Panathinaikos has been present to a Final 4, eleven times in the past. The team has the experience; most of its members know what these four days are about. But, like every year, this year the greens have players that are rookies. One of them is Steven Smith. He is enjoying every single moment so far, but he is also anticipating for the tip off.
“It’s kind of weird right now. It’s quiet… It’s like the calm before the storm. I am kind of nervous today, I am excited, I won’t be able to sleep that much, but probably it’s going to hit me a little later tonight. Right now I am trying to focus on practice and the walk through, to look over the last few items that we need in order to be sharp for tomorrow. Like I said I anticipate for it. It finally hit me, so we’ll see… Hopefully, I will be ok in the morning”.
Smith had a lot of new things to see and to experience, since landing in Konstantinoupoli. What does he have to say about the first two days as a member of a Final 4 team? “It’s the whole environment. The way everything is organized, everything goes on smooth, the hotel staff is very good, the arena looks great. Obviously the coach has us prepared and obviously others teams are prepared. We came for basketball, for the Euroleague title, for the fans and we are going to see what will happen”.
The answer to the next question came out without any kind of hesitation. Panathinaikos has lost twice so far this season against CSKA Moscow. Is it about time to get a win? “Oh, I think we are ready for a win. First of all we have to make sure that we’ll execute that game plan we’ve been given and play tough. The two losses we had against CSKA, that’s in the past. Now, all four teams are on the same page and we’ll see what happens”.
Panathinaikos must take care of business in order to get the positive result everybody wants. Smith talks about defense, but also about the special need for a sharp offense: “Beside defense, the way CSKA is playing defense, means that we have to execute offensively, we have to be sharp and thankfully we have Diamantidis and Nick and Sarunas, who have experience and they can recognize the holes and gaps in the defense and help us all. So, I think more than any game this year offense can be the key, given of course that we are going to play well in defense too. We need both in order to advance to the final”.
