Vezenkov: “I would vote for Nan as Euroleague MVP”
In detail what he said:
“It's one of those feel-good nights. I missed the first shot, then I found space, my teammates did a great job. Everything starts with the defense. I don't want to talk about me, I keep working. We got an important win to stay high in the standings. We played terrible defense in the first period. We know Bayern have talent. Everyone did the step-up, we had two important absences, Papanikolaou and Fournier. We dedicate the victory to them. We have 15 players ready to play and we are very happy for the win.
I feel very good. 36 assists is a lot. This is our philosophy, this is what the coach wants, so we have to do it. Almost everyone is a good passer. We try to distribute the ball and we can score 100 points. The most important thing is the defense of the first period. Euroleague is unpredictable and we have to stay high.
The world is terrible. I never dreamed of making history for the big club but the most important thing is winning and that's what I keep. I thank the people. It's 100 years of the club, we know the importance for the fans and we will give everything to make them happy.”
He later told Playmakers:
“The motivation is to get to the end. I try to be better every game, to help the team. The goal is to reach the end. We are in the first phase of the Euroleague, let's get to the second and we will see in the third. One bad two minutes can erase a whole year's worth of effort.
When I went to Barcelona I saw what it's like to be consistent, to work at different paces. Because playing well is never enough. I owe the mentality to my father, that you have to look to tomorrow. I didn't settle for better or worse. You always have to work and work pays off.
My patience changed, I saw in the NBA the quality of the players, I got a lot of positive things. What Nan does, a lot of players there do, that every night he is 100% aggressive and I try to do that too. I came back with a goal that we didn't accomplish last year. Nobody knows if it will happen.
In the first round I would take Shorts as MVP, followed by Nunn. The MVP should help the team win games. You can't get MVP if your team isn't high. Enjoy what you see. There is no “he is better”. Enjoy the players you see. There is no belittling each other. Enjoy what you see because it's cool.
The retirements of Spanoulis and Printezis jerseys are chilling. I hope it happens sometime. For every athlete it is something unique.
I was focused until the end. It might be the only night I do something like this, I enjoyed it. We all enjoyed it from the first minute. They are emotional evenings. I want to be a star. The goal is to make it to the end, but such nights last until the end. My father is here, he is always with me and I thank my family very much.
This year I'm shooting lower than I wanted but today I just putted the first 2-3 and it felt good. I said I'd do it and I was just throwing her away. What I said with Buffett is not said, it stays there. He said something to me, I said something to him, everything is fine.
We were getting wins but we didn't play well, we had a busy half. We wanted a really good game. We knew that Bayern away from home has weaknesses. We felt that with the absences there will be some more players who are not playing and that helps. We all shared the ball, that's what the coach wants too. Bayern's defense is not the best except it happened.
We are happy. On Tuesday we have another game and until 12 o'clock we forget about this”.
source: sdna.gr
