Giorgos Angelopoulos' statements following the victory in Milan
One of the owners of Olympiacos BC, Mr. Giorgos Angelopoulos, was in Milan and watched the game of Olympiacos against Armani Jeans. A little after the victory of the Greek Champions, Mr. Giorgos Angelopoulos spoke for the camera of ERT1.
Mr. Giorgos Angelopoulos spoke about:
Whether this season's team is an improved version of last season's: "It's an improved version, I think we need to wait for a while. Olympiacos will be the way we want him to be after January, at the level we want him to be, so we need to be a little patient, but the team has showed very positive elements and I think it shows to be a very strong team".
What he liked and what he didn't in the game against Armani and whether Spanoulis and Printezis have an adequate roster around them: "The recipe hasn't changed, you keep talking about the players who left the team and not about the ones that have joined us and try every day and continue succeeding. Let's talk about Vangelis Mantzaris who had 9/10 threes during last season's series against Barcelona, a series when we won three games in a row while other teams have nine defeats in a row. In three consecutive victories Vangelis shot 9/10 threes and no one is talking about him and I don't know why. We don't understand that. Vangelis played for seventy minutes with zero turnovers in that series. But we don't like Vangelis, we want Kostas or Giannis or Antonis. What can we do? It is always that someone will be leaving and someone else will be coming. The ones that stay fight and give their best and deserve to be congratulated. You saw Young that played a terrific game tonight. We have to talk about Dunston that left? We need to put an end to all of that. The team won the Championship last season, went out to celebrate, at 5 a.m. his agent comes and tells us we have deal. What can we say about Dunston? For someone that his agent comes in six hours after a triumph and tells us "we have a deal with someone else?" And everyone, coaches, the captain, his team mates, the administration is trying to convince him to stay? Why do we keep talking about Dunston when someone tonight has played a great 20 points game?"
Kostas Sloukas and if he would like to make a comment on his case: "Whatever, we wanted Sloukas to stay, we did everything in our power to keep him, he refused to meet us, he lied, although we love him and he has contributed a lot to Olympiacos, he's a very good player and he will become even better, he said he wanted to go to Thessaloniki to talk with his mother and he was in Athens meeting with others. This is how it went down, what is there to talk about Sloukas? Let's talk about the ones that are here, about the team that played tonight and beat Armani of double budgets in Milan. Let's talk about these things so that the fans know what the deal is."
The budget and whether this season's is lesser than last ones': "Borderline about the same, it's an assessment, not a certainty. It's a team that was missing so many internationals during pre-season and had so many injuries and still lacks necessary chemistry, it takes for the old to blend with the new. That's what we wait for to happen, that's what we want and what we always provide for".
The performance of the rest of the players apart from Young: "Everyone was against Young two days ago, it's still early for anyone to be judged. You see what has been happening in the whole of Europe with the results, with Efes, Barcelona, Fener, Real with so many good teams that have still not found their chemistry. We cannot brand everyone as useless in Greece due to a result with 46 free throws in the back ground. You can all witness that, you assess players, everyone is judged on the floor, it doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what I have to say".
Whether he has made a "bet" with himself for the team to every year make the Final Four despite decreasing budgets: "it's a model, a philosophy, a stance in life, a reality, bets are for others, not for us. We are for goals, visions, transcending and miracles".