THE Panathinaikos He dominated Efes 75-67 in the OAKA, made it 3-2 in the Euroleague playoffs and celebrated the qualification at Abu Dhabi’s Final Four. The “party” that the players started Ergkin Ataman At Glass Floor, he continued in the locker room.
Ergkin Ataman – who will try to repeat with Panathinaikos the back to back he had achieved with Anadolu Efes – had his honor in the “green” locker room.
The Turkish coach was shot by his players and then gave the slogan for the 8th star in Abu Dhabi, saying “Two More”.
With this attack, the Panathinaikos technician meant – of course – that there were two more games (semifinal and final) to achieve the team’s top goal in the season.
Speaking at a press conference that followed the match, Ergkin Ataman stressed that the series changed in Game 3, while stressing that Osman did his best match this year with the green jersey.
That smirk the aura
Coach Ataman is coming for a THIRD title #EveryGameMatters pic.twitter.com/ZVxQ1dm1no
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) May 6, 2025
What he said at the press conference:
“The whole series was very difficult. Congratulations to Efes, the players showed a terrible character and never gave up. We changed the series to Game 3 we won in the city and got the home advantage again. Tonight we started with confidence, terrible defense, points to the surprise with Osman, Gabriel played a terrible defense. They did not play their attack. We got a potential and got an advantage. After that we didn’t have the same contribution from the bench, especially in the middle of the second period and lost the big lead. The same in the third quarter, we made many mistakes tonight, 16 mistakes are many. The key players lost a lot of shots, but we had a lot of offensive rebounds. Osman was awesome, the best match of the season in Panathinaikos, and we finally found a way to win and qualify for the Final-Four.
The whole series was very difficult. In play-offs nothing is easy. Efes is a terrible team. Before the play-offs came to our headquarters with 8 consecutive wins in the regular season. They showed it. It was very difficult. All teams will fight in Abu Dhabi and be one of them.
It’s not easy when Nan doesn’t play well. He did not find a rhythm. Throughout the series, Efes played a terrible defense with 2-3 players on him. He found a shot tonight, in the first period he put on two shots. In the second half he was anxious, began to lose a shot. Can happen. It is important that he has played a terrible defense. We are on the Final-Four and there will play well there.
I’m not ready to think about Abu Dhabi. We had two weeks with stress. For me it was an emotional series against my former team, with which I have memories. I had stress in this order. I have to rest and then we will be ready for the Final-Four. Of course, for the semifinals first.
It was nice we won the title. I don’t think about back-to-back or three-peat. I don’t have this pressure on me. I will rest and get ready for the semifinals. I will not think of the title. We have a semifinal against a very good team, and if we pass I will think of the title.
Yesterday before the match I talked about what happened. I don’t want to repeat them, I’m tired. I live in what I said (about the incident in Turkey in Game 4). “