Panagiotis Giannakis: "Greece success came after a lot of hard work"

Panagiotis Giannakis (Photo:sportni.bg)

01-04-2007 21:13

The head-coach and legendary guard of the Greek National Team – [b]Panagiotis Giannakis[/b] paid Bulgaria a visit to the 2007 HDI All-Star Game which took place in Universiada Hall in Sofia, earlier today. [b]Giannakis[/b], who lead [b]Greece[/b] to the European Championship back in 2005 in Belgrade, and vice-champions of the world in 2006, said that he always feels good when he’s in Bulgaria, because he has a lot of friends in our contry, and also that basketball is very popular, here on the Balkans. [i]“We achieved a lot with the Greek National Team, a lot, but the success came after really hard and serious work. I do care a lot about that my players are serious and proffesional in their duties. It’s important to be a good team. In the pace of the game, everybody needs to know their exact functions and obligations, and to be valuable on both ends of the floor – in defense and offense”[/i] [i]“One of my basketball philosophies is that one pass makes to players happy – the one who makes the assist, and the one who scores the basket.It’s very important if there isn’t a basket on offense, those two players to be as well active on the defensive end”[/i] – said Giannakis The 48-year old specialist commented the loss in the final game of the 2006 World Championship against Spain, as he declared that in this match, his players weren’t enough concentrated. [i]“Against the Spanish side, we let too much turnovers – something like 21 team TO, and in the games before that we had 4 or 5 TO per game.”[/i] Giannakis also added that he had offers to coach club teams, but he wants to devote only to the NT of [b]Greece[/b]. He said that the Bulgarian basketball society must be patient with the National Team, because there is a big potential, but there are some things to be cleared. The main factors in his opinion are experience and concentration. As a player, [b]Giannakis[/b] worked very hard, to achieve all of his succes. As a youngster he stayed after practice to do more and more drills. [i]“If the coach asked me to do something 10 times, I did it 11. If they told me to get out of the gym immediately, I always stayed a little more. Now I understand that it wasn’t correct, but it’s in the past/ The players on the National Team know how much I worked as a player, and that respects them and makes them be more concentrated and successive in their practice.”[/i]

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