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Panathinaikos
Head Coach
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OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
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“What can I say. I'm very happy for my players. They worked very hard during the season. As you know, only our captain Alvertis and Papanikolaou were champions of Europe before and now everyone is. I think is was a great game tonight for both teams. Conratulations to CSKA for a great season. They played great. I am very proud of my players. Thank you very much to our fans. They helped us very much all season and of course in the semifinals and tonight. A special thanks to my staff. We are working almost eight years together. And, of course, very special thanks to the Giannakopoulos family. Because of them, everybody is here, working in a good organization, and we only have to care about our jobs."
"I am very happy because I have a team of good persons. They are good players of course, but are good persons, too, and thanks to those players I am 10 times in a Final Four and six times the champion. That's not important. What's important is, as I said to some of them after, we must believe that we have the quality to next year come back to the next Final Four. The other important thing is today was the birthday of Mr. Diamantidis and Mr. Tomasevic. Everything is for them, the players."
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Panathinaikos
Guard
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HATZIVRETTAS, NIKOS
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“This was a really great game. Congratulations are in order for both teams. Everybody enjoyed this game, fans and players as well. We are proud of what we achieved, and will continue our effort with the same intensity. I want to thank our fans for their support. Indeed, I am very happy to be a member of this team and I enjoy every single day, from a simple practice to a Euroleague final.”
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Panathinaikos
Forward
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DIKOUDIS, DIMOS
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“We wanted it very much. Only Alvertis and Papanikolaou had won this trophy from the whole squad. This is a great moment for us; I am very happy, because I had been hunting this trophy. I want to say congratulations to Papaloukas, he had a great game, and held CSKA in the game all by himself.”
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Panathinaikos
Forward
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BATISTE, MIKE
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“We knew it was going to be a difficult game, so we worked hard and did a great job. I have never seen anything like our fans before in my life. Today the atmosphere was unbelievable. The fans are great; they have supported us through good and bad times. I wasn’t surprised that we beat CSKA by scoring 93 points; this is the game of basketball. Regardless of who won tonight, we have to congratulate both teams.”
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Panathinaikos
Forward
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ALVERTIS, FRAGISKOS
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“I am really happy to have the chance to celebrate a fourth trophy. The team wrote history. Panathinaikos has a great organization and an excellent coach to go with fantastic players, who are first and foremost wonderful guys. In my opinion this is the main ingredient in order to built a successful team.”
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Panathinaikos
Guard
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DIAMANTIDIS, DIMITRIS
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"This is the most important trophy I have won at a club level, the first Euroleague title for me. We played very good basketball, we enjoyed ourselves and gave joy to our fans. When you play in such a pace, it is natural to lose concentration at times, but in general everything went as planned by our coach. I don’t think I owed a big game. Whoever steps on the floor does it to win. As far as the MVP title is concerned, it belongs to the whole team. Panathinaikos has proved that it belongs to the top of European basketball, and we want to stay there through hard work. Papaloukas had a great game and proved that Greek players can lead big teams."
"The most important thing is we are champions. The other is details. I am very happy and very proud of my teammates and of all the fans. We are very happy." "We expected a very tough game. We played good defense, we tried to keep them low, so we took the cup and we are very happy. Now, all the rest are details. The best is that we took the championship."
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Panathinaikos
Center
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JAVTOKAS, ROBERTAS
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“How can you feel after a game like this? I feel great, I'm so happy, I feel like a big child right now. It's the biggest trophy in my career so far. It was a hard game, as every final usually is. It was a hard game, it was really tough and that's why I'm so happy that we won this title. The atmosphere was incredible, I've never felt anything like this before. I felt we had to win this game because of the [fans], we just cannot let them down at this moment after watching how they supported us. We both are two teams well-known for their defensive quality, so I think that after two low-scoring games in the semifinals, we were preparing to to be able to score and they did the same.”
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Panathinaikos
Forward
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SISKAUSKAS, RAMUNAS
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"It is very difficult for me to talk now because I am very happy. We did a great job this season. We worked very hard. I really believed that we could beat Tau Ceramica in the semifinals and now CSKA in the final. It is time to celebrate and think about what we did, because is unbelievable."
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Panathinaikos
Guard
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VUJANIC, MILOS
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"This is a big moment for me, I am so happy. Everything is good for me now after the many injuries I had in the past. After one year I am feeling very well, I played well in this Final Four and we won the title. This is my year!"
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Panathinaikos
Guard
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DELK, TONY
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"This is a great feeling, like I said. We started out with a mission to achieve and we managed to accomplish. I won the NCAA Final Four, now the Euroleague Final Four, and now I want to win it again!"
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Panathinaikos
Guard
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BECIROVIC, SANI
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"It feels excellent to be the Euroleague champion, it feels great. This is just like heaven. I think that the best teams in Europe met in the Euroleague final and that's why we saw a really beautiful basketball game. We controlled the game in the final minutes and even when we had a bad moment, I think we deserved to win more than ever."
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CSKA
Head Coach
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MESSINA, ETTORE
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"Congratulations to Panathinaikos, to their players, their coach and their crowd for the great win to take this season's Euroleauge. As you probably imagine, after preparing on Saturday to play the third-place game, the second-worst thing of playing the Final Four is doing this press conference after losing. We are not happy and we have to, let's say, help ourselves with the pride of having played a great season and maybe having played a great final, but not good enough. We fell too short in some crucial moments, when the foul trouble of some players forced us into some mistakes. Even if we kept playing, kept playing, kept playing, I felt we just were a little bit short in some situations. We played a very good season and a very good Euroleague season, and we will prepare to try to be back in Madrid in 2008."
"I have the feeling that we'll go home knowing that we gave our best, played a great game, but that they had a little more. It's much worse when you go home and think about many things that could have happened and didn't."
"[The score was in the 90s] because of the talent of the players and because I think there were a lot of foul calls, and I agree. I can question some of the calls, but that's part of my job as a coach. I accept this. I don't want a high level of contact, because in that case the quality level of the player disappears. We can question a call, but this is not the moment to dirty a win and a great game. It's finished. We keep everything like that for ourselves. But I agree with what they did. I agree with the meter they have had in this game. I can discuss, of course. Maybe I see one thing, the referee sees another. Compared to the semifinals, this is the way you have to call the game. That's it."
"Let me just start with David Vanterpool. I said before the Final Four that David is a very important piece of our team. He may not score, but he's a leader, a great ball-hander, a good defensive guard and a tough person. As for the rest, we had a good game. Somebody played better, some worse than you expected. That's part of the game, but I prefer to value the team together, and we played good."
"Their fans influenced it for sure. You have to always congratulate the team that wins with that crowd, because it could have been pressure for them. Their coaches and players have been capable of overcoming that pressure. They, too, have a veteran team. It's hard to arrive at this level with young players."
"With all respect for Dimitris Diamantidis, I think Theo could have been considered for this award. It's part of the normal routine that the best player comes from the winning team, but Theo can go home proud of the award he received last night and can go home knowing that the award was right."
"We depended a lot on [Papaloukas], you're right. I could have had another option, but without Vanterpool, it was difficult. Oscar Torres and Trajan Landgon are players who are the finishing options. J.R. Holden can help create. We missed some participation in the passing game by our big men, who are usually good passing in and out. We didn't have that good inside-out passing this time, thanks to the defense of Panathinaikos, which helped well and switched well. Honestly, if I see that we scored 90 points against their defense, it's something. After seeing them all year, I was concerned about how to play against their switching defense. But today, the offensive players were much better."
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CSKA
Guard
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LANGDON, TRAJAN
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"This is a tough loss, but congratulations to them. They played well enough to win. We were down by double digits a couple of times, came back and did not have enough time to take the lead. We fought but came up short. Now we have to work hard to win the Russian league and get ready to be back next season. The focus is to win the Russian championship."
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CSKA
Forward
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TORRES, OSCAR
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"We all feel bad for this loss, but we have to carry on and recover from this situation. We missed some key free throws down the stretch. We even got a slim lead in the second half, but Panathinaikos fought back. Theodoros Papaloukas has shown the kind of player he is. He had a great game today and showed the player that he is."
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CSKA
Guard
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PAPALOUKAS, THEODOROS
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"Congratulations to Panathinaikos. The guys played really hard, it was a tough game. Panathinaikos had the lead, we came back and didn't manage to win. The Euroleague season is now finished, so now have to try to win the Russian championship and see what is going to happen next year. We have to go to Madrid. The fact that I beat my personal career-high – 23 points – doesn't mean anything to me. I would prefer to win the game and not to play so good. CSKA is a big team and always has big targets."
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CSKA
Center
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VAN DEN SPIEGEL, TOMAS
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"I think that Panathinaikos knocked the free throws down when it was important and made some big shots. Every time that we had the feeling that we could turn the situation over, every time that we were playing better than them, they came out with a big play. Everybody had the feeling that we could beat them today and we didn't. They deserved to win, even though it was a close game and that hurts more. It was a probably a beautiful game, but we didn't come here to allow 93 points, they scored a season-high against us in the Euroleague. That's not our game and this is probably why we lost, so congratulations to them."
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CSKA
Center
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ANDERSEN, DAVID
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"The game was really close and was finally decided in the last 3 minutes, they made the big plays right when it mattered, and it's good for them. Now we have to concentrate on the Russian League and get ready to be back in the Euroleague next season. This is what everybody knows that we have to do."
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