It happened that Olympiacos faced Fenerbahce in the city on the last day of January and it came together.

On the 31st of the first month of 1985 Elena Paparizou was born in Buros, Sweden (where, by the way, the national team played in the EuroBasket A stage in 2003) Elena Paparizou, who after twenty years in Kyiv catapulted Greece to Greece’s No. 1 for the first time Euro Vision Contest.

And with what song? I want you here Master! With “My Number One” that the people of Piraeus give him and he understands!

Absent, he says, Slukas and Vezenkov, so what?

Statistically Olympiakos’ top two players are Sasha Vezenkov and Kostas Slukas, right? Correctly! True but… false if and because some like unfaithful Thomas believed that the dynamism and perspective of the three European champions begins and ends with them.

That’s what my papers say, too, as the pardoned Dimitris Tsovolas called out from the Parliament hall in support of his word.

The Bulgarian forward, who is obviously the big favorite to win the regular-season MVP title, did not feature against Panathinaikos in OAKA. And what is with this? Olympiacos went through like a siphon and won by an emphatic 95-71 score.

The Thessaloniki Guard missed away games against Virtus and Fenerbahce. So what; Olympiacos stayed alive in the thriller of Bologna, parading around the city yesterday in two by definition difficult games where, in theory, the presence of Slukas would be essential to control the pace, keep the ball safe and all at the same time.

“Pumpkin Legs“, which Makis the doctor also says.

He doesn’t even need… Bartzokas

I’m laughing now as I write this, and besides, I hope that Giorgos Bartzokas doesn’t misunderstand me and doesn’t feel sorry for me, but with the violin his team carries it can (according to Slukas and Vezenkov) be superfluous as well as presence !

After all, on June 19, 2017, the then President of the EEC, Giorgos Vasilakopoulos, indirectly but clearly said so when he commented on the fact that the national team has no coach.

My joke aside, all of this leads to one conclusion: Olympiacos is indeed a chameleon that can change colors and lions and adapt to the conditions of the environment it lives in!

We came out of the blue one night

Yesterday the Piraeus (I think) finished it off, spreading shock and awe across the European basketball country because damn it’s no small feat to stomp against Fenerbahce at home and lose 20 points on their head.

Twenty, that’s actually 47, including the 94-67 he trampled her with on December 13 at Neo Faliro.

Just kidding because before Olympiacos’ triumph over Dimitris Itoudis’ Fenerbahce was preceded by AEK’s win over Andreas Pistiolis’ Galatasaray, also in Istanbul, Ilias Kanzouris and Giorgos Bartzokas sent Tayyip Erdogan an ordeal.

They actually came suddenly one night!

The scary game

Yesterday – and not for the first time this season – Olympiakos’ game was everything: both boisterous (see 93 points), dominant and boisterous (with six players scoring double figures), spectacular and truly spooky!

Scaring people and locals alike with his performance, he appears to be saving himself for what follows, which he will meet at his home the day after tomorrow, where he will receive Anatolou Efes, expecting the ‘Sultan”s threatening words to not backfire on him!

This is a big game indeed, not only because it’s a rescheduled rehash of the dramatic semifinals at Final 4 in Belgrade, but because the Reds and Whites are challenged and need to redeem and capitalize on yesterday’s win.

The added value

If they also cast Anatolian Efes on the canvas, it is clear that they will reap the given added value of their triumphant victory over the other Cappadocians. One is the prisoner, but there’s also a second: the fat that they add to their body and will be very useful to them later, and to pursue home field advantage and not first place with all that that entails in the playoffs.

So Slukas was absent yesterday. Also missing on a night when Vezenkov failed to hit his mark (12 points from his 19.9 average) was Alec Peters instead. However, Kostas Papanikolaou and Isaiah Kanan were present and very insistent.

The “Two Cups” by Papanikolaou

They totaled 41 points, more than triple their combined average this season, and that says a lot and suggests even more.

Papanikolaou, as Bartzokas correctly put it, is a player with two Euroleague trophies under his belt. ‘Two trophies’, as (then Panathinaikos coach) Zeliko Pavlišević said thirty years ago as he defended his possessions, history and reputation in the face of stormy negative criticism.

Kanan doesn’t have two Euroleagues, he’s already won one EuroCup (with Unics Kazan), but he’s a player who, along with talent, has a big ego.

He felt like we were making his love dizzy while he was in crisis and even scenarios were floating around his replacement, but he made sure he changed his chip at the right time and became who he was meant to be.

Rivers Kanan and “Kolotoomba”.

Whether he will even become a modern David Rivers remains to be seen in due course. I’m writing this from knowledge and memory: During the 1996/97 season Rivers fluctuated in his performance and this fact didn’t allow Olympiakos to find consistency in his game.

Petros Kostopoulos appeared on “NITRO” radio every morning and “Kolotoumpa” brought him up, “Kolotoumpa” brought him down! History began to be written differently, ending with Olympiacos being proclaimed Roman Emperor when the resigned Duda put Milan Tomic in the starting XI alongside himself.

Bartzokas needn’t take such a step: Kanan has the tool called Walkup by his side, and the two did the job beautifully and impastoly. No cat, no damage or rather (as for yesterday’s game) no Slukas and no damage!