We are all looking forward to Friday now. Everybody is thinking of us as the home team, I know. And of course, that helps on the court, at the same time that we have a lot of distractions off the court. But from Wednesday on, we will be in the Final Four team hotel, so we will be kind of protected from everything going on. I am lucky to not have so many distractions as other guys, because I don't understand Greek so well yet and so I can't read what is being said in the newspapers. I can make myself very stupid and avoid some of the distractions here. But you can feel what's happening around you. You can feel tension rising. Everybody is looking for extra tickets. Even fans stop you on the street asking for tickets. So I am looking forward, actually, to going to the hotel as a team on Wednesday. In the hotel, we can be in a normal rhythm like any other Euroleague road game for us. I am glad about that.

Of course, this will be the first time we play against Tau this season. My point of view is that in the semifinals, I prefer to play a team we did not play this season and only have watched on TV or whatever. I have seen some of their games and have been really impressed by them. All five players on the court always play at a big rhythm. With that image of them in my mind, but without playing them yet, I know that I will prepare much more cautiously, not knowing exactly what to expect. If we had played against a team and beat them by 20 or something in the regular season, maybe I would be thinking we could win easily. That's not the case now, because Tau is so good, but also because we didn't play them already. There is no reference. I prefer... more

I only had one previous experience at the Final Four, but I remember it as something unique. To start with, it was my first time at a Final Four. Also, we played the Final Four in front of our home crowd. To me, the whole thing was like a dream come true. It was especially that way when we won against Benetton, our biggest rival at the time, in the semifinals. In the other semifinal, Panathinaikos surprised Maccabi, who went in being favored, as I recall. I remember between the semifinal and the final thinking of what it would be like to win the title and stuff like that. I guess it was too early, because everyone knows what happened in the final. Panathinaikos came from 13 behind in the first half to rally and beat us on our floor.

Of course, the coach of that Panathinaikos team is my coach now, Zeljko Obradovic. If you can't beat them, join them, right? I can't say that, actually, because it happened a long time ago. It's not like I went the next season straight to Panathinaikos. But anyhow, I hope that I'm on the right side this time. It's certainly good to have a coach like Obradovic on the bench. This will be his 10th Final Four, and for sure he's going to be ready as always. That could be a big advantage. On the other hand, you have Ettore Messina, Boza Maljkovic and Sergio Scariolo,... more