Edy Tavares on Coach Mateo: 'Without him, we wouldn’t be here'

Final Four MVP Walter "Edy" Tavares only had thoughts for one man as he reflected on Real Madrid’s title triumph: his coach Chus Mateo.

Sitting alongside Mateo at the official postgame press conference, Tavares said: "The only thing I want to say is to congratulate this man here with me. He suffered more than us to put everything together for us to fight for this club.

"All the credit for him because for every coach or every player, the first year is always hard. At Real Madrid it’s super-hard to be the head coach, so I think we’re here because of him. We’re here because he believed in us.

"The people from the outside didn’t believe in us, didn’t believe in him, that he could do it. But he has so much confidence in himself, and what he can bring to the table, what he can put us through. And I think he deserves it. You guys [the media] should apologize to him because there was a lot of criticism, and a lot of doubt on him."

Tavares even reduced Mateo to tears as he continued, arguing that his coach should receive much more recognition as he said: "I always see everybody names a lot of coaches of different teams but never him. They only mention Madrid. But Madrid has a boss. He is the boss, so we’ve got to mention Madrid and him every time.

"All the credit for him because without him, we wouldn’t be here. He was the one who gave us belief, he believed in us from August. He deserves it more than anybody because he's one of the best people I've ever met in my life. You should give him all the credit because we’ve got so many alphas on the team and you’ve got to manage everybody, so he deserves everything."