Pharmaceutical tycoon Pavlos Yannakopoulos, the laurels of the current European champion, Moscow CSKA, are clearly haunted. Last summer, the president of Panathinaikos did not spare the money earned by his very lucrative business for the purchase of basketball stars of the first magnitude. You can understand the rich Greek - next spring Athens will host the Euroleague Final Four, and the Yannakopoulos team simply has no right to miss the basketball event. Moreover, the head of the club expects from Zhelko Obradovich and his wards not just getting into the quartet of the best teams of the continent, but overthrowing the Moscow army from the basketball throne.
Everything necessary that one president can do for the club, Giannakopoulos did: over two months, the ranks of the “greens” were replenished by half a dozen real masters, after which they started talking about “Panathinaikos” as candidate No. 1 for the Cup, which now lives on Leningradsky Prospekt. The Pao transfer season opened with the purchase of Ramunas iškauskas, who won the Italian championship last season with Benetton. Following the light striker from Lithuania, the Athenians wrote out the fourth issue of Dimos Dikudis, known to Russian fans for playing for CSKA under Dushan Ivkovic, from the Valencian Pamesa. Then the transitions of the overall Lithuanian center center Robertas Javtokas (ex- “Lietuvos Rytas”) and the attacking defender from Slovenia Sani Bechirovich (“Klimamio”, Italy) followed. One of the key purchases of last summer is considered to be 32-year-old Detroit defender Tony Delka, who signed a contract with the Greens on August 9.
Finally, the last acquisition of “Pao” was Serbian point guard Milos Vujanic, who spent the season in the Spanish “Barcelona”.
While Obradovic’s “punitive expedition” has been working almost without a glitch - the greens twice (in the Cup and the Greek championship) were knocked out the Olympiacos worst enemy in the Euroleague in four consecutive wins, and in the national championship in six matches stumbled only once, sensationally losing a away rookie championship, “Olympics” from Patra.
Find out first-hand what is happening in the camp of the Athenians these days, the Belgrade Internet correspondent B92 tried with the newly made Serbian playmaker "green". Vuyanich’s star rose early in the basketball horizon: the pupil of “Red Star” won his first home trophies as part of a principled rival - “Partizan”. In the debut season, in a black and white T-shirt (2001/02), Vuyanich and his partners made a double - the Cup and the championship. The talented first number was closely watched over the ocean and in the summer of 2002, “New York” chose it in a draft under the 34th number. The brilliant parties of Vujanic did not go unnoticed by the head coach of the national team of Serbia and Montenegro Svetislav Pesic - it was Vujanic who, in less than 22 years, began the attacks of the wards of Pesic, who finally destroyed the myth of the invincible Dream Team at the 2002 World Cup. If anyone forgot, the Serbs of the Americans in Indianapolis not only deprived of a chance to compete for gold, but also sent to play humiliating places for the hosts from 5th to 8th - such is the price of quarter-final failures.
In the rank of world champion, Vuyanich played another season at Partizan, becoming the best Euroleague-2002/03 sniper (25.8 points on average per match), after which he signed a contract with the Italian Fortitudo (now Klimio). Career in the Apennines went uphill before the ill-fated match in the quarterfinal of the playoffs of the Italian championship against Roseto: a severe knee injury, a long pause and the transition in the summer of 2005 to Barcelona. Recovery was slow, and when Vuyanich finally put on a blue-pomegranate shirt, the evil rock overtook him again - his knee could not stand it, the doctors noted a repeated rupture of the cruciate ligaments. The player could not escape another absenteeism from basketball. And suddenly - an invitation to "Pao"! Zeljko Obradovic, who knew a lot about the first issues (not without reason when he was a player himself, played this role), and well aware of the talent of Vujanic, who played with him in the Serbian team at the European Championships 2003 and OI-2004, asked Yannakopoulos to write out a restored playmaker from the Catalan capital . Vuyanich’s contract with the Greens is designed for three years, and due to the exhaustion of foreigners in his debut season in Pao, he is likely to only play in the strongest tournament, the Euroleague. About the upcoming “final of four”, rivalry with Olympiacos, which had not yet been a career in the NBA, and the refuseniks of the Serbian national team, Vujanic told B92. SPORT Today publishes player responses to the most interesting questions.
“You’ve been at Panathinaikos since the summer.” How is the adaptation going in a team that is preparing to win all the trophies this season?- I must admit that first impressions are beyond expectations. Panathinaikos is a great club organized at the highest level. In Athens, he has only spent a month and is very pleased with everything.
- Does not the current situation seem strange to you, in which you have to play only in Euroleague matches? After all, you’re used to being on the first roles in any team, spending an average of 35-40 minutes on the court. On the other hand, “Pao” is one of the Euroleague favorites and this gives an additional incentive, right?- “Final Four” will be held in Athens, while Olympiacos and Panathinaikos are among the narrow circle of applicants for victory in the Euroleague, whose main goal of the season is to win the title of continental champion. Both teams are very strong. The Olympiacos of the map was confused by the heavy injury of Matsiuskas, but we are not too interested in this. The “Panathinaikos” consists of 15 players of approximately the same skill level, and all 15 are in rotation. In my opinion, this will become our main advantage over competitors. Our trump card is high pace. I really will start the season with performances in the Euroleague. In the championship of Greece, “Pao” brute force foreign players - instead of the five legionaries laid down in the regulations, we have six. Will I be redundant or someone else, I do not know yet. We’ll see ... I haven’t been on the site for more than a year, and maybe for the better I’ll miss the championship of Greece, I can easily enter the rhythm of the game. At this stage, I do not expect that I will spend 25 - 35 minutes on the floor. My main goal is to catch my rhythm. When this happens, and I’ll stop thinking about the knee.
- Back to the Euroleague and its favorites. The biggest money is again in Greece, but CSKA, Barcelona, Maccabi have huge budgets. Who will win in the end?- I would really like for Panathinaikos to reach the finals. Here people live only by this. The president of the club, the fans, all dream only of winning the Athens Final Four. As for the forecasts, it is perhaps too early to talk about the favorites, since only a few rounds have passed.
- How is your health? It is probably very difficult to deal with problems for so long. You got the same ligament injury twice. You still have the strength - especially the fortitude - to return to big basketball? Playing at the highest level is not easy, but, probably, watching the matches from the bench is not easier?- That's right. It’s much easier to score, even in the last second of a match, than to watch it from the rostrum. But what can you do? I got into trouble, I was excommunicated from basketball for more than a year. The psychological state is excellent - I must have used up the stock of all the absurdities that fall to the athlete. After all, I played 10 years without respite, in clubs, in teams of different levels, and during all this time I have never received at least one serious injury. Now I got two, and both are heavy ... I hope the next 10 years will be lucky again, as before. Last year I trained twice a day! I had to do boring, monotonous exercises, but what can you do is an integral part of my work. Now I’m training already with the team, I’ve terribly missed basketball and am slowly returning.
- For many boys you served as an example of a basketball player who, unlike many young players, did not go overseas headlong, although you had a chance to do it. Today you do not regret this decision, or didn’t you go to the NBA for nothing?- He has performed and continues to perform in great European clubs. I have never regretted that I did not go to the NBA. Injury could overtake me there too. My plans did not include moving to America at all costs, I wanted to play for 30-35 minutes, win trophies, score important goals. Other things along the way would come along, such as big money. I didn’t want to sit on the spare bench of any NBA club (as a result, the Nyx lost their rights to Vuyanich to Phoenix - B.Sh.), wave a towel, cheer for the team, staying in reserve, and make 82 air flights per season. I wanted new challenges, trials, hard matches. I do not regret the decision. Moreover, it’s too early to say goodbye to the NBA. Who knows what lies ahead? If health does not fail me, and everything goes as it should, maybe I’ll go overseas. But, I repeat, only when the right time comes. I don’t want to sit on my bench for three years, this prospect does not interest me.
- The NBA and Europe are two worlds approaching each other, especially when it comes to European grandees in which you happened to play. The difference between Europe and America continues to decline?- She's getting smaller. This was demonstrated by recent matches of Euroleague participants with NBA clubs. In fairness, I note that these were friendly games, but I think that from year to year the distance will be reduced further. You see how many Europeans left for the USA and almost a third of them play the leading roles in clubs there. I played in Italy, Spain, Greece, whose championships are the strongest in Europe, and I think that the Spanish ACB is the strongest of all the national championships, and besides, it is perfectly organized. Greece is slowly waking up, again the interest of fans in the game is growing, the number of teams setting themselves serious tasks is increasing.
- Let's talk about the national team. It’s not possible to cling to the medal and adequately perform at major tournaments (after winning the 2002 World Cup, the national team of Serbia and Montenegro failed all four major tournaments - European Championship 2003 and 2005, Olympic Games 2004, World Championship 2006 - B.Sh.). What's the matter?- A lot of bad things happened in the team, and I am very sorry that this is so. I can’t understand why the players receive so many refusals to invitations to play for the national team? This is our problem. At the same time, I’m watching what is happening in other teams - Nowitzki, Parker, Gasol for some reason no one begs to play for the national team. I met with Gasol in Spain before starting to prepare his team for the 2006 World Cup, and he could not wait for it to begin. I really do not understand what is happening with us. There are talents, they are all right. As for me personally, the only problem is injuries. If everything goes well, I will play in the national team for the next 7-8 years.
Boyan SHOCH