The last 3 years we observe that the team that appears stronger at the final of the Greek basketball Cup, ends up more weak at the finals of the Greek league, and as a result loses, clean, clear and easily.
But what intervenes between the two domestic titles for Olympiakos and Panathinaikos? The quarterfinals of the Euroleague and/or the Final4. The way the major Greek clubs deal with the most important European Championship and the weight they put on themselves (psychological, ethical, even economical) on it, have their results afterwards during the finals.
In 2010, Olympiakos had 5 amazing players: Lithuanian power-forward-star Linas Kleiza, new star of Serbia Milos Teodosic and the most expensive contract ever in Europe Josh Childres, as well as 2 great Greek players, Theodoros Papaloukas (best European player for 2006) and best Greek Centre Ioannis Bourousis. The "reds" bit Panathinaikos in the Greek cup final in Athens with a dominating performance. But then they lost badly in the Euroleague final by super-power (especially that year) Barcelona in Paris. This defeat brought "nagging" towards and in the team, especially towards their coach, Greek basketball legend Panagiotis Giannakis, and certainly played a big part that its players could not stand equally to the ones of their...eternal opponent at the finals! Panathinaikos on the contrary as a more experienced organism, managed better its failure to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Euroleague, rested and eventually won the championship. Perhaps if Olympiakos had won the European final, things would be different in the Greek finals as well.
Last year, Olympiakos won again in the Greek cup final with another dynamic performance against Panathinaikos, even with the abscence of the..."traitor" Vassilis Spanoulis that became part of the reds in September of 2010 with a free transfer from the greens. After the unbelievable first win against Montepaschi Sienna at the first Euroleague quarter final (score 89-41) the...disgrace of the exclusion with 3 defeats in a row came. On the contrary, the weakened Panathinaikos compared to 2010, without Spanoulis, Lithuanian legend Sarunas Jasikevicius and Nikola Pekovic that left Europe for the NBA, managed to achieve 3 epic wins against champions Barcelona, throwing the Catalonian team from its thrown. Finally the "greens' placed the 6th star of European cups on their jersey, which gave them the "wave" to win the Greek league series later on. By the way, it seemed like Panathinaikos was in control of all the finals against Olympiakos. Maybe though, if the Greek teams had met at the Final4 in Barcelona, Olympiakos would have won, and the Greek league could be won by the reds, after 14 years of drought!
During the current season, I feel that the same story is repeated in reverse. Panathinaikos initially through out Maccabi Tel Aviv struggling, and, some say, with the...help of the referees. At the Final4 in Istanbul, even though Panathinaikos was the outsider against CSKA at the semifinal, its defeat brought frustration to the team. The...non-shot in the last seconds by captain Dimitris Diamantidis put down the team mentally, while its psychology went to the bottom when the Reds achieved the biggest surprise in the history of the Euroleague, beating the Russians in the final two days later! Olympiakos beat Sienna in the quarterfinals clearing...last year's shame, and then unexpectedly won the cup, which made the players believe in themselves, especially the young ones! If however, the two Greek giants had met in Istanbul, I am almost sure that the ball would sit on the green...
Apart from the psychology and the "if's" though, during the 3 finals that have been played, we note a difference of energy levels between the two teams. The big players of the "Clovers" Diamantidis, Jasikevicius (who came back in September) and Mike Batiste look like they are ready to put an end to their great carreers, or at least that they need to leave for a new career. Similarly great players do not exist in Olympiakos team with the exception of Spanoulis, who hasn't made his best career games during the finals. At the same time though its young heroes, Giorgos Printezis, Kostas Papanikolaou, Vangelis Mantzaris and partly Kostas Sloukas seem to have fully gained the momentum since Istanbul. Respectivelly the players of Panathinaikos, Kostas Kaimakoglou, Ian Vougioukas, Stratos Perperoglou and Nick Calathes cannot do the occasional excesses of the past, as the truth is that without their super-3 players (Batiste, Diamantidis, Jasikevicius) playing a good game, they can not pull the boat by themselves.
Simultaneously, Panathinaikos has some negative protagonists, such as Romain Sato who doesn't help the team even in defence lately, while Aleks Maric is a permanent dissapointment. On the contrary, on the Olympiakos side Martynas Gecevicius has given the cold blood shot to the team, Richard Elmer Joey Dorsey and Kyle Hines have dominated the rebounds in the two rackets deliverring numbers of blocks to Batiste, while Acie Law showed on the 3rd final, with his spreeds and all around talent what a big loss he was up till now, staying on the side because of an injury.
As for the coaches, the two Serbs, best men to each other, have lived opposite lives during the season. Whatever Dusan Ivkovic does comes out perfectly. He was not afraid to get American players to the team, and then change-them mid-season and he supports the transition game, the rule of offence: "we will score more than we concede". Besides, to find tha last time that Olympiakos scored over 50 points at half time against Panathinaikos, we should go to the previous - not decade but - century!
Zeliko Obradovic though for the first time hasn't pulled a rabbit from the hat, an unknown factor, as he has been doing every single year either during the Final4 or the chamionship finals. I've written previously that Stephen Smith and David Logan might not fit in the team, bit hasn't the time arrived for them to play a bigger role in the group, as coaches systems' do not work out properly, and the big names of the team can't take a personal shot properly? Isn't it time for Kostas Tsartsaris to play again as a Centre to try and block Hines? Shouldn't Pat Calathes and Alexis Kiritsis be part of the first 12 and show what they can offer to the team?
The truth is that I worry about ther future of Panathinaikos. With their owners, the Giannakopoulos brothers and Obradovic ready for the big exit, and with a team that has aged, the biggest Greek club of all times, title wise, is ready to come to an end, and we are expecting this week to watch its last two performances. On the contrary, Olympiakos shows that the conquest of the championship could be the trigger of an empire, not created by the the large sum of money that the owners, the Angelopoulos brothers, have put in the past, but a healthy family-team, ready to take the role of Panathinaikos as the representative of Greek basketball abroad. A team, whose Greek members would be the basis of the national team, starting this summer at the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Caracas. Dear national coach Ilias Zouros will you take all of them to the team? We will see this summer...
But what intervenes between the two domestic titles for Olympiakos and Panathinaikos? The quarterfinals of the Euroleague and/or the Final4. The way the major Greek clubs deal with the most important European Championship and the weight they put on themselves (psychological, ethical, even economical) on it, have their results afterwards during the finals.
In 2010, Olympiakos had 5 amazing players: Lithuanian power-forward-star Linas Kleiza, new star of Serbia Milos Teodosic and the most expensive contract ever in Europe Josh Childres, as well as 2 great Greek players, Theodoros Papaloukas (best European player for 2006) and best Greek Centre Ioannis Bourousis. The "reds" bit Panathinaikos in the Greek cup final in Athens with a dominating performance. But then they lost badly in the Euroleague final by super-power (especially that year) Barcelona in Paris. This defeat brought "nagging" towards and in the team, especially towards their coach, Greek basketball legend Panagiotis Giannakis, and certainly played a big part that its players could not stand equally to the ones of their...eternal opponent at the finals! Panathinaikos on the contrary as a more experienced organism, managed better its failure to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Euroleague, rested and eventually won the championship. Perhaps if Olympiakos had won the European final, things would be different in the Greek finals as well.
Last year, Olympiakos won again in the Greek cup final with another dynamic performance against Panathinaikos, even with the abscence of the..."traitor" Vassilis Spanoulis that became part of the reds in September of 2010 with a free transfer from the greens. After the unbelievable first win against Montepaschi Sienna at the first Euroleague quarter final (score 89-41) the...disgrace of the exclusion with 3 defeats in a row came. On the contrary, the weakened Panathinaikos compared to 2010, without Spanoulis, Lithuanian legend Sarunas Jasikevicius and Nikola Pekovic that left Europe for the NBA, managed to achieve 3 epic wins against champions Barcelona, throwing the Catalonian team from its thrown. Finally the "greens' placed the 6th star of European cups on their jersey, which gave them the "wave" to win the Greek league series later on. By the way, it seemed like Panathinaikos was in control of all the finals against Olympiakos. Maybe though, if the Greek teams had met at the Final4 in Barcelona, Olympiakos would have won, and the Greek league could be won by the reds, after 14 years of drought!
During the current season, I feel that the same story is repeated in reverse. Panathinaikos initially through out Maccabi Tel Aviv struggling, and, some say, with the...help of the referees. At the Final4 in Istanbul, even though Panathinaikos was the outsider against CSKA at the semifinal, its defeat brought frustration to the team. The...non-shot in the last seconds by captain Dimitris Diamantidis put down the team mentally, while its psychology went to the bottom when the Reds achieved the biggest surprise in the history of the Euroleague, beating the Russians in the final two days later! Olympiakos beat Sienna in the quarterfinals clearing...last year's shame, and then unexpectedly won the cup, which made the players believe in themselves, especially the young ones! If however, the two Greek giants had met in Istanbul, I am almost sure that the ball would sit on the green...
Apart from the psychology and the "if's" though, during the 3 finals that have been played, we note a difference of energy levels between the two teams. The big players of the "Clovers" Diamantidis, Jasikevicius (who came back in September) and Mike Batiste look like they are ready to put an end to their great carreers, or at least that they need to leave for a new career. Similarly great players do not exist in Olympiakos team with the exception of Spanoulis, who hasn't made his best career games during the finals. At the same time though its young heroes, Giorgos Printezis, Kostas Papanikolaou, Vangelis Mantzaris and partly Kostas Sloukas seem to have fully gained the momentum since Istanbul. Respectivelly the players of Panathinaikos, Kostas Kaimakoglou, Ian Vougioukas, Stratos Perperoglou and Nick Calathes cannot do the occasional excesses of the past, as the truth is that without their super-3 players (Batiste, Diamantidis, Jasikevicius) playing a good game, they can not pull the boat by themselves.
Simultaneously, Panathinaikos has some negative protagonists, such as Romain Sato who doesn't help the team even in defence lately, while Aleks Maric is a permanent dissapointment. On the contrary, on the Olympiakos side Martynas Gecevicius has given the cold blood shot to the team, Richard Elmer Joey Dorsey and Kyle Hines have dominated the rebounds in the two rackets deliverring numbers of blocks to Batiste, while Acie Law showed on the 3rd final, with his spreeds and all around talent what a big loss he was up till now, staying on the side because of an injury.
As for the coaches, the two Serbs, best men to each other, have lived opposite lives during the season. Whatever Dusan Ivkovic does comes out perfectly. He was not afraid to get American players to the team, and then change-them mid-season and he supports the transition game, the rule of offence: "we will score more than we concede". Besides, to find tha last time that Olympiakos scored over 50 points at half time against Panathinaikos, we should go to the previous - not decade but - century!
Zeliko Obradovic though for the first time hasn't pulled a rabbit from the hat, an unknown factor, as he has been doing every single year either during the Final4 or the chamionship finals. I've written previously that Stephen Smith and David Logan might not fit in the team, bit hasn't the time arrived for them to play a bigger role in the group, as coaches systems' do not work out properly, and the big names of the team can't take a personal shot properly? Isn't it time for Kostas Tsartsaris to play again as a Centre to try and block Hines? Shouldn't Pat Calathes and Alexis Kiritsis be part of the first 12 and show what they can offer to the team?
The truth is that I worry about ther future of Panathinaikos. With their owners, the Giannakopoulos brothers and Obradovic ready for the big exit, and with a team that has aged, the biggest Greek club of all times, title wise, is ready to come to an end, and we are expecting this week to watch its last two performances. On the contrary, Olympiakos shows that the conquest of the championship could be the trigger of an empire, not created by the the large sum of money that the owners, the Angelopoulos brothers, have put in the past, but a healthy family-team, ready to take the role of Panathinaikos as the representative of Greek basketball abroad. A team, whose Greek members would be the basis of the national team, starting this summer at the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Caracas. Dear national coach Ilias Zouros will you take all of them to the team? We will see this summer...
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