Both coaches and one player from each of the finalist teams looked ahead to the big game
Highlights from the Championship Game Press Conference
News
3 Mins read
The 2025 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Championship Game Press Conference was at times serious and at times funny, with the participants showing that they are focused on the task at hand. Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius and Tarik Biberovic represented Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and coach Vassilis Spanoulis and Alpha Diallo spoke for AS Monaco.
There were several questions about the fact that Jasikevicius and Spanoulis were teammates and won a championship under the great Zeljko Obradovic at Panathinaikos Athens. Jasikevicius revealed that among all his basketball dreams, he "never would imagine me and Billy sitting in a press conference room before a EuroLeague final." Jasikevicius later added that Spanoulis told him before the semifinal: "Malaka, you know what’s the worst, we don’t have the ball."
Spanoulis complimented his former teammate by saying: "Saras is a winner, a competitor, has a great mind for basketball, as a player and a coach. I have huge respect for him. He is my friend." He also revealed a little of his coaching outlook when he said: "When I started to coach, I said that I cannot treat the players like I treated myself, because I don’t know how much they can suffer."
Biberovic was asked, among other things, about his great stretch recently and answered: "We work all our lives for chances like this… You never know when it is going to come, you just have to stay ready. I am grateful that my best basketball is in the most crucial parts of my career."
Diallo credited Coach Spanoulis with getting him and the team to where they are now. "If I had to pick a point where things shifted, it was when coach came in… To have a coach who knows what it takes to get to the top is important… Our coaches do a great job of trying to put me in spots to help our team win."
The entire 40-minute press conference can be seen on the EuroLeague's YouTube channel.