Xavi Pascual: Panathinaikos was the right decision for my career
The words from Pascual
As reported by Giorgos Zakkas on sdna.gr, Xavi Pascual spoke about his first season at Panathinaikos.
"I am very happy here, I settled in very well in Athens and I want to thank everybody for making me feel a part of this club. It was the right decision for my career, when you realize that the fans love you, is easier waking up every day in order to do your job.
The most important thing is gaining victories, something that we did with the quarter finals of Euroleague being the only exception in our campaign, against an excellent team. We finally finished at 4th Euroleague group stage position and won two domestic titles.
The first thing I want to say about Nick Calathes is that he is an extremelly hard-working and team player, the fans should know that his quality is higher than what they see on TV. You can not be perfect for 70 consecutive matches, there was actually a time when he did not have the same confidence. I am very happy for listening Panathinaikos supporters chanting his name after the finals, because that proves their great knowledge of basketball. The fans can not realize how hard is he working at his shooting, like crazy in every training. He has an amazing mentality, while at the same time Mike James was very good at Euroleague and has two make one-two steps more in order to be even better.
I want to say one thing about the return from Constantinoupolis by bus. It was an inside-the-team issue and that's why it looks like a joke now, after finishing the season so well, with excellent basketball and the championship title. In sports, the last performance is what counting the most, for the coach, the team, everybody. Many people are telling lies about the behavior of the athletes, but the fans choose to believe them, in every country when a team is not winning games or playing well, it is facing this kind of problems.
Everybody realizes that we are not having an incredible budget with Euroleague terms, we have to be clever and make the right choices. The most important thing is to create a team stronger than the current one. Many of our players were very good during 2016-17 season and will have higher demands, it will be difficult to reach our target. It will be very important to build on the Greek part of our squad, because Greek athletes, along with Americans like James Gist who are here for many seasons, will give us our identity."
"I am very happy here, I settled in very well in Athens and I want to thank everybody for making me feel a part of this club. It was the right decision for my career, when you realize that the fans love you, is easier waking up every day in order to do your job.
The most important thing is gaining victories, something that we did with the quarter finals of Euroleague being the only exception in our campaign, against an excellent team. We finally finished at 4th Euroleague group stage position and won two domestic titles.
The first thing I want to say about Nick Calathes is that he is an extremelly hard-working and team player, the fans should know that his quality is higher than what they see on TV. You can not be perfect for 70 consecutive matches, there was actually a time when he did not have the same confidence. I am very happy for listening Panathinaikos supporters chanting his name after the finals, because that proves their great knowledge of basketball. The fans can not realize how hard is he working at his shooting, like crazy in every training. He has an amazing mentality, while at the same time Mike James was very good at Euroleague and has two make one-two steps more in order to be even better.
I want to say one thing about the return from Constantinoupolis by bus. It was an inside-the-team issue and that's why it looks like a joke now, after finishing the season so well, with excellent basketball and the championship title. In sports, the last performance is what counting the most, for the coach, the team, everybody. Many people are telling lies about the behavior of the athletes, but the fans choose to believe them, in every country when a team is not winning games or playing well, it is facing this kind of problems.
Everybody realizes that we are not having an incredible budget with Euroleague terms, we have to be clever and make the right choices. The most important thing is to create a team stronger than the current one. Many of our players were very good during 2016-17 season and will have higher demands, it will be difficult to reach our target. It will be very important to build on the Greek part of our squad, because Greek athletes, along with Americans like James Gist who are here for many seasons, will give us our identity."
D. Destri
@IlDeriu
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