Vassilis Spanoulis: “My wife learns French, I’m ready for Euroleague”

He is preparing for his debut as her coach and said ready for the first challenge of his second career at Euroleauge. In an interview with the Euroleague channel, Vassilis Spanoulis revealed the reasons he accepted Monaco’s proposal, but also that his wife, Olympia Hopsonidou had begun to learn French, long before his collaboration with the Monegascus. Spanoulis’ statements About whether he is already learning French : “Not yet, I am not ready. I’ll try to find out. My wife has been learning French for the past year, not knowing I’m coming to France. So she’s ready to speak French”. On whether he missed the event: “I missed him. It’s the best event ever. A lot of great coaches, players, organizations, so it’s the best league. I was a player for many years and my goal when I started coaching was to come to Euroleague. I am ready for Euroleague”. About whether it was important to prove his ability and not go to Euroleague because of his name : “Always so. I started low, worked hard, I was humble and tried to accomplish everything with my job.” About what convinced him to say “yes” to Monaco : “The way the owner and general manager approached me was very good. I liked it. They’re people with motive. I love the team roster. They are very athletic, players motivated to make a good course in the Euroleague and the French championship. I like having players with experience and young people. I like that in my teams. Great potential. I don’t generally like going somewhere in the middle of the season, it’s hard to spread your philosophy, especially when you have so many games every day. It is difficult for players to adapt to new systems, new philosophy. We have to go slow. We have many games in line, so we will try with my staff to do the best work to keep them ready.” For which coaches he modeled : “There are many coaches from whom I took things. I was fortunate to work with two of the best in the history of Euroleague, Mr Obradovic and Mr Ivkovic. But also with Coach Giannakis at Maroussi, in my first season at the National, Coach Bartzokas, Coach Sfairopoulos, Coach Blatt, all coaches. You must have an open mind and gain something from everyone. But at the end of the day it’s my philosophy, my way. I’m lucky to have had so many experiences with terrible coaches and now I can put my evidence and be myself in my teams. But don’t talk too much about me, because I don’t play, the players play and they are the stars of the game.” How important it is that he has players who already know his philosophy (Kalathis- Papagiannis) : “It is very important because they can tell the other players in the locker room. It is very important that they help others understand what I want and adapt early. That’ll be great. The most important thing for me is to give the club an identity, the team and have a winning mentality, to be organized. Groups that have identity and work hard every day get what they deserve.” For Mike James : “It is an honor to coach him. He is one of the best, if not the best, Euroleague players and in the last 20 years he needs this trophy, he needs a conquest to go to the next level. He’s a winner, leader. He has a lot of influence on the team. He has a good character. I don’t know what they’re saying about Mike, but I didn’t see anything. He’s good for the team and that’s what I want from him.” How important is respect between players and coaches: “In life when you want respect you must first respect others. You earn respect, you don’t get respect. The records are for breaking, I’m so glad Mike broke my record. He deserved it. I hope he keeps scoring and creating for the team.” For his first experience as coach at Next-Gen tournament : “With children it is different but it was the first time I realized I like being coach. I always think as a coach, always helping my teammates, being one step ahead, how I can help my teammates, evolve them, make them happy, how we can play better. I always think about basketball 24 hours a day. That’s why I lost my hair. This is my life. Family and basketball are everything to me.” For his debut against Panathinaikos and his first game against Olympiacos : “Every game is important in Euroleague. The most important thing for me right now is to give my philosophy to the team, adapt the players and enjoy basketball. At the end of the day if you don’t enjoy playing basketball, playing defense, playing offense, playing team is the worst. That’s what we love, we’re lucky to be doing our hobby for work and that players live by it. So they must enjoy it but at the same time show loyalty, discipline, will always work every day to become better. For me, the most important thing now is to build an identity that will help us in the future to win many victories. And we certainly want to win every game, but now I have to see the players, see the mentality I want.”