Panathinaikos BC and Mr. Pavlos Giannakopoulos was one of the most emotional ones ever to have been recorded. Opponent but always ours, Batiste was unable to hold back his tears, so were the fans when trying to hold back their love towards him that has remained intact…
Words could hardly come out when he took the microphone to speak… He tipped his head downwards, tried, the first few words came out, he paused, he found refuge in a towel, tried to hide, but the tears had already started to run… He nodded to his wife, Sara, who was in the fans’ stands and is always by his side and he took another go at it… It is like him to never give up anyhow… Only that for the very first and quite possibly the very last time our Mike, our “Michalis”, broke down on the floor…
“Only a few words, because we have a game to play; I would like to thank you all for the 9 wonderful years I had here. I speak to you from the bottom of my heart. You will always be in my heart till the day I die. You might see me again you might not. But I believe that sooner or later our paths will cross again”.
