Ataman: “We have won the EuroLeague, the championship, the Cup, but we have never beaten Olympiakos in the EuroLeague!”
Ergin Ataman made statements ahead of the derby with Olympiacos at OAKA, and emphasized that his team has extra motivation to win tomorrow’s game.
The derby of the ages between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos in the 19th game of the Euroleague is almost here (2/1, 21:15) with the coaches of the two teams making statements about the game.
Among other things, Ataman mentioned that his team has extra motivation to win the game because they have not beaten Olympiakos in the Euroleague. It was also mentioned about Kenneth Farid and Omer Yurtseven.
What Ergin Ataman said in detail:
“Happy new year to everyone, happy new year to the whole world that follows us, to the whole EuroLeague and to the supporters. The team is good. We will be ready for this match, we are in a very good condition. We have a lot of respect for Olympiakos, who for me is one of the top teams in the EuroLeague.
The truth is that I told my players that in these two years we won the EuroLeague, we won the title, we won the championship, we won the cup, but we never beat Olympiakos in the EuroLeague. This is the reality. We will try to play good basketball. It will be a tough fight for sure.
We want to continue to be in the top four positions of the ranking. We had minor injuries, last week a lot of players were sick, like I was for three days when I stayed at home. Now they are all healthy and ready for this fight.
Jerian Grant has a minor injury so we kept him safe in practice today. I think tomorrow morning he will train normally and be on the floor with us. Slukas is fine. He did not play in Kaunas and Marousi, but he did the last two or three training sessions and tomorrow he will be on the court. Samoturov was injured in a finger. He went to the hospital for an MRI. I hope it won’t be anything serious. It’s a surprise to us because he trained, but the little finger hurt. We will see the results.
The EuroLeague always has big matches. Each week has one or two really big games. Of course, this is the classic Greek derby, between two teams that have been together in the Final Four for the last two years. The key will be to have a good image on the pitch. Both teams can play offense and defense at a high level.
Yurtseven will continue with us. He was very good in the last 2-3 games, not only in Kaunas, but also against Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maroussi. In the league he is one of our best players. He will continue with us.
Farid in the first month received the MVP award in the EuroLeague. Then he played below his potential, but we like him as a person, he’s always very positive and he likes the team. We will keep him until the end of the season.
We know this match is very important to our fans, as it is to them. But it is a match. We got three very important wins against Fenerbahce, Hapoel and Zalgiris, now Olympiacos comes with one of the best rosters in the EuroLeague”.
