Kostas Sloukas, Olympiacos: 'Today, we celebrate'

Playoffs

Game 5

game Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul vs Olympiacos Piraeus

Playoffs

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Olympiacos PiraeusOLY

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Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulFBB

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Overview

Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos head coach

"It's a great feeling. It's something that I cannot describe. It's priceless. You know, two Final Fours in a row for our team after the rebuilding we made, it's a big-time accomplishment. Congratulations to everybody: the fans, the organization, the owners, the players, my colleagues, to everybody. I think that we created a winning culture to the club, a winning spirit, playing every time for the win, no matter what. If we pass the ball a lot or we don't pass, trying to find a way to always play together and to win, finally accomplishing great things like this. It's something that I really appreciate. I'm feeling great, really, because after so many months of playing at the highest level and competing with such good teams, right now we are in the Final Four and we need for one day to celebrate it.

“I believe words are not needed [to explain] how I feel today. Everybody knows what this game meant, how important it was for both teams. I think in this tough series, getting home-court advantage back in Istanbul was crucial – we had talks with the players through practice that we are all going to be together on the same page. The accomplishment is huge for our team and I think we thoroughly deserved it. The way we played all season, or at least for eight or nine months, since early September, we were stable and consistent with our basketball. It’s a second Final Four in a row after building our team, which is something really notable. So, first I have to congratulate our owners, the Angelopoulos brothers, as they created this amazing environment for us to work in. The front office of the team, my coaching staff, the fitness coaches, the physios, the players right after the owners; I don’t mean to flatter the owners because without them Olympiacos would not be at this level. Last but not least, the fans. They created an amazing atmosphere the whole season. Reaching the Final Four aside, the best thing that we made is that we again brought all Olympiacos fans together from all over Europe. There were 12,000 of them in last year’s Final Four in Belgrade – as many as 85,000 tried to attend this game! Olympiacos fans can be proud of the fighting spirit of this team. We have a few days to prepare ourselves for the Final Four – mentally, physically and tactically. We will now wait for the outcome of the Monaco vs. Maccabi series to see who is going to be our semifinal opponent, but what we can promise is that we are going to go over there [to the Final Four] and fight for every possession. Congratulations to Fenerbahce, they were a very competitive opponent.”

Dimitris Itoudis, Fenerbahce head coach

"Congratulations to Olympiacos for a well-deserved win and a well-deserved qualification to the Final Four. I wish them the best of luck, as I said each and every individual [on their team]. They played better than us today. They got us out of our concentration, out of our game plan. They had huge plays and they deserved to win. So congratulations for them. For us, it was a good journey so far. We had our ups and downs. We're going to learn something out of this, and we're going to become stronger. So congratulations to my team, as well, for this fight. I think it was a helluva series that the fans enjoyed both ways, and all the neutral fans that watch basketball.

“I would like to congratulate Olympiacos for their well-deserved win and their qualification for the Final Four. They were much better today. It was a very interesting series. The momentum changed when we led 29-31 and in the next 4:34 minutes Olympiacos went on a 15-2 run to close out the first half. It’s a big margin for such a tight series, because we had managed to keep Olympiacos out of their ball movement and push them into individual, off-the-dribble situations. They hit some amazing shots today, with [Kostas] Papanikolaou and [Thomas] Walkup opening the game very aggressively. Overall, they were better. We haven’t done what we did in Game 4, but we are going to grow as a team and as individuals. We are going to come back next year stronger, smarter and more decisive.”

Kostas Sloukas, Olympiacos player

"I think it was the last game. We fought all year for this opportunity to fight against this team in our gym, in front of our incredible fans. I think we played a really good game. It was very tough. I have to say congratulations to Fener, that they played excellent, they read the game excellently, they put us in trouble. But finally, we took what we deserve to be in the Final Four. I try to do my best. I said many times that I want to be aggressive in the game. I will dedicate it to my wife and my family, my daughter, because you know the last two months I suffered a little bit with injuries. I need them to support me, also the team supported me, and today, we celebrate everybody."

Kostas Papanikolaou, Olympiacos player

"Amazing job. Very tough series against a very competitive, very great team. We had to work like hell in all of these games, all five games. I think it's, if not the toughest series I've ever played, one of the toughest for sure. But we showed character, we showed commitment to our goal, and now we're here to celebrate it all together. We love [the fans]. They're amazing. They are there for us, they support us. They don't understand it, but their voice gives us so much energy and so much passion. And when we are down, they can really bring us up. This win is for them. Everything we do and try to do is to please our fans. And I hope we gave them something today."