Pedoulakis: “Radonic is working on the principles of the team, it will be a long and difficult road”

Without hiding and conscious of the difficult task ahead of the team, KAE Panathinaikos technical director Argyris Pedoulakis spoke at the Green Party media day about the newly created squad, the many young and inexperienced Greek players in it and them are the next generation of Greek basketball, as well as the borrowed foreign players who it is hoped will become role models for the younger generation.

At the same time, he emphasized that Panathinaikos’ work this season is not easy, but he has full confidence in the team’s new coach, Dejan Radonic.

The statements of Argiris Pedoulakis at the Panathinaikos Media Day in detail:

“We have formed a new team and our goal is to bring health to the court and to the Panathenaic and Greek authorities of basketball. I think we’ve strayed a bit from that. We’ve built a team of foreign players who are competitive but also aim to be role models for youngsters. We have the next generation of Greek basketball and we’re trying to take these kids to the EuroLeague and we want our foreigners to be a role model for them.

Our big problem last season was lack of competitiveness and that’s non-negotiable. It’s going to be a very difficult year this year because the young Greeks we have in our squad have no experience. We will eat and wood and difficult evenings will come. We must be patient to keep them within Panathenaic principles, ie low heads and much work. We’re trying to create the context, telling them the truth that we’re behind and you have to work hard to be at the highest level of competition.

It depends on us in the shocks and how strong we will be. We ask our people to be patient to allow the team to get back on track and get back to where the team name is required. It’s going to be a long and difficult road and I want them to judge us harshly, but at the end of the year.”

On the squad changes, the new coach and the Greek players: “There is an issue with producing Greek players at the level they should be. There are no intermediate teams and you go straight from elementary school to university and because of that many children have been lost. We tell them earlier that they belong there. The EuroLeague is a very closed player club. You must be very strong physically and mentally. They have 80 games a year and they have to know that they have to be mentally very strong.

We have chosen a man who works very hard, we will support this effort. He’s working on the principles of the team and our new guys have to either go that route or the exit. We will see our team, how the players react and decisions will be made when necessary. We’re here to introduce the guys who are already here. We see the shortcomings and try to fill in the gaps.”