Experience made all the difference in a generational battle of two Greek coaches
Bartzokas handed former protégé Spanoulis a lesson
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In an 80-89 road win over AS Monaco, Olympiacos Piraeus head coach Georgios Bartzokas personified the saying that you cannot teach old dogs new tricks.
The 59-year-old tactician drew on his wealth of experience to prevail over former protégé Vassilis Spanoulis, a 42-year-old former legend of the Reds who won back-to-back Turkish Airlines EuroLeague titles with the team in 2012 and 2013 as a player.
The latter was under the guidance of Bartzokas, who then returned for a second stint with the club in 2020, when Spanoulis headed into his final year on the court before taking up a coaching career with Peristeri in 2022.
It was the first time the two faced off in Europe’s premier club competition and Bartzokas got the better of his old friend and finest soldier, having suffocated Monaco’s normally lethal offense.
The French team’s top performer and the EuroLeague’s all-time top scorer Mike James was confined to a mere 10 points and although he was able to dish out 12 assists, Olympiacos had too much firepower for Monaco thanks to its deep roster.
Bartzokas masterfully pulled all the strings, calling the shots with an uncanny instinct of playing to his team’s strengths while taking full advantage of Monaco’s weaknesses – namely a lack of size, as the visitors dominated the paint at both ends of the floor.
Bartzokas gave a fair account of how the game panned out in his post-game comments. “We led most of the game and knowing that Monaco are so aggressive offensively with the individual talent to play one-on-one, we controlled the defensive rebounding and exercised patience on offense,” he said in a courtside interview. “We created plenty of open looks, our offense was solid and in the second half our defense was solid, too.”
Shaq McKissic, who was named player of the game after netting 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor and 3 of 3 from the foul line, was relieved after Olympiacos was able to snap a three-game winless streak at Monaco.
“They are a very tough team and I am very happy with how we stepped up and how we performed,” the American forward said. “They gave us their best shot in the first half and I can’t remember the last time we won here. That was on my mind, they had a good game plan, but we executed.”
Spanoulis, who sent shockwaves through Greek and European club basketball when he joined Olympiacos from perennial archrival Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens in 2010, criticized Monaco’s second-half performance.
Having engineered 16 team assists in the first half, the hosts managed just 6 in the second much to the dismay of Spanoulis, who won his first-ever EuroLeague title with Panathinaikos in 2009 before he defected to the bitter rival’s camp.
“We gave Olympiacos confidence in the first half and they kept it in the second, when they hit on big shot after another,” said Spanoulis. “We shared the ball in the first half but in the second we were selfish and overall we needed to play much better defense. Congratulations to Olympiacos.”
In Round 14, Olympiacos hosts surprise leader Paris Basketball, a EuroLeague debutant which is on a nine-game winning streak, while Monaco entertains struggling ALBA Berlin, with both games scheduled for Friday.