One of the great things about returning to the Euroleague is meeting up with friends who are also playing there. I have been on the phone a lot this summer and preseason making plans to meet former teammates of mine when I visit their teams' cities or they come to Athens. Of course, we'll be traveling to compete against each other, but at least after the games are finished, you can usually meet in the hotel for a drink and catch up with old friends. That's a part of the Euroleague experience I am really looking forward to again. I've got a lot of friends playing on other Euroleague teams, so I look at it as an extra incentive to win. If Panionios can keep qualifying to the next rounds, I can see more of them!

Speaking of friends, the friendly games of the preseason are ending for Panionios, and on balance, I'd have to say we feel like we now have a good, positive idea of who we are. The main thing is that this team goes out on the floor to win. We know that is going to become more difficult soon, when we play the CSKAs and Efes Pilsens and Real Madrids of the world. But in terms of our preparation, we are satisfied with the fact that we have won most of our friendly games and finished strong in the last few of them, this close to the real season. We won against some tough opponents lately, including Fortitudo and Avellino, the new Euroleague team from Italy. We also just played Khimki and won at home. This Khimki game was... more

 Anyone who has been lucky enough to play in the Euroleague once always wants to do it again. That was my case, and now I have that chance. I am Ivan Zoroski of Panionios On Telecoms, and let me tell you that I am really happy, first of all, to be playing in the Euroleague again this season. I was there with Olympiacos a few seasons ago, and after some injuries and changing teams, going back to the Euroleague is exactly what I hoped for at this time in my career. We did a great job last year, and I really think it's the best thing that could have happened to me and to Panionios.

If you didn't hear about how we qualified, it was really dramatic. I came to the club just before last season, and even then, the fans were dreaming of the Euroleague. The favorites last year to make the Euroleague again was probably Aris. But in the Greek League's third-place series, played to reach the Euroleague, we found ourselves behind 0-2 against Maroussi. We had to win two games on the road first, but we came back and did it, setting up the fifth game at home. It was a very tough series, but we had to win it for our fans. This is a big club with a long history and devoted fans. We won that fifth game at home with a great atmosphere and a huge celebration at the end. It felt great to make the dream of the fans come true and to give them such a big present. Now, we'll have a lot of big teams coming to our gym this season, which is what both us and the fans wanted. It will be great.

I will talk about our team a little more in-depth... more