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“For me, we are an NBA team”, loose Ergin Ataman (Efes Istanbul) after the coronation in Euroleague

Ergin Ataman (Efes Istanbul coach after his team won the Euroleague final against Real Madrid): “Are we one of the greatest teams in the history of the Euroleague? You know my self-confidence (he laughs). For me, we are an NBA team! That’s how we dominated, that’s what we wanted to do, play like in the NBA. It is our identity. In these moments, I don’t want to talk too much about the game. I am proud of my players. I’m sorry for Real Madrid, but we have learned over the years to deal with these moments, the last minutes. In finals, offensive strategies rarely work, as you have seen tonight. It’s up to the big players to resolve the situations. We showed a big defense, solved the problem of offensive rebounds which had cost us too many points and finally found a way to conclude. I am proud of my players, who wrote the history of the club and our country once again. »

Adrien Moerman (Efes Istanbul) : “It’s not the best final we’ve seen. It was hard, there was a big defense on both sides, it was hot, you had to breathe in a room like that. When you play intense it’s not easy. In the end we were able to play more aggressive, leaving them less alley-oops for Walter Tavares who had dominated us in the first half. We push them to take bad shots at the end. Sometimes they pulled on a leg. We also knew how to control the rebound in the second half. The important thing, in the end, is to win. Tibor Pleiss takes two offensive rebounds at the end and puts in…

To be double European champion, it crowns these four years spent together. We had the merit, without playing our best game, of hanging on and making it happen. After that, whatever the future, we forget everything. We are still on the roof of Europe, Efes is the best Euroleague team over the last three years. It is magic. »

Vincent Poirier (Real Madrid) : “We are sad, we were not skilful. And yet we only end at one point! With skill, it would have been a different story. We conceded a lot of offensive rebounds, that’s what hurt us the most. At the end we can’t catch the ball to have a chance. I remain proud of the team because we fought, we made a big Final Four, we did not deserve, we showed that we were a solid team. Afterwards it’s on a match, congratulations to them, they won. Missed shots are part of the sport, we are human, we couldn’t make the difference in attack. Some shoots were open. 57 points scored, it’s not in our standards. I feel a lot of sadness. We showed it, we were really determined to bring this trophy home. »

Pablo Laso (Real Madrid coach): “After a defeat like that, from one point, you inevitably feel cursed, disgusted (“jodido” in Spanish). You replay the film of the last possessions in your head. I still congratulated our guys for the great Euroleague campaign they gave us, we were competitive all year. There have been ups and downs. When you lose, people feel like everything is going badly. But I keep seeing the good and the bad. What would I change? I don’t think I would change much. I look at our percentages in all columns, two points (14/34), 3 points (6/33) and free throws (11/17). And at some point in basketball… you have to score baskets. They did not return, and yet we hold the reigning European champion at 58 points. It’s good that we had to do good things, especially in defence. For the rest, you have to value what you have accomplished and get back to work, despite the pain. »

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