Bartzokas and Ward about Armani Milan (vid)
Giorgos Bartzokas and Tyson Ward made statements at the Athens Airport before Olympiacos’ departure for the matchup against Armani Milan for the 11th round of the EuroLeague.
The head coach of our team first commented on the injury of Keenan Evans and how to deal with such a situation: “Yes, without many words (we’re still in shock). Life goes on, work goes on. It’s neither the first nor the last injury. For Keenan, it took years of effort to come back from his previous injury, and now he didn’t even get the chance to enjoy a little time on the court. It’s hard both for the team and for him. But that’s how life always is. The next day there’s a game, there’s practice, and you have to keep going.”
Next, Giorgos Bartzokas responded to a question about the game against Armani Milan, saying: “We never approach a game as a home or an away one. We want to be competitive everywhere, fight for the win, do our best, keep improving throughout the season, and handle tough situations.
Armani is obviously a good team. All teams in the EuroLeague are strong, and all have good coaches. According to the information we have, most of their players will play tomorrow, except for Brown, if I’m not mistaken. It will be a high-quality game. We always have a hard time in Milan, and especially if we play with less physicality than our opponent, we’ll be in trouble.”
The Olympiacos coach was then asked about how demanding the schedule is, especially when the team has to recover from an injury like Keenan Evans’, and he replied: “It takes experience and training. Over the years, you learn to deal with it. You always have to see the positive side of things. In all my years as a coach, I’ve even had players who passed away. I remember the late Tyler Honeycutt at Khimki. Obviously, things happen that you can’t believe. So, you realize that yes, Keenan’s serious injury ‘killed’ us, but life goes on. Keenan will have surgery, start his rehab, and Olympiacos will keep playing games. Inevitably, we’ll need to find a guard to fill in; that’s life. There are certainly better things than this, but also much worse, so you have to see it that way.”
From his side, Tyson Ward also spoke about Keenan Evans’ injury and whether the team is still in shock: “Definitely. Like everyone else, we were all so happy for him. We’re still with him. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Not just us, but everyone watching the game was really happy to see him back on the court. Seeing him go down
like that is something no one wants. We’re with him, sending our prayers. Being there for him is all we can do.
Personally, I texted him yesterday to tell him we’re with him. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d say that we all reached out to let him know that we’ll stand by him through this tough time.”
Listen to the full statements of Olympiacos’ key figures in the VIDEO below.