Panathinaikos flew today (27/9) to Moscow in order to participate to “Gomelsky Cup” tournament, hosted by CSKA. Roko Leni Ukic and Loukas Mavrokefalidis stayed in Athens, undergoing treatment for their injuries.
Argyris Pedoulakis stated before getting on the plane: “It’s not a dress rehearsal for us. We got together just four days ago. We were missing seven players during our training camp. Now we are going to play a couple of preseason games, which will allow us to see the condition of players like Maciulis, or the players that were injured. We’ll use some tricks to cover the absentees in certain positions. We have to live and function with problems that may appear during the season. All players are in great mood. Basket is a team sport. We will have to learn to function as one. It’s true that due to Eurobasket a lot of teams are not ready yet. Roko has to deal with a very serious injury and he will be out for at least six weeks. It is definitely a problem for us. He is with us since last year and he is a very important piece for our defense. We have to live with this problem. And here comes the issue with Eurobasket. It’s impossible to play 11 games in 18 days. Lasme practiced yesterday for the first time with contact. He is not at the proper level regarding his physical condition. He hasn’t played basketball for four months! We’ll try to give him time to find his rhythm and I don’t believe that it will take time. His foot was immobilized and we have to be careful”.
Ramel Curry stated that “we are not ready yet”, adding: “We have a lot of work to do. We have injured players and we haven’t been together from day one since today. We have important absentees. We have showed so far that we are in a good level. Some good players came to the team and thing will be better when the ones that are injured return to practices. Every moment is special and we are going to take it one step at a time. Practice by practice, game by game. We want to see only the next game and nothing more”.
Finally, Vladimir Jankovic noted: “We are still in the second stage of our preseason camp. We are heading to Russia for two more preseason games playing against Euroleague teams. Two out of our three opponents are in our group in the competition and we’ll have the chance to know them better. We have a long way to go till the official premiere of the season. Panathinaikos has a full roster. Injuries and absentees are part of the season. We all have to learn to live with these problems. Now we have to keep our mind focused on the games in Moscow, then to the one in Athens, then to the next tournament in Rethymno. After all these the season begins and we have to in the best possible shape in order to begin on the right foot”.
