By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Three EuroLeague legends tipped their hat to Zeljko Obradovic and also explained why coaches are the easy victims in the current state of the EuroLeague, using the example of Giannis Sfairopoulos.
Dimitris Diamantidis, Theo Papaloukas, and Giorgos Printezis talked to the EuroLeague Legends by Stoiximan show, hosted by Giorgos Lentzas, and spoke about the decision of Zeljko Obradovic to resign from Partizan.
Dimitris Diamantidis, who met Obradovic in Athens, of course praised the coach who helped him become a Panathinaikos legend: “I love Obradovic very much, and what we have seen and what has happened before and after… he is the only man who can make this happen. With all due respect to all coaches, he is the only one who can achieve that, this kind of love, and this kind of acceptance”.
And for Diamantidis this is not a surprise: “Of course, he has earned this, and he deserves it”.
Theo Papaloulas analyzed the current status quo in EuroLeague adding that the format creates this kind of anomalies more than in the past: “It’s one more great proof that the EuroLeague has changed, and it’s not by accident that we see so many injuries. We see results that seem peculiar, I will not say strange, because it’s a word that somebody can translate differently. Peculiar results have been observed, where teams play exceptionally well one week and can score a lot, as if they are a different group. Additionally, the fact that so many good coaches have been fired or resigned in such a short period of time is surely related to the new EuroLeague format. There’s no debate on that, if you can’t see it, you don’t understand what you are watching”.
The Sfairopoulos example
Giorgos Printezis added that changing the coach remains the usual quick fixing, using the example of coach Giannis Sfairopoulos and Crvena Zvezda.
Speaking about Obradovic and his age, Printezis stated that this is not the reason of his decision: “I don’t believe in any way, because we have heard some voices saying that basketball moved past them, that they don’t have the same ideas… this is not valid in any way. Not only for Zoc, but also for other coaches who might be older. They say that they can’t follow current basketball, but this is not true. And the proof is, I agree with Dimitris, even after a bad start in the season, the fans wanted the management to let Obradovic build the team from scratch again, even if things didn’t change. He has won this. He is a coach that I appreciate and respect a lot, but unfortunately, in a team, firing the coach is the easy change in a team”.
For Printezis, even if it ultimately worked, Zvezda’s decision of firing coach Sfairopoulos after just three games was unfair: “If things don’t go well, you may change one player, two players, but you can’t do much more. So many times, unfortunately or fortunately, the coaching change might make things click and help the team. We have seen this with Zvezda. For me, it was not fair for coach Sfairopoulos to be fired, but after a bad start, coach Sasa Obradovic came, and they had six wins in six games”.
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