The loss of Giorgos Kolokithas was a reference point in the Panathinaikos-KAOD after-game Press Conference for Argyris Pedoulakis but for Charis Giannopoulos also. Prior to tip-off a minute of silence was held while the clover competed in its black jersey as a gesture of mourn…
“We ought to begin from the most important incident, that of the loss of Giorgos Kolokithas. A great loss so much for Panathinaikos and the entire Greek Basketball… I had the honor to have collaborated with him, back when I competed for Panathinaikos. He is a special man of principle the likes of which one scarcely comes upon nowadays; my sincere condolences to his relatives”.
As far as the competitive part, he stated: “The game took place in a court without fans, while we also had to face the issue of two guards injured, which resulted in Diamantidis and Ukic playing for quite some time. We were not focused, during second half we picked up the pace and praise to backcourt we got an edge which offered us the win; all the best next for KAOD”.
Pedoulakis was questioned about Jason Kapono’s matter: “He is an exceptional character, but the team is above all. He made a decision which we respect and we proceed. It was a matter I knew of, we discussed, we told him our opinion… The team made an announcement, but the decision was his and his alone. To us, each and every player is important. Charalampopoulos is important. There is nothing to make me discuss about any changes. In any event we are unable to make any signing on for Euroleague. At this very moment in time and before anything else we must respect the players who are here now and gave it their all for the team today, the boys who competed today”.
The KAOD Head Coach, Nenad Markovic stated: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos. It performed a good game. It is at a good momentum. To have to prepare to face such teams is always difficult, but my players really tried for the entire 40 minutes. We lost battles, especially one-on-one battles close to the basket and mainly versus Schortsanitis. We had some moments of good basketball and we are trying to fill in the blanks in our image so as to get to a more wholesome game. I am optimistic for the future, I believe we will try hard to achieve our goals and remain in the category”.
Haris Giannopoulos stressed: “The most important thing of all is the loss of Mr. Giorgos Kolokithas, a very special personality. My sincere condolences go out to his friends and family… As for the game, we went off for a numb start, we had the issue of our absences in the guard position and we were unable to enforce pressure. We had little energy in defense. The result of all this was KAOD to be able to stay close at score for the first half. In the second half we managed to pick up the pace, get to easy baskets and gain the edge to win”.
Dimitris Kalaitzidis stated: “Congratulations to Panathinaikos. We knew it would be a tough game and which team we were up against. We tried to give them a hard time and stay in the game for as long as possible. We experienced a few dry spells. We must leave the last few games aside and focus on the home game versus Peristeri. We have gone quite some time without winning and we long to return to victory. We have been trying out many things in practice and we must bring them in our game on the floor for a larger period of time”.
