The Ephemeral Joy of the Five Star Bartzokas

So Olympiacos got it… He (also) lifted this… trophy, as Yiannis Ioannidis once – in his heyday – described the Cup Winners’ Cup to annoy the PAOK fans!

I’m writing this on purpose and I don’t really mean it, as a Greek proverb says: “he collected even when he ate»!

Giorgos Bartzokas also said it on purpose when Nikos Karagiorgis held out the ERT mic for him after the end of the final…

Of course, he didn’t call the Super Cup “Cup”, but he did point out the element that in this case makes for the natural…

“I don’t know how important this title is» he confessed, to then give his reflection a clearer dimension …

“It’s fine for tonight»!

A love for summer and the Pentare of Bartzokas

“A fleeting joy“, according to what Demis Nikolaidis said about the championship that AEK failed to win in his day…

H-to go along with the old song, and because this particular era blows the wind,”a love for summer»!

All of this, of course, falls within the realm of winemaking philosophy, in contrast to Barzokas’ achievement, which elevates him to a pre-eminent position in coaching heaven…

Heck, there aren’t many of his peers who can claim titles in the quintuple realm: Euroleague Trophy, Intercontinental Cup, Championship, Cup and Super Cup, apart from the fact that he’s won all five with the same team. .

I got tired of looking for it at night, but Bartzokas, who has already surpassed Yannis Sfairopoulos’ streak since last season, has another performance that speaks even to the motivation of the “Gavrons” …

I mean the eight wins in a row against Panathinaikos: eight in a row after Nedovics… November and possibly the count goes on…

Papanicolaou opened Buffet’s way

In the meantime, I’m roasting because I’ve got over 300 words and haven’t even mentioned the main event of the evening…

Admittedly, any title is sacred to any team (especially if it’s their first time tackling it), but I dare say that last night in Kallithea, Rhodes, time stood still at the moment of the award.. .

The moment captain Kostas Papanikolaou died to overtake the team’s sporting director Christos Bafes, who is already the second oldest member of the team after caretaker Dimitris Paschopoulos, to become the “first berry in cancer”.

It’s not the first time in the annals of Greek basketball that a captain has invited someone over to share the joy, emotion and pride of the moment…

Most of them have done so in the past, but Papanikolaou was the first to invite not a teammate but an administrative official to dedicate the trophy to him after the long and difficult health adventure he went through.

For anyone who asks him”How are you?’ Buffett replies: “I still have a way to go“, but I think that after the moving and frightening move of Papanikolaou, this path is more passable…

That unfair by Lorentzakis and the… Chiots of Spain

By the time the last horn sounded and the score was 67-52 in Olympiakos’ favour, the infamous ‘coolest players’ had gone to work to calm tensions caused by the choice of Giannoulis Larentzakis for the game’s final attack …

He was insulted (as far as I could see on TV) from the Panathinaikos bank, but the episode didn’t take on any major proportions…

Bartzokas had asked not to shoot, “Larry” broke the unwritten rule of fair play, apparently he saw his mistake and life goes on…

Life continues for Olympiakos on Friday (07/10) in Barcelona and for Panathinaikos the night before in OAKA (06/10) where they welcome Real Madrid in this two-day, two-front Greek-Spanish clash. but what happened before…

Just kidding, the Spaniards are killing us two by two as if they were Chios!!!

“Woe to the Losers”

In such cases, after victory and title win, the teams ensure a good mood and peace of mind!

At the same time, when it comes to a derby of the centuries, “vae victis” applies, as the Gallic general Brennus did in 390 BC. said cynically about the Romans…

So woe to the losers!

In this case, the defeated Greens saw Olympiakos snatch the only title they added to their already clumsy collection last year, but they know that any introversion must be fleeting when the enemy comes to town!

And after Fal, Tavares

The villain named Tavares!

I am deliberately isolating the center forward from Prasinos Akrotiri because Panathinaikos suffered yesterday (2/10) and by the end of the evening felt like a prisoner of his counterpart and almost equal, Mustafa Fal.

After all, all of this is done (it seems to me) so that Giorgos Papagiannis can work overtime!

On November 22, 2021, when Panathinaikos defeated Neo Faliro, the French center saw his double-double (17 points, 11 rebounds) go awry, but yesterday he got his blood back and was the sure pillar to build on – namely with strong and unshakable foundations – the victory of Olympiakos.

In the first game of last season, Sasha Vezenkov (19-10) also scored a double-double, continuing this streak throughout the season, as well as in the EuroBasket to reopen his account in yesterday’s final (12-11), however the one who cleaned up the laundry once and for all was Fal…

This time, the French center didn’t manage a double-double, but showed a different side of his (basketball) character by being the game’s leading passer with five assists.

The green basketball of the red chameleon

The 67-52 recorded in the final result reveals what (didn’t) happen…

It also shows the chameleonism of Olympiakos, who didn’t win with his own basketball, but with Panathinaikos’ basketball, making sure it was theirs!

If I confuse you a little, I hasten to explain what I mean…

If anyone had guessed that yesterday’s final would be scored below 70 points, many would have “bought” this information as a victory for Panathinaikos, especially since the semifinals with Kolossos were played and scored at the same level…

Appearances can be deceiving, however, and this is where the chameleon I mentioned earlier comes in, and it has to do with Olympiakos’ ability to support both rhythms and respond to both different playing styles.

He stayed at 67 points in his attack but also forced Panathinaikos to stay at 52, thus developing and ending this final which is already the start of the new season.

Ponitka mutation and Grigonis’ 0/9 shots

The way Olympiacos defended and ruined Panathinaikos in the third half suggested some form of basketball strangulation!

Suddenly, the 37-34 turned into a 47-36 and the match had no turning back for Panathinaikos while the newly recruited Ponitka went from a point guard to a power forward and a diving player and Grigonis weighed the…marriage of Karagiozis and his stubbornness in view of his quality in decision making and execution, he posted a vile 0/9 shooting!

The Piraeus defense spoiled more than percentages for the Greens’ minds, who became slow and predictable, while Bartzokas, unlike Radonic, saw his own players stick to the plan and spawned his partnerships and automations, although as usual they didn’t hit points in surprise.

The operation, the patient and “with pain”

Given the pace and the score, Panathinaikos realizes what is being said in such cases…

The operation was successful, but the patient screwed it up!

The six-time European champion slowed the pace and dropped the score, but didn’t survive as he thoroughly overplayed in the rebound fight, thwarted several close-range attempts and ran into Fal’s scarecrow, among other things.

With these and with that, Olympiacos have been bathed in the confetti of the first title of the season, Panathinaikos must make amends for their misdeeds and both see the Spaniards lurking in the corner.

Have a good season and end it with pain!

Watch the game night where Olympiakos wins the Super Cup