Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well… I am sure that you are looking forward for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four tip off… We sure are! We are marching towards the end of our preparations for the semifinal against CSKA Moscow. We are all ready; Mike Batiste is back after recovering from his injury and we have been spending a lot of time at OAKA.

We have spent some time watching video, but we work a lot on the court too in order to prepare ourselves for the games to come in the best possible way. Our coaches have done everything to prepare us as far as scouting goes. We have a very difficult mission ahead, but in a Euroleague semifinal there is no room for favorites.

CSKA has a full roster. Its road through this Euroleague season was steady and we know that we have to do our best in order to claim a positive result. It’s a tough mission for sure, but we are optimistic. We believe in our team and our potential and we’ll do the best we can to get to the final.

We have the chance to defend our title and we want to defend our title. We have a lot of players that have been to at least one Final Four in the past, so we know what we have to do. But we are not the only team out of the four with experienced players. CSKA has players who know well what the Final Four means and the same goes for... more

Hi everyone… Now it’s back to business. After three days off for some much needed rest and taking advantage of the Easter break, we began practicing again. This next month for us will be filled with nonstop, important games, since we have both the Greek League playoffs and of course the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. We want to finish strong in both competitions, so we will give everything we have to achieve our goals as we head for the finish line.

The first step for us will be the Greek playoffs games against Aris. We want to win in a sweep, 2-0. We are the better team, but we have to prove it by outplaying them on the court and not by just talking about it. We have those games, the semifinals of the Greek League will follow and then we’ll focus on our preparation for the big event: The Final Four, our big goal!

Panathinaikos has not been to back-to-back Final Fours recently, but this time we made it. We have the chance to defend our title. It’s the first time in the modern era of the Euroleague that we have that chance; the team had done it back in the 90s and also in Coach Obradovic’s first years with Panathinaikos. For me, it will be the first time that I get to take part in this big basketball celebration twice in a row. It has been our main goal from the start of... more

Hi, everyone! We are only one step away from the Final Four, but it’s a big step. Fortunately, we play our deciding Game 5 at home, but we have to face a strong team that has already beaten us in OAKA this very year, in this very playoffs series. Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv has proven that it is a strong opponent. This series has been like a roller coaster for both teams with respect to both the results and the games themselves. Since we lost Game 2 at home, we knew that we needed to get at least one victory in Tel Aviv. We came into Game 3 far from focused; especially in the first half. Maccabi got the lead, stretched it to double digits and we were forced to chase them until the end of the game.

Even after that loss, we had faith in our team. We knew that we could get that one victory we needed. We watched the video of Game 3 all together; we all saw the slow start we had. We agreed that when you play in an arena like Nokia Arena, you have to taken the court fully focused in order to begin well and to control the tempo of the game. Coach Obradovic talked to us, we talked to each other and we all agreed that it’s up to us. We are a better team, as long as we are 100% focused on the game, on every play, from the first to the last second. The noise is a huge factor there during the game and we had to find a way to talk to each other, to communicate, to listen to our coaches’ directions, to avoid the turnovers we committed in Game 3 without any pressure from the opponents.

We did all these things in Game 4, starting from the opening tip. We are more experienced as a team,... more

Hi, everyone. I hope you are all doing well. The last few days were full of defining clashes for us and that's how we shall continue from now on, as we do every year. The first string of games were our Euroleague matchups, in which we managed to nail down yet another goal of ours by getting through to the playoffs. We took a very important victory by winning our away game at Unics Kazan, which allowed us to pass through from the top of our group, giving us homecourt advantage in the playoffs. We came up strong during the entire Top 16 phase away from home, but for some reason we showed signs of weakness. We lost two games on our home court. Nevertheless we did finish in first place, and from now on we must take advantage of our arena in the next round versus Maccabi Electra.

The last game in the Top 16, we played in Russia. It was a matchup of two teams that found themselves with their backs up against the wall for different reasons. We craved finishing in first place, Unics longed for qualification. We showed our character against what has proved to be a very good team this season. Unics is a sizeable opponent, however we achieved what we were aiming for. Our obligation now, when we get back for the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Playoffs, is to play much better on our home court. That pair of defeats we suffered in our very own gym, to Unics and to Milan, is something never to be repeated! Maybe we showed ourselves to be more laid-back than appropriate. It is my view that against Maccabi, it will be a whole different ballgame. Now, it's win or go home! I am certain that we will be... more