Spanoulis scored 31, all the Americans – 0 points for Olympiacos!
This is the greatness of Greek basketball. To have players like Vassilis Spanoulis, Georgios Printezis, Kostas Papanikolau and so on who won’t disappoint the club. Of course, I have to mention here Dimitris Diamantidis, Theo Papaloukas, Kostas Sloukas and dozen others Greek legend who made history in the Euroleague.
But let’s get back to Spanoulis who at the beginning of the season took the decision to continue the race in spite of his age. He had at least a last a mission to accomplish: stealing the Euroleague scoring title from another legendary player, Juan Carlos Navarro. And he did it already. So he could relax, but he made history once again. Because he is a fighter and fighters don’t die! Many people said that is time to retire, that he won’t do much at almost 38 years old, that he had enough. But he proved he is more clutch than ever scoring last night at Zenit Sankt-Petersburg 31 points, having 5/5 at 2 pointers, 5/7 from the arc and 6/9 at the free-throws with 7 assists for a huge 33 index rate.
But a fact that nobody observed – or almost nobody – is that last night only 4 Greek players and the Serbian big man Nikola Milutinov scored during the whole game. Spanoulis had 31, Papanikolau and Printezis both – 20, Vezenkov – 7 and Milutinov – 9 points. Antonios Koniaris and other 4 Americans finished scoreless. They finished with 0/10 at 2 points range and 0/9 from the arc for -18 at index rate! Imagine that the whole Olympiacos had 92 at efficiency value, while Spanoulis, Papanikolau, Printezis, Vezenkov, Milutinov together 110. So, the rest of the team decreased a lot the whole index rate, something unbelievable.
This is a lesson to learn for entire Europe: grow your own players, focus on local talents, not on American mercenaries that are so praised in many stupid countries and in the end they suffocate European basketball, lowering the level with their chaotic and useless style!
Photo: Euroleague
Gratian Cormos
