The right to try, the right to even fail

There is still one game left until the final of the first round of the EuroLeague and the championship is divided into three courses.

In the first there is a group. 15:1 Real Madrid, the European champions, who are four wins ahead of their pursuers.

There are at least 14 teams in the second, probably 15, and Zalgiris has been looking better lately. Barcelona and Virtus Bologna have 11 wins, behind them are seven teams (Partizan, Fenerbahce, Valencia, Baskonia, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Panathinaikos, Monaco) at 9-7 and Olympiakos, Bayern Munich, Anatolou Efes and Armani Milano are fighting for it the top ten. Some with more opportunities, some with fewer.

In the third game, Alba Berlin and Villerban are out for another season, the poor relatives who, when they punch and punch you in the trunk, do damage that is almost impossible to repair.

As the season progresses, the three speeds become four. As is usually the case.

If Panathinaikos and Olympiacos win the games against Red Star (home) and Alba Berlin (away), they will complete the first round of the competition with 10-7 and 9-8 respectively. In other words: a positive balance.

The eternals of Greek basketball began the season with the goal of winning the championship. At the beginning of the year, people let her down. He recovered quickly. And he was disappointed again. Because that’s the way the fan thinks, it goes up easily and is even easier to lower again. There is no balance between winning and losing. It’s hard to understand that it doesn’t matter whether you win by one point or 20. So does the scope for defeat.

The EuroLeague is getting harder and harder, more and more unforgiving and everyone needs to understand that Panathinaikos and Olympiacos are not the only ones playing basketball.

The red-whites’ home defeat against Valencia and the 56 points in attack created an explosive atmosphere in the SEF. For the first time in a long time, disapproval, a “cloud” that had no reason to be in the stands, especially when it comes to a team that has done everything in recent years. With her philosophy she reached two Final Fours, last year she reached the final and held the European Champion trophy in her hand with a score of 39:57.

Vezenkov’s departure and Sluka’s move to the other side created a climate of doubt and a need for many people to feel vindicated. Bartzokas and his colleagues made their decisions, they wanted something more with Mike James, Kendrick Nunn, Nikola Mirotic, they didn’t succeed and they thought it was better to support the children with whom they reached the top of Europe. At Olympiakos they have a philosophy, they have a plan, they see a cycle that is not closed and they refrain from discounts, although the Brazdeikis takeover may have been like that.

Olympiacos didn’t become a mediocre team overnight. She remains one of Europe’s best, even if she struggles to score with ease. The opposing coaches say it, the opposing players say it, and ultimately three months into the season and there are still about five months to go.

The fund will not be made available in December. The fund will be made available in June and at Olympiakos they have earned the right to work and try without being surrounded by inarticulate screams. And if you will, they have earned the right to fail. And failure is part of the game. And if at some point you no longer have the strength to climb to the top of a mountain, you don’t have to risk it. You can return to your base, work and try again.

With the return of McKissick, the only player with an offensive vertical game on the roster, George Bartzokas now has a lot more depth on his bench. The operation of the second unit was an issue in the first months of the season, Filip Petrusev was added, Naz Mitrou-Long will also be added in the next few days, so Olympiacos has both good material and a large rotation to deal with any situation, to be equal to every opponent and every condition.

What is important now is that certain players avoid injuries. In particular the fragile Nigel Williams-Goss, who put in solid performances even when healthy. And from then on they will find rhythm, chemistry and form in Olympiakos, because the quality is there, the automation is the same. Whether that’s enough for another Final Four will be seen in about four months. However, the top four are just one win away from the 11th place Piraeus currently finds itself in.

At Panathinaikos, however, the 2/2 in the devil’s week was a result that can change the team’s entire season. The Greens “stole” the game with Marius Grigonis in Monte Carlo, survived with Kendrick Nunn in Milan and return to their stadium to welcome the dangerous Red Star, which is not… Real Madrid.

It is important for Ergin Ataman that he has now found the formations that can do the work for him and that with the return of Juancho Hernangomet he can also refresh the overworked Dino Mitoglou.

Grant, Slukas and Nunn dominate the guards, with Luka Vildosa now the fourth choice but has accepted his role and will step in when needed. Ataman often plays in three-man formations, Grigonis, who had one foot on the exit, has become an extremely valuable unit and Matias Lessor remains the focal point of the game. A Kostas Antetokounmpo, a Balcerovski provide quality minutes and life has become much nicer compared to the everyday life that existed a few weeks ago.

The double at SEF was the deciding factor and as Ataman says: If you can win there, you can win anywhere. The next step is for the Turkish coach to convince his stars that they will have 3-4 shots one night and 11-12 shots the next night. They should accept it for the good of the team, they should always be ready and they should also invest the energy they invest in attack in defense, because everyone knows what separates the great teams from the simply good teams.

When we wrote about the “sexy Panathinaikos” after the Rhodes tournament in the middle of last September, many took a screenshot and took to social media to contribute every negative result. What people need to understand, no matter how obvious it is, is that a season lasts nine months, not a week or two. A team is not judged by one or two results, but by their overall performance during the year.

Of course everyone does their job. The journalist evaluates and judges, the fan reacts and, in the age of social media, tries to influence the masses and assert himself in the most aggressive way. At the same time, in OAKA and SEF, there are two organizations that spy on each other, work with enormous and even unfair pressure, try to keep the two largest Greek teams in the elite of Europe, and they have no right to Gela.

Panathinaikos and Olympiacos are not (perhaps yet) at the level of Real Madrid. They are boiling in the same cauldron as a dozen teams and have the right to try. You also have the right to fail. As harsh as it may sound, they have the right to fail because their opponents are not the A1 teams, but the crème de la crème of Europe.