Hi everyone. We're on our way to Paris with an intense and successful finish to our preparations! We played the quarterfinals of the Greek League playoffs over the weekend, winning on Saturday and Monday to advance to the semis. We finished up the series on Monday night in Thessaloniki, flew back to Piraeus, and by midday on Tuesday were on our way to Paris already! I think it has been good for everybody playing right up to our departure in serious games - and especially winning them! Those kinds of things can help you get confidence and work on some things for the Final Four. But I think that for every team this has been a tough couple of weeks prior to the big event. Our semifinals opponent, Partizan, played the final of the Adriatic League, winning in overtime one of the most incredible games I've seen in awhile. For them, it was the right place at the right time, and they must be feeling good about winning, too. But the truth is that on Friday, what we all did the last few weeks doesn't count anymore. It's a new page, a new game, everything completely new that night. We all start from zero again.

Everybody had time rest or get rid of injuries, and by playing at the end, everybody has caught the rhythm needed to be ready. On our team, everyone is a professional and knows his own way to prepare himself for the semifinal on Friday. I believe everything and everyone is crucial at this point. The time is now and everybody has to give... more

Greetings from Piraeus! My teammates at Olympiacos and I, our fans and our whole organization are busy preparing ourselves for Paris these days. It's a long way still until the Final Four, longer than most years, but we are not overly anxious. We know that patience matters, now and on the court, as our coach Panagiotis Giannakis always says. Perhaps for a younger team there would be some nervousness already, but on this team, the players have been to so many Final Fours, that's not the case. I don't even have to mention guys like Theo Papaloukas, who is going to his eighth Final Four, all in a row, too. Or Nikola Vujcic, who's up to six now. This will be my fifth Final Four, and I think we can all agree: whether you have to wait more time or less to get there, it's all about building up to the moment and being ready when you walk out on the floor.

Of course, for me, my first Final Four was the most special, in my home town, Tel Aviv, in 2004. I was young, just turned 20, and I remember that I played six or seven minutes in a very close semifinal with CSKA. The final was something really special, though, something that no one ever expected. I remember that early in the game our point guard, Sarunas Jasikevicius, had some foul trouble, so our coach, Pini Gershon, put me in. I was young and it was the biggest game ever in our city, so I was very excited, even a little bit nervous. But as the game flowed, it all flowed to our side. I played... more