Vassilis Spanoulis: “I was not born in a belly, but in a basketball”

He wrote history as a player and now begins to write history as a basketball coach. Signed “Kill Bill” his qualification in the quarterfinals of the Basketball Champions League. Vassilis Spanoulis spoke on Cosmote TV’s “Pick n’ Roll” show after Peristeri’s huge victory over Tenerife and qualifying for the quarterfinals of the Basketball Champions League Peristeri’s technician referred to his mother who was on the field to support him, said he feels he was born in a ball rather than a belly and stressed that the Dove is not “the Dove of Spanoulis”, but the pride of the city. In detail Vassilis Spanoulis stated: On whether he believed that the Peristeri would qualify after starting with 0-3 : “Of course I thought we would return from 0-3. That’s my character, that’s the character of the team, that’s what we’ve been building all year. I think that although many may not have believed it because we were in the same group with three teams that are favourite for winning the BCL we believed it. They’re teams with high-quality players, people and budget bigger than us. We are a team built for the second year otherwise, with 10 new players and we had a disadvantage on this track. On the other hand, no one can underestimate the heart and mindset of a winner we have built. We’ve built a group that both the residents of the Dove and the basketball world rejoice in. I think we’re playing excellent basketball on both sides of the field. For this team it is a feat and a huge vindication and success that we are in the 8 best groups of the BCL, especially within this group.” About what happened and turned the… chip the Dove : “I believe the game with Karsiyaka, where we said to do a rest and give it all for 3/3 changed our whole thinking. I want to say a big thank you to the world, which not only today but also to 0-3 was here to support us in the race with Karsiyaka, but also all the time that is next to us. He supports us. We want him next to us. I wish they would line up outside the stadium to admire the players and applaud the effort of the children, which is great” For the fact that after the moderate start the Dove is third in the Stoiximan Basket League and in the 8 of the BCL and if that is how it teaches… patience in the world: “We try to teach what we represent as a team and I as a coach. I think the most important thing is that players have faith in the coach’s plan and play. Because whatever plan I have, if the players don’t have faith, skills and concentration to follow, then it will never work. Players are the protagonists, so a coach chooses the right players to play the basketball he wants.” About whether the nagging works as a charm: “I don’t know if it works as a charm. Surely the nagging made me the player I became and now the coach that I thus convince and motivate the players to do the impossible-powerful. I want to say thank you to all my associates. I’m not the easiest person. I’m pushy. They’re here every day from morning until afternoon, working with the players, showing them videos, making them individual. And a big thank you to the administration that whatever I have asked is next to me and supports me.” About the fact that he was his mother on the field: “My mother to me has said many times that he is both a mother and a father. As you all know, I lost my father 15. To me he’s a role model. I always have her next to me, she always supports me. He even advises me now. And, as I have said, thank you very much because – I have said many times – that I was not born in a belly, but in a basketball. I love basketball. I have two great loves, family and basketball and I am very happy and blessed for it.” For the fact that Galis at the 1987 EuroBasket after winning over Italy that it was the biggest victory until the next. And if he imagines that she is the biggest until the next: ‘For us and me it is a great moment. But I am a man who steps both feet on earth. So is the team. Like we’re not disappointed and we don’t give up when things don’t work out, either when we started with 0-3 in a league and Top-16, so now we won’t fly in the clouds, nor say we did something terrible. Other games follow. All this we’ll put on the scales at the end of the year to judge the season. From there on it is very important for the team’s psychology and the entire city’s to be in the 8 best groups of the BCL and to be heard again in Europe, to come out in the spotlight. They are an historic group and deserve it”. On whether Peristeri is a team – Spanoulis in culture: “Every team has the mindset of the coach. From there it is the Dove’s team, the pride of the city. Like basketball, football, pole, academies, it’s important that they progress. Surely with the success of basketball the whole section is advertised.” For the Olympic Games of 2024 and the possibility of qualified National Greece: “I wish to go. That’s what all Greeks want. To unite, to be all together, to represent our ideals and our country in the way that we count as Greeks.” About how hard he was to make two good teams in two years, last year and this year: “It’s too hard. They’re players that before I came to the Dove I didn’t know because I was in another event. I had to look too much, see too much VIDEO. My associates should look, find chemistry. It’s not very easy players we need to come to the Dove. The team did not then have the flash that starts and gets now and will certainly now be easier to approach a player. I’m sure we had to talk to every player, explain the plan, the process and convince him to understand that we’re honest and we want to do something great here. I want to thank the administration of the Dove for enabling me to start my coaching career here and show what I want and I can do. I still have too much to give. Not me, my players, because – I say again – they are the protagonists. We are here talking about tactics, inspiring them, advising them, raising them, supporting them. But players play and – I will always say that – they are the protagonists.”