Greece - Jurica Golemac in Superbasket

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Few hours after the triumph of Panellinios in Kipseli on Panathinaikos, the interlocutor on the other side of the phone line, says: “Don’t bother. The best player was Golemac. The guy did it all inside the court, passed along, gathered rebounds, played defense, took places”… This confession was enough. On Monday morning, Golemac, the most valuable player of the 6th game was drinking his ... “coffee of joy” along with his son in Galatsi’s cafeteria…

“If I remember correctly I had never before wined Panathinaikos and Obradovic in an official game… during my carrier” he answered in a relative question, admitting however, that… “That was never in my mind. Neither the presence of Zots nor the fact of not winning against Panathinaikos before, had bothered me as a motive. Now that you mention it however, it has fun, it is an interesting statistical element”.

“Six months ago o Croatian journalist had called me and I told him that… “Unfortunately I discovered Greek basketball very late”… Yes, that’s what I told him… By that I mean that I find the situation in Panellinios exceptional and globally the championship is very appreciable. I love the fact that the teams are composed by lots of Greek players and minimal Americans. It is a benediction for me but also for this country’s basketball. The teams have a European philosophy, represents the basketball I like. It has nothing to do with Israel of France, where I have played and the Americans are more that the Europeans in each team. But the most important is that here in Greece I like the people, a lot. That’s why I said to the journalist from my country that I discovered Greece very late”. In any case, the affair “homeland”, as evident it may be for him so much coli were for the rest of us his nationality matter. And this matter leads to his biggest driving back… “Ok it is normal for someone to perplex. Therefore I will explain it. I’m Croatian from birth, which at some moment happened to find himself in Slovenia and take the citizenship. I have also played for the National Team of Slovenia” said Juri, however the broth is below…In the question if he misses, at least the last years his attendance in the National Slovenian team… As a minimal reward for the appearances that he had in the past years and especially in Ural Perm… “I don’t miss the National team of Slovenia. I said from the beginning that I’m Croatian and the only thing I miss is the fact that I never wore the vest of my country, Croatia. At some moment we tried to find a solution but it was impossible, since I had attendances with Slovenia”. A manlike statement, even more from a person whose face in Slovenia has been placed even in …phone-cards of the National Organization of Telecommunications.

Let us pass however to the game against Panathinaikos: “To tell you the truth, even we couldn’t believe that we could win Panathinaikos in such way. We had and still have confidence in our power and ourselves, but I wasn’t expecting that” said the Croatian-Slovenian and added: “The whole team played amazingly. Kalaitzis was super, took all the right decisions, Manolis played for ten minutes and scored possessed points, Radenovic was astonishing. They were all super”.

And added: “At Giorgo’s hat, few minutes before the expiry I realized that we will win this game. No way could we lose. I should say however that during the whole ten-minute-time I had the sense that we were in complete control of the game and it was difficult to lose it. We didn’t fear of the victory for a single moment and we were ready to win. That is the small team’s problem; they don’t believe they can win a big opponent until the last minutes. We believed that. Because we know we have a good team, a very good team”.

His last word was about Ilias Zouros: “Don’t ask of my opinion. Of course it is the best possible. He was the reason I came to Greece, since he was my coach in Paris and he asked me to follow him in Greece. He is an astonishing coach and I respect him very much. And he is permanently evolving, which I like the most”.