It was time for Panathinaikos to put the πίσω shame behind and catch another trophy! A troparion more pleasant and melodic than what has been heard several times this season, making him wrong himself …

So, continuing from the previous one: Last Friday, after the captivity suffered by Panathinaikos in Neos Faliros of Olympiacos, I reviewed the cases where Dimitris Priftis spoke of “shameful apparitions” and ended with a falsified moral dilemma. …

Shame there is no shame!

In its original version, the proverbial expression says that honor brings no honor and joy to those who have it λοιπόν Panathinaikos, fighting for altars and hearths last night and waving the banner of his honor, gave another dimension to this catchphrase…

Invaluable, learned, is pride!

So while Vassilis Logothetidis in the 1948 satirical film saw in his dream that the Germans were coming back, Andrea Trinkieri in his wake saw yesterday that the Greeks were coming back and making life very difficult for him!

A smile on Priftis’ lips

Due to the coronavirus I saw Priftis on TV and compared this picture to the one from last Thursday at Peace and Friendship Stadium. Find the differences as we say in the quizzes…

Then he was disheveled, he had discarded his jacket and tie, he was wearing his white shirt with a broken heart and said, “whatever it has to say, we will say it to each other“.

Yesterday a smile appeared on his lips and he would like to believe that this will not be frozen!

Even after the humiliating loss to Olympiakos, the escape from Rhodes on Sunday and yesterday’s win over Bayern Munich, the Panathinaikos coach could be proportionately entitled to follow in Rudy Tomjanovic’s footsteps…

“Don’t underestimate the heart of champions”

Standing in the middle of the field, so full of emotion, saying in his speech: “Never underestimate the heart of a champion”!

Of course, the case suffers significantly from the preordained contrast of situations, as the Rockets, who “wiped” the Magic and achieved the repeat that night of June 14, 1995, started from 6th place in the regular season, defending the scepters from the previous one

On the contrary, Panathinaikos has been on the Euroleague throne for eleven years, while a decade away from the Final Four that once had it for breakfast!

All of this is true, but as Americans say, it is a pity to leave a detail to spoil a beautiful story…

The story of this year’s Panathinaikos is not pretty, only yesterday’s performance made the monstrous picture of last Thursday so to speak…

snakes and ropes

After the match with Olympiakos, Priftis found himself cramped on the ropes and I imagine he was bitten by snakes and overcome with existential angst and questions like “where am I and what am I doing?”.

I don’t know if it even crossed his mind if and to what extent his decision to leave Kazan and take over Panathinaikos was right, but the fact, the fact…

I paraphrased that the odds a team loses are like the balls being thrown and the conversations being had: meaning they don’t go back!

And the defeats may be part of this conspiracy, especially within Panathinaikos, in a kind of alibi, consolation and motivation, the opinion has been cultivated in the last few days that broadcasting in SEF might do him good in the long run!

Self cleaning and Obradovic

That happened again to the six-time European champions, but also to most teams that have achieved self-cleansing through a crash and found themselves again…

This will of course be judged in due course, at the moment Panathinaikos have no choice but to work hard even if they play in training – to complete two foursomes – Vassilis Simtsak, Costas Charalambidis.

I don’t know why Priftis ignored his other collaborator, Isidoros Koutsos, in this report and didn’t say, among other things, whether he sometimes succumbs to Zeljko Obradovic’s temptation!

The Tambourines and the Elephant

He can take the ball and shoot, after all, as his old teammates and coaches describe him, he was a tabloid specialist!

Last Thursday, Priftis was extremely economical with his statements, after all, silence says everything in such cases!

He then declared that “whatever we have to say, we will say to each other” and here comes Obradovic again, who, after suffering heavy and embarrassing defeats, suppressed his players for hours, both on the field and in his room.

“Video never lies” to say the least!

I remember in December 1999, after a home loss to Alba, Zots kept the players on the field for nine hours and training became an ordeal…

I dried off for an interview he had given me and when he showed up I asked him if he was tired and wanted us to postpone it τησε He allegorically answered me with a Kikuyu proverb: “When the elephant fights the man, the fight doesn’t stop when the man is tired, but when the elephant is bored. Now sit down to conduct the interview“.

Albert and Diamantidis beer

Panathinaikos’ reorganization operation included other tools, such as the interventions of Frangiskos Albertis and Dimitris Diamantidis, as each of them is used to: the former spoke to the players in the dressing room before Priftis entered, while the latter attacked them alone in the dressing room.…

As it turned out last night, that chord worked and Panathinaikos emerged from the dark tunnel, even working with security guards due to his absence.

Ten players appeared, nine played (except for Vassilis Kavvadas) and four were absent: Ioannis Papapetrou, Stefan Jovic, Lefteris Bohoridis and Neoklis Avdalas…

Abdalas like Sarafis!

The three are injured, as for the kid he was on Monday with the kids and Tuesday with the teenagers of Panathinaikos who faced Peristeri in the first final of ESKA’s respective championships, which actually turned into a towing thrill.

The “sacrifice” did not go unnoticed, because in the presence of Abdalas, the Greens won by a point difference in overtime the day before yesterday and by two yesterday!

The charisma of Neoklis jokes like a glove in the old advertising of Sarafi shops.

“Sarafis in Trikala, Sarafis in Athens, Sarafis and in Paris”!

A few hours after the announcement of the acquisition of Alexandros Samodurov, Priftis was able to carry the intrigue that George Kalaitzis had previously spoken about to the extreme.

He would up it if he threw in Abdalas in the second period alongside Lefteris Mantzoukas and Nikos Hougaz playing together!

It’s going to happen anyway, it’s definitely a scene from the future…

pride and selfishness

After what happened in Neos Faliro, Panathinaikos had no choice but to play (first with Kolossos and then with Bayern) for their values ​​that go beyond playing conditions and goal requirements.

He goes on to talk about his jersey, honor, pride and selfishness, which often prove to be the strongest motivators.

The Greens changed their chip and, after three straight Euroleague defeats, achieved a victory that certainly does not enhance their position and status, but at least showed that they have a pulse, have reflexes, react and are not suffering from anesthesia!

From the numbers and the score alone, this performance can be commended here and there: the 80 points he scored and the 67 he received from Panathinaikos reward his efforts at both ends of the field, apart from the side effects in the Team and at the individual level…

They didn’t make her angry

The Greens controlled the game throughout, never turning their backs on Bayern, showing balance, avoiding obsidian transformations and asynchronous fluctuations in power, and showing character without panicking and getting upset about the game’s two critical circumstances 13 (53-40) they lay at +2 (53-51) and on the other hand at 65-64, whereupon they go with a series of 9-0 and… papala!

There are a number of other events that rightfully brought a smile to Priftis’ face: the performance of Lefteris Mantzoukas and his promising simultaneous presence in the top 5 with Nikos Hougaz in the second half, the smooth and structured basketball, the defensive reactions, the number of goals and the fact that his team was not attached to Nemanja Nedovic.

Nedovic’s Rosary and the Sand Ross Orchestra

Of course – to put it bluntly – as the milk tightened (as the pardoned Makis Dendrinos used to say), the Serbian guard took the ball, made it…a rosary in his hands, laid down nine accumulated points and cleared the laundry .

They also left their mark as the game progressed and finally put the green train on the road to success: Daryl Macon as the top scorer (18), Okaro White, who doubled his average and got his blood back for the defeats, fatal shots in Munich, the imposing George Papagiannis as the best rebounder (14) and Leonidas Kaselakis as the unexpectedly best passer (5).

I purposely left the last one on this list who was named MVP at the end of the day: Howard Sant Ross, who did everything in both defense, which is his specialty, and in offense, and he was indeed a orchestra player!

With this and that Panathinaikos let out a sigh of relief and this Wednesday night Priftis will sleep without nightmares like last Thursday…