OR National basketball of Greece is getting ready for the big match with Israel in the ’16’ phase Eurobasket And Vassilis Spanoulis talked about the game, but avoided commenting the war in Gaza.
Vassilis Spanoulis referred to the way Israel plays and departed his leader, Denny Avdiya, but was confident about his team and emphasized what Greece’s national basketball should do to qualify for the Eurobasket quarter -finals.
Spanoulis’ statements
“Basketball has changed in Europe, everyone is playing very quickly. Israel plays an up tempo game, plays freely, trying with various defenses, with some zones, to change the rhythm. We know the Israeli school and from Maccabi who plays these defenses. We need to be ready to play our game and understand that by entering the knockout games we must be ready spiritually and physically. “
For Avdiya of Israel: “Avdiya has made a big step up last year in the NBA with Portland, and here’s great appearances. He is a very modern forward, downloads the ball, shoots, is very dynamic, very explosive. We have our plan to deal with him, both him and the other players.
The most important before the knockouts are out-of-the-way, not on the court. There must be confidence in each other, faith, confidence and act as a team inside the pitch, no matter how the game will evolve. To be very strong spiritually to cope with every situation. “
“Of course the games so far show us that there can be surprises, but we didn’t expect to see it to know that. In the knockout games everything is done, a little bit of a team puts the shots, a little bit of you, the psychology changes directly. We have also shown us the important matches that it is nothing easy and you have to get tired and fight to qualify. “
On whether there will be some form of protest about what is happening in Gaza: “I only want to talk about basketball and how to win the game tomorrow. We all know what’s going on, everyone recognizes the situation. I am here to talk about basketball only. “